CP SW1200s lead the westbound O Yard job through New Westminster - 7 Feb 2011 Chris Wasney.

24 August 2011

Noise Advocates Not Silly

New Westminster
 
Dear Editor:
 
Re:  Quit the Rail-Noise Whining, Letters to the Editor, The Record, 17 Aug 2011.
 
It is now 2:28 a.m. on 17 Aug 2011 and I am awake because the screeeeeeeeeeeech and "whine" of a train woke me around 2 a.m. I went to do a read of The Record, online, and stumbled across Eric Bradfield's rant and his gall to denigrate the legitimate complaints being pursued by Mr. Crosty et al with the backing of Canadian Transport Agency.
 
First, as to "due diligence":  residents purchase property under the assumption that municipal noise bylaws apply. Because they do not, amendments to the Railway Act section 95 of Bill C-11 were passed by Parliament several years ago.
 
The rail companies have refused to abide by the legislation and this is why the matter went before the CTA.
 
Second, your Sea Island "solution" has some merit, but I won't be "railroaded" out of town! There is a ban on flight landings and take-offs between midnight and 6 a.m. Mr. Crosty and his team are only asking for a similar quiet time in our neighbourhood. Such "good neighbour" quiet times are in place all over, as I can attest having circled both Toronto's Pearson and London's Heathrow airports until the "quiet time" was lifted at 6 a.m.
 
Third, when we talk about "moving the railroad," we are only talking about moving the night-time activity either to daylight hours or to marshalling yards that already exist up United Boulevard way where there are plenty of industrial properties to act as a buffer to the residential areas.
 
Fourth, to my knowledge, New Westminster only gets revenue from the right-of-way it owns along Front Street and that would certainly not be dependent either on the amount of traffic or the time of day it was used.
 
In closing, perhaps the "silliness" actually resides with the railroads who make promises in a mediation process with the Quayside community and then break them, not citizen advocates James Crosty and Brian Allen.
 
Perhaps the "change" required here is that you should investigate your assertions more closely so they better reflect the facts.
 
E.C. "Ted" Eddy.