METRO VANCOUVER -- A long-standing push by Surrey and White Rock to move the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway tracks away from the waterfront has been given a boost after a federal committee passed a motion by new MP Dianne Watts to study the safety of those tracks.

The motion, approved by the standing committee for transport, infrastructure and communities, was one of Watts’s top priorities when she ran as Conservative MP for South Surrey-White Rock. It comes just months after Surrey and White Rock councils announced they will spend $700,000 on a technical study to figure out the best new route for the BNSF line and the cost of building it.

Municipal officials have been trying for years to move the tracks, which are owned by the American railway, citing environmental and safety concerns.

They noted trains longer than 1.6 kilometres are carrying dangerous goods through White Rock and Crescent Beach, often on unstable slopes. A White Rock analysis suggests 28 people have died on the tracks, which has also experienced nine significant mudslides. City officials worry the problem will be compounded with the expansion of Roberts Bank and Surrey Fraser Docks, which is expected to double current coal-handling capacity to four million tonnes of coal a year.

“I am very pleased the committee understood the critical importance of moving forward on this issue immediately,” Watts said. “It’s been a long-standing issue in these communities, with access to Crescent Beach, the longer trains, the foreshore ...”

Watts said she plans to sit down with city officials in Surrey and White Rock when she gets back to B.C.

The committee will decide later the number of meetings it will hold. It will invite expert witnesses to appear, she said.

A report commissioned by the City of White Rock said that, 10 years ago, two freight trains a day travelled the line. Today, 20 trains a day carry shipments of goods like chlorine, hydrochloric acid, coal and liquefied natural gas on the line. Two Amtrak passenger trains also run daily between B.C. and Washington state.

This past weekend, a train blocked access to Crescent Beach for an hour and 39 minutes, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner said. The city captured the incident on CCTV cameras and will forward the information to Transport Canada and the BNSF, saying the delay was unacceptable to residents.

“That was a significant (delay),” Hepner said, noting BNSF has five minutes to clear the tracks and “this was well beyond what the expectations of the community would be. You cannot keep that crossing blocked for almost an hour and 45 minutes.”

She hopes the endorsement by the federal committee will persuade the federal government to fund the joint study, which has not yet started as the cities have only secured two-thirds of the money. The cities hope to use the information from the study to file 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 move a train track.

White Rock Mayor Wayne Baldwin said he’s pleased the committee endorsed Watts’ plan.

“We think we have good cause here,” he said. “It’s a tough struggle because BNSF is an American railway and marches to a different drummer than others do. This route ... if you were to start from scratch, wouldn’t make any sense at all.”

BNSF has said it spent $22.5 million over the past two years upgrading the tracks and railway ties as well as building new bridges along the entire route through Surrey and White Rock.

. A realignment of the beachside section is expected to cost between $350 million and $450 million, and could be higher if tunnelling is involved.

No route has been chosen, but several feasibility studies 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.

ksinoski@postmedia.com

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