Editor:
Re: Federal funds sought for relocation study, Aug. 11; Stop railing against trains, Oct. 4 letters.
Before you and I were born, the Semiahmoo First Nation and the natural environment, teeming with wildlife, had free and unfettered access to the waterfront and beaches.
When the current train route was first used, those trains of the past were very infrequent. Compare that to nowadays, when a typical day brings more than 20 trains, usually laden with goods such as coal, Bakken oil, ammonia and chlorine.
The feasibility study is not against trains. The movement and transport of goods is necessary, but, as the railroad is concerned about its profit margins, the cities, province and the federal government need to be concerned about the welfare of the residential communities through which the trains travel.
The local councils of White Rock and Surrey are rightfully concerned for the health and safety of their respective residential communities: the residue from coal dust impacts the air quality, the toxic creosote from the soaked rail ties leaches into the bay, the highly and normally illegal decibel level whistles that blow, trains over three kilometres long that cut off entire neighbourhoods and dangerous goods are transported through our community without prior notice of type of goods or frequency of the goods transported.
They all are a concern to community safety, the environment and quality of life.
While local derailments have not been documented, mud slides and aging infrastructure have. Millions were spent on updating an aging wooden bridge. Mud slides riddle the train tracks every time we have a heavy rain fall. The rail owners are not exactly stellar and safety conscious stewards of our limited foreshores.
Hearing the train whistles might comfort some, but those who live close to the tracks are candidates for a deaf future if they are constantly subject to the constant shrill and loud whistling without some ear protection.
The results of an evidence-based feasibility study would give factual information to support the value of relocating the tracks. And the facts would propose a route or changes that would be more sensitive to the environment, safer for the communities and a money saver for the railroads. Certainly, a win, win, win situation.
Many other cities are also investigating the feasibility of relocating rail lines within their cities, but Surrey/White Rock is the only location that provides for a shortened route. This means a huge saving in trains’ transit time, which translates into dollars for the railroad.
Also, keep in mind that Delta Port is doubling the size of the marshalling yard for the trains travelling to the port. We can only expect more and longer trains in the future.
Judy Higginbotham, Surrey
