Editor,
The discussions with CN in Whistler about excessive railway noise in Squamish were at least acknowledging the issue, and thanks to the participants ["CN meets with district regarding noise," The Chief, Oct. 1].
Monitoring train whistles and the meeting announced by the Mayor with Squamish Terminals will curb excesses but are still no permanent solution. The district can do more than just comment from the sidelines.
Templates exist in the form of what West Vancouver, White Rock and likely scores of other municipalities throughout Canada have already achieved in reducing rail noise.
Of course it will demand determination and where required, the necessary investments in noise abating infrastructure.
We are told that nighttime shunting is apparently necessary to service customers of Squamish Terminals and that, according to its vice president Joe Webber, they had never changed their time when discharging railcars to CN.
If so, then why has the practice of routine nighttime shunting only started this past June? Was it CN that changed its schedules and practices?
Regardless, shunting trains through residential areas is wrong by any definition and doing so at night is an affront to common decency. Industrial rail yards are the proper place for that.
The mayor skirts this issue as witnessed by his comments about planned discussions with Squamish Terminals, which tacitly imply the inevitability of having to tolerate some late night shunting in residential areas.
This raises the question whether the customers of the residential real estate developers, who have been giving Squamish a major facelift and are courted to continue doing so, should be considered less worthy of attention.
Do the economic contribution and the well being of these new residents living now and in the future in areas near the railway right of way, which the district zoned for residential usage anyway, count for less than those of industrial customers?
Do we detect in that an old fashioned industrial mindset where a majority is expected to tolerate much for the benefit of a few?
This brings up a larger issue: How is Squamish, hemmed in as it is by the sea and a narrow valley, going to accommodate all it wants to be?
I let you fill in the multiple personae envisioned for this town by our local government. Future conflicts between stakeholders are virtually inevitable as is now already evident with the railway noise issue.
Before spending more time and effort on fluffy, feel-good homilies for the 2031 Multi-Modal Transportation Study, the district should concentrate on current transportation and planning issues, which, I am the first to admit are neither easy nor cheap to solve from the wreckage caused by previous misguided decisions, and the railway cannot be blamed for those.
To be sure CN has its part to play and the modernization and upgrading of Squamish rail infrastructure would be an important aspect of that.
Not the least of which would be the long overdue replacement of manual rail switches with remote controlled ones. This would eliminate the nuisance, especially at night, of trains idling at length before the switches in residential areas and the 19th century spectacle of the conductor having to throw a switch manually to let an oncoming train pass.
Surely CN, known for its state-of-the-art wireless rail control centres, should be able to bring its Squamish operations into the 21st century too.
Still, the cockpit in this saga belongs to mayor and council.
It's time to come down to Earth from the lofty heights over China. Have a safe landing and welcome back to reality.
There is much work to be done.
Wolfgang Wittenburg
Squamish
