‘You’d think a bomb went off’
Noise and vibration from increased train activity a source of frustration for East Van residents
Trains outside Maria Cutchey’s East Vancouver home make her windows rattle, cabinets shake and stacked dishes and glasses vibrate.
At times, blaring bells jolt her awake at night, and the shunting of cars as they are assembled into trains sound like explosions that make her heart race.
“You’d think a bomb went off on the rail tracks or you’d think the train has rolled over,” said Cutchey, whose north-side unit in the Still Creek Housing Co-op overlooks Grandview Highway and the railway line.
Cutchey has lived in the co-op since 1991. Train traffic was minimal, mostly Via Rail or Amtrak passenger trains and the occasional freight train.
Two years ago, Canadian National Railway increased traffic on the Burrard Inlet Line to up to six trains a day.
Trains go from the waterfront through Strathcona to the Glen work rail yard in the False Creek Flats, then gets funnelled through the Grandview Cut.
CN said it increased train traffic on the line to better serve existing intermodal terminals on Burrard Inlet’s south shore. The line has been an active rail line for many decades, it said. Today up to eight trains a day carry primarily household consumer goods and move at slow speeds, the company said in a statement.
Trains going by aren’t an issue, say residents. It’s when they roll into the neighbourhood then conduct doubling operations — often less than 100 metres away from many homes.
“They’ve changed it from a corridor to a work yard” that operates 24/7, said Jane Henry, who lives near Lakewood Drive, about 50 metres from the Cut.
Sleep deprivation plagued Linda Fox soon after CN reactivated the line. She has lived in her home on Templeton Drive since 1975.
“The Cut, which is a corridor, have never seen this type of activity since the beginning of rail history in the early 1900s,” said Fox, who gets woken up multiple times a night by the low-frequency vibrations from idling trains.
“We want this activity to stop. We want them to pass straight to Slocan as they exit Glen work yard.”
Fox started tracking the trains’ activity along the Cut in 2017.
The rumbling and banging from doubling operations affect residents who live near the tracks from Clark Drive to Slocan Street, she said. Ground vibrations from idling or revving trains are also causing the soil to erode on the banks of the Cut.
Fox collected 160 signatures for a petition lodged with the Canadian Transportation Agency, and plans to pursue adjudication following an unsuccessful mediation with CN last year.
The situation could get worse.
CN plans to twin the single-track Burrard Inlet Line with a 4.2-kilometre-long secondary track. According to a 2017 project proposal obtained by the Strathcona Residents Association through a Freedom of Information request, the new track will be laid between Powell and Nanaimo streets.
The association is waging its own battle to reduce train noise emanating from the port yard.
Spokeswoman Su-Laine Brodsky accused the city of being in denial of the rail traffic issues that are in “serious conflict” with the city’s housing plan, which proposes den- sifying Strathcona and Grandview-Woodland, including in areas near the railway, while doing little to mitigate the impact on residents.
“The city’s housing plan is on a collision course with the trains,” Brodsky said. “It’s going to take some coordinated effort between the city, the federal government, the railways and everyone working together to solve the problem.”
The association is scheduled to start a second round of mediation with CN.
CN said it must operate on a 24-hour schedule to accommodate vessels and Port of Vancouver operations, but said it is “committed to continue working with the communities on how to best mitigate the impact on residents.”
Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry, a Strathcona resident, said he is also concerned about the impact of increased rail traffic on the environment.
“My big concern is the amount of pollution it generates,” said Fry.
While rails fall under federal jurisdiction, he said the city and regional governments could put pressure on the federal government and agencies to act.
The city might be able to exert more jurisdiction around numerous at-grade crossings, where a passing train can shut down traffic for up to 20 minutes at a time, blocking cars, but also buses and emergency vehicles, said Fry.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said he has raised the issue of increased rail traffic in East Vancouver with federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau.
Stewart said he wanted to not only “reduce the impact (of increased rail traffic) on the community,” but to explore “things the rail companies and the federal government can do to also enhance the neighbourhoods they’re going through, beyond dampening sound.
“For example, is there any way the feds could help us with meeting housing concerns? Are there amenities the community would want? Just like we would do with any development project,” said Stewart, a former NDP member of Parliament.
The City of Vancouver said it has been in discussions with CN regarding livability, safety and added congestion on city streets and neighbourhoods, but said the rail company’s operations are outside the city’s jurisdiction and not subject to municipal noise bylaws.
The city said it is installing monitoring devices to track the frequency and duration of trains at key crossings, and is applying for funding to develop real-time alerts for drivers.
The Port of Vancouver is a significant international shipping hub and trade portal, said Fry, “but that doesn’t abdicate CN and Transport Canada from doing the utmost to mitigate the impact on residents and, ultimately, on health care and social costs.”
“This isn’t about putting the brakes on the operations” of the port, he added. “It’s more managing it better so we are doing the best we possibly can and being mindful of residents’ health, safety and quality of life.”