METRO VANCOUVER -- Surrey and White Rock are upping the ante in their battle to relocate railway tracks away from the cities’ beaches, launching a $700,000 technical study to assess and cost the best alternative route.

The cost of the study, which is likely to take up to three years, would be split between the two municipalities with potential funding from the provincial government, Coun. Judy Villeneuve said. It would then be used to initiate a request for relocation under the Railway Relocation and Crossing Act, which gives municipalities and the B.C. government the authority to compel a railway owner to relocate a train track.

“It’s a top priority,” Villeneuve said. “The rail traffic has increased considerably on the track that goes through White Rock and Crescent Beach. Not only is the direct community affected, but in the summer there are sometimes 3,000 or 4,000 people at those beaches.”

City officials have been trying for years to relocate the tracks, which are owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), citing environmental and safety concerns. A report commissioned by the city of White Rock notes 10 years ago, two freight trains a day travelled the line, while today this has increased to 20 trains per day, carrying shipments of dangerous goods like chlorine, hydrochloric acid, coal, sodium hydrochloric acid and liquefied natural gas. Two Amtrak passenger trains also use the tracks to run between B.C. and Washington state.

Twenty-eight people have died on the tracks, which have also experienced nine significant mudslides. And city officials worry the problem will be compounded with the expansion of Roberts Bank and Surrey Fraser Docks, which is expected to double the current coal handling capacity to four million metric tonnes of coal per year. Villeneuve noted some of the trains are more than a mile long, which poses safety risks in areas like Crescent Beach, where emergency officials are already prevented access when a train passes through.

About 15 kilometres of BNSF track runs through Surrey, with another four kilometres in White Rock. A realignment of the track is expected to cost between $350 million and $450 million, and could be higher if tunnelling is involved, but city officials argue a more efficient route would more economical for the rail line.

No route has been chosen but several feasibility studies on alternatives have been done. In 2013, four alternatives were proposed, including a parallel route along King George and Highway 99 with a tunnelled section between 16th and 36th avenues, while in 2002, the recommended route was along 180th Street with a diversion at 188th Street around the base of the hill between 16th and 36th Avenue. This same route had been proposed in a 1995 study done by the Washington state Department of Transportation.

A southern rail route is also a possibility, White Rock Mayor Wayne Baldwin said. “I just want it to go the safest way possible,” he said. “What we’ve got is an area that’s highly prone to slides and they’re going to get worse.”

However, Gus Melonas, spokesman for BNSF, said the land in Canada is not nearly as unstable as that in Puget Sound. His company has also spent $22.5 million over the past two years upgrading the tracks and railway ties as well as building new bridges, he said.

“If they want to invest in a study we have no issue with that,” he said. “But we would have to review an official proposal.”

Relocation of the rail line was suggested as far back as the latter part of the 1950s, while the first serious proposal to move it came in 1961. But the White Rock-commissioned report noted the two cities should beware of property disputes that may arise, citing the situation in Vancouver’s Arbutus corridor.

Villeneuve acknowledged relocating the rail line is a complex move and would require partnerships with all levels of government, as well as those across the border. Either the province or a municipality may apply to the Canadian Transportation Agency for rail relocation, but must show capital cost estimates for the existing rail at a new location as well as the costs to build to similar standards.

“We feel like we have a very good case,” Villeneuve said.

ksinoski@vancouversun.com

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