The City of Surrey confirmed this week it has submitted a grant application to help fund a study of rail relocation off waterfront areas in the Semiahmoo Peninsula.
The grant application was filed earlier this month under the federal Rail Safety Improvement Program, but no further information was available at Peace Arch News press time.
Relocation of the shoreline BNSF route, raised by the cities of Surrey and White Rock in a joint forum in 2013, was studied last year in a series of hearings before the federal Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.
In a letter from then-B.C. transportation and infrastructure minister Todd Stone to federal transport minister Marc Garneau in February of this year, the province threw its support behind a new initiative by Surrey and White Rock to study and assess costs and benefits of possible realignment options of the BNSF line.
– Alex Browne