Calgary Alberta - I was stuck in traffic at a grade crossing near Inglewood on Monday, as a long Canadian Pacific train passed through, when I noticed an interesting thing.
 
Almost all of the cars on the train had been vandalized.
 
Some of them had profanities painted on the sides, others had gang symbols, still others had graffiti that could have passed for an attempt at art.
 
Now, I love trains, and I don't mind being stopped for one, but I've noticed over the years that the incidences of vandalism seem to have shot up, to the point where it seems like the majority of cars in a train have been defaced in some way.
 
You don't see fleets of trucks, Greyhound buses, or other means of transport covered with graffiti.
 
How shameful and embarrassing that Canadian Pacific, our national icon, after all, cris-crosses the country with car after car on its trains sporting obscenities, scrawled slogans, lurid pictures, and the like.
 
The problem has certainly gotten worse in the last 10 years.
 
I recall seeing only the odd vandalized train car back in the 1990s and 1980s.
 
The problem, according to Ed Greenberg, Canadian Pacific's director of external affairs, plagues all railways in North America.
 
He's right.
 
There's a blog called sisterbetty.org that features photos of railway graffiti, and whose author deplores urban graffiti, but loves it when it mars trains: 
 
"Properly planned and executed, quality graffiti becomes a permanent, nationwide, mobile exhibit of artistic talent. In between endless cars festooned with bold signatures, pieces of true quality reflect the ability of nameless artists. The largest modern art gallery in the world is carried by steel wheels on steel rails," the blog says.
 
That "largest modern art gallery" is actually private property owned by folks who do not appreciate it being vandalized.
 
Let's stop pretending that just because some minimally talented moron sneaking around with a spray paint can in the middle of the night thinks he has a right to deface other people's property, that this is art of some sort.
 
Go to art school if you think you've got talent.
 
In Canada, defacing trains is a federal offence under the Railway Safety Act.
 
Those who write "obscene or offensive words, or make signs, or pictures on the walls, or any part of any car, station, platform, or other property of the company, or commit any nuisance thereon, or damage, mark, deface, or injure any car, station, platform, or other property of the company," are subject to fines of more than $500, plus whatever penalties for trespassing apply under provincial legislation.
 
It's not art.
 
It's a crime.
 
"It's illegal, but it's also highly dangerous what these folks are doing to express themselves," Greenberg says.
 
And it's expensive, Greenberg says it costs $100,000 to repaint just one car.
 
"The majority of vandalism takes place outside the rail yards," he says.
 
"Rail yards are protected. Where the cars are being vandalized with graffiti, they are empty cars in storage, or sitting at sidings waiting to be moved, or in customers' yards."

Naomi Lakritz.