More can be done to improve rail safety: expert
Posted January 14, 2014 8:11 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Three billion dollars have been poured into the Gateway Program to improve the flow of traffic and goods around Metro Vancouver, but is enough being done to beef up the region’s rail infrastructure?
Saturday’s derailment of a coal-carrying train in Burnaby has raised more questions about rail safety in the Lower Mainland, and at least one expert suggests there could be improvements.
“There are a couple of key challenges to the rail infrastructure around the region,” says Peter Hall, associate editor for the Journal of Transport Geology and an associate professor for the Urban Studies Program at SFU.
“The New Westminster rail bridge is very old [and] there are some parts of the network where they have been cutting back on capacity, so there are some challenges there. But rail is still better and safer than road-based transportation,” he tells News1130.
“The emissions in rail per tonne carried are less and although when accidents happen they tend to be large and get a lot of attention, they are much less frequent.”
That being said, Hall believes more can be done to improve safety and oversight, along with rail capacity.
“They’ve made some very good improvements to Roberts Bank but, as I said, there are challenges elsewhere in the region with some of the other rail connections. I would say there should be a little more effort on improving rail rather than road for goods movement.”
One of those areas is the North Shore, where Neptune Terminals has been given the go-ahead to increase coal capacity.
“You’ve got a real challenge where there are residential and commercial land uses right up against the waterfront. There it’s more about dealing with those conflicts as they arise. It’s still better for the North Shore to have those terminals serviced by rail, provided that rail is put in safely and properly, than by truck,” he says.
Hall is one of the panelists at the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Economic Outlook Forum 2014: Options and Opportunities for BC’s Economy on Thursday. He’ll be speaking about “Choices and Challenges: Transit, Transportation and Tomorrow’s Economy.”
