An open letter to White Rock council and city staff.
I have followed the controlled pedestrian-rail crossing issue for several years now, and my neighbours and I are extremely disappointed in the lack of progress on constructing same (Silencing train whistles to cost $1.8m, Jan. 28, 2014).
The budgeting has appeared as far back as 2015, and yet there has been no significant work towards completing the upgrade of eight pedestrian crossings. For the last two years we have seen significant budgeting, but no significant building!
The full control and signalization of these crossings would allow the city to seek an order to stop train whistling, as I understand it.
So, without these upgrades, the hillside residents – such as myself and my neighbours – are still subject to excessive whistling noise, ever since the death of the jogger (White Rock jogger killed by train, July 16, 2013).
I now see budgeting for 2018 and 2019, but the crossings seem to have fallen by the wayside in terms of urgency, with the advent of Memorial Park work, Coldicutt Ravine promenade, Johnston Road improvements and the parkade.
I don’t care about any of those things – I care about the damn train noise!
I also understand that there may be a time constraint to “use or lose” the federal funds by 2019.
So, can we summon some urgency to complete whatever agreements and paperwork are required to actually get the bulk of the work done in 2018?
Mike Campbell, White Rock