“Enough is enough,” states Pauline Greaves, Proudly Surrey mayoral candidate. “This is the message that we have been hearing from residents in Ocean Park and Crescent Beach, especially, as well as from our neighbours in White Rock. There is simply no negotiating with BNSF (formerly Burlington Northern) to meet the needs to South Fraser residents.”
“Residents, as well as a succession of governments in Surrey and White Rock, have, for decades been unable to resolve concerns about an ever-growing list of serious problems with the venerable train line connecting Metro Vancouver to America’s rail network through Whatcom and King counties. We are crazy to think things are going to improve is a new crop of politicians is elected this fall, just to make the same requests again,” added Adam MacGillivray, a Proudly Surrey council candidate who, like Greaves, lives in South Surrey.
Proudly Surrey has identified the following outstanding issues that BNSF has failed to address:
- Reducing noise and environmental (especially thermal coal and other toxins) impacts on South Surrey residents and ecosystems
- Improving safety for South Surrey residents and tourists crossing, working or recreating near the line
- Re-routing portions of the line in response to changing residential and transportation patterns in South Surrey
- Re-routing portions of the line and reconstructing others to mitigate anticipated climate change impacts, especially rising sea levels
- Double-tracking additional portions of the line to accommodate existing and future scheduled passenger rail
- Making the line available for Canadian commuter rail use
“For this reason, we need to assemble a consortium of governments including White Rock, Surrey and New Westminster, our transportation authority and the government of British Columbia to expropriate the BC portion of the BNSF track with compensation so that we can make these improvements ourselves,” Greaves explained, also pointing out that this would likely become necessary, regardless, should the planned Portland-Vancouver high-speed rail project go ahead. “We believe,” she added, “that we will be able to recover a significant portion of the costs of expropriation over time by charging BNSF fees to reach the New Westminster, Surrey and Vancouver port facilities and from fees currently levied by BNSF on the Amtrak Cascades route.”
Proudly Surrey currently supports the establishment of heavy commuter rail on both the BNSF line and the Southern BC Rail line in the future but has not included implementation in its platform due to the ongoing problems with BNSF. “If we want commuter rail, like the West Coast Express, we need to begin by working with other governments to take charge of the tracks in our territory.”