Taxpayer, Can You Spare Billion Or Two?

Simple question, folks; “Anyone with a spare billion or two to move the railway off the Whiterock/Surrey waterfront?

$4.6 billion is the minimum being spent to add 12.8 km to the SkyTrain network and with other cities in the region clamouring for future monies be spent in their cities and municipalities, it is doubtful government will pay a penny for this.

Simple answer; “Nope, Nada, not in my lifetime.”

Sorry folks, and just do not trespass on railway property.

 

Semiahmoo Peninsula rail relocation effort refocused

Advocates launch a website, strive to inform residents on process.

 

A group of proponents for rail relocation on the Semiahmoo Peninsula have recently refocused their approach to start from the ground up.

Craig Harrold launched a website, railrelocation.ca, that highlights the arguments for rail relocation as well as a source of information for people to learn about the status of the movement.

Harrold and railway relocation advocate Erik Seiz met with Peace Arch News last week to discuss the website and explain how their effort is evolving.

Seiz suggested that attention on rail relocation picks up during election campaigns or shortly after election, only to fade away.

“What’s really important for a vision like this is that it needs a place where it is able to live for longer than the duration of any government,” Seiz said. “The railway loves it, because they just need to ride it out until the next guy is gone.”

“Governance is just another one of those things that you can’t necessarily rely on the current structure to bring about the change that you want.”

Rail relocation has been a political issue in South Surrey and White Rock for decades. Harrold said he has a friend that witnessed W.A.C. Bennett (B.C. premier from 1952-1972) throw his fist in the air while standing on Crescent Beach and proclaiming: “We’re going to get this railway moved for you.”

The movement gained traction following the tragic derailment in Lac Lac-Mégantic, Que. in 2013. That same year, Surrey then-mayor Dianne Watts and White Rock then-mayor Wayne Baldwin hosted a standing-room-only forum that presented four proposed routes for realigning the railway that currently follows the shoreline along White Rock and through Crescent Beach.

“We want to say to the people of the Peninsula, here’s all of the information (on the website). We’ve assembled everything we can possibly think of. The biggest thing is the present situation, this is where we’re at right now and what we are going to do about it. What’s the next step? The next step is the alignment study.”

Approximately $900,000 is required for the study and the money has not yet been secured. Surrey transportation manager Jaime Boan told PAN in 2017 that historically, projects like this are funded one-third provincially, one-third federally and one-third locally.

The split for local funding for the study, as suggested by Surrey in 2017, would call for $75,000 from White Rock to Surrey’s contribution of $225,000.

The B.C. government and federal government have not made any commitments.

Starting next year, Harrold says he will implement a private donation feature on the website which will allow Peninsula residents to chip in to the feasibility study.

“The people of the Peninsula are going to contribute to making this happen,” Harrold said.

Seiz said that it might take a disaster to prompt more swift action on rail relocation.

“You put in a crosswalk because enough people died at an intersection. That’s just how it works,” Seiz said. “That may well be how it plays out here, too. But regardless, I think there’s still value in building up a body of knowledge so at a point in time in the future, there’s at least some stuff there you can work with.”

Comments

One Response to “Taxpayer, Can You Spare Billion Or Two?”
  1. Bennet says:

    That railline is used by 2 american railways (BNSF & Amtrak). Make the Americans pay for it if they want to use it. It doesn’t need to cost a billion. There is another rail route via Sumas and Abotsford. Then use the CN/CPR tracks to Vancouver.

    Zwei replies: You forget one thing, the BN&SF own the line and Amtrak buys pathways for their rail service. Why should they move?

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