Surrey Council pushing for change in train speed to prevent traffic tie-ups at Crescent Beach
Posted February 26, 2015 6:46 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CRESCENT BEACH (NEWS1130) – Trying to get out of Crescent Beach on a hot summer’s day can be a pretty stressful experience when a 125-car coal train rolls through.
But change may be coming.
Surrey Councillor Judy Villeneuve says council is doing all it can to take incremental steps to let BNSF and Transport Canada know there’s an issue with the coal trains affecting the community.
She says trains slow down through the community but can become uncoupled when they speed up again. “That… has cut off access to Crescent Beach.”
“Sometimes [it can last] anywhere from 15 minutes to, at one point, 3.5 hours. So, if there’s a train blocking those accesses, there’s no ability for any kind of emergency access and and out of the community.”
Villeneuve tells us the end goal is to relocate those tracks.
“There will be a business case built for the railway to know that it’s going to be much more efficient — if they’re going to continue to grow their business — to move those tracks because of the liability issues.”
