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No word on noise complaint decision
Move will cost transit police BY CAYLEY DOBIE REPORTER cdobie@royalcityrecord.com
BY THERESA MCMANUS REPORTER tmcmanus@royalcityrecord.com
The Canadian Transportation Agency doesn’t have a time frame for dealing with a decision about train noise in the rail yard at Westminster Quay. The Quayside Community Board is awaiting a decision from the agency that it hopes will resolve longstanding issues regarding nighttime noise and vibration. In 2008, the agency helped the residents’ group reach a mediated settlement with rail companies operating in the yard next to the neighbourhood. The settlement sought to eliminate unreasonable noise and vibrations generated by nighttime rail operations. “When the decision does come out, it’s a decision on the enforcement of the mediated settlement. It’s not necessarily a new decision,” said Angela Ebsworth, senior communications advisor for the Canadian Transportation Agency. “I can’t really speak to the mediated settlement because mediation is confidential.” According to Ebsworth, the agency deals with complaints on a case-by-case basis. She said the agency hasn’t put complaints from other jurisdictions on hold while it considers the complaint from the Quayside residents. “The agency doesn’t work that way. There is no such thing as a queue. There are no decisions on hold,” she told The Record. “We are dealing with all the decisions, all the complaints as they come in on noise and vibration from across the country. There is nothing on hold.” James Crosty, past president of the Quayside Community Board, told The Record recently that more than 20 communities are waiting for the decision to be rendered. “We go on a case-by-case basis,” Ebsworth said. “This particular one isn’t entirely unique in terms of being a precedent in that sense.” Ebsworth had no information about when a decision could be rendered.
Larry Wright/THE RECORD
Rattling along the rails: It’s not clear when a decision will be made on the complaint filed by the Quayside Community Board regarding nighttime noise and vibrations from the rail yard next to the Quayside neighbourhood.
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The recent move to Sapperton’s brewery district may be costing Transit Police an extra $1.5 million, but Chief Neil Dubord said the move comes with some major benefits. “It allows us to be able to amalgamate (TransLink) operations into one building. Previously we were in two separate buildings, and whenever you’re separated, even if it’s just by blocks, it’s difficult for communication,” he said. As previously reported by The Record, TransLink headquarters, Transit Police operations and head offices for Coast Mountain Bus Company will share the new location in New Westminster’s brewery district come fall. The move has been cited as a money-saver for TransLink (saving the company $2.6 million per year), as well as a benefit for communications between the three transit operations. The move, along with inflation costs for employee benefits packages, will cost the police department about $1.5 million extra – which is about a five per cent increase from last year’s budget, according to the Transit Police’s first quarter financial report. While Dubord admits it’s a lot, he said there ◗Budget Page 4
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