9 August 2006
Second Study is Looking at Alternatives
Langley British Columbia - There are two studies underway
on the busy rail line to the Deltaport facility.
When the terms of reference of the first study came out early this year, local councils and MP Mark Warawa said it was not good enough.
They disliked the assumption that the rail traffic could not be moved to another line.
Warawa applied pressure and Transport Canada agreed to conduct a second study, which will examine the possibility of relocating the rail
line or rerouting rail traffic out of the Langley commercial area.
Warawa has been impressed with the work of VALTAC, a Langley-based citizens group that says rail-related
transportation issues must be looked at in a more holistic manner.
VALTAC suggests that at least some trains to the port could be rerouted via the CN main line through Fort Langley and North Surrey,
along with a trench in Fort Langley that would take the tracks below grade. It also suggests that a new rail crossing of the Fraser
River between Surrey and New Westminster could allow the railways to do more directional running in the Fraser Valley, as they now do
in the Fraser Canyon.
VALTAC is also a proponent of using the existing Southern Railway of B.C./Canadian Pacific rail line through Surrey and Langley for
rapid transit, as was its original purpose. The line through the Fraser Valley was originally built as an electric interurban railway,
linking Chilliwack, Abbotsford and other Fraser Valley communities with New Westminster and Vancouver.
When the portion of the line used for port traffic, between 232 Street and Cloverdale, was sold to CPR in 1988, a condition of the sale
was that it be made available for future rapid transit use.
Warawa has asked International Trade Minister David Emerson, who is responsible for the federal Gateway Project, to tour Langley and
meet with local mayors.
He wants him to find out firsthand the extent of the problem caused by increased train traffic through what has become the
second-largest commercial area in the region.
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