(The following story by Brian Lewis appeared on The Province website on June 5.)
VANCOUVER, B.C. — When the Sunday-morning Amtrak passenger train from Seattle to Vancouver reaches the isolated sea-level stretch of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway’s line between White Rock and Crescent Beach on June 24, its occupants will see more than pristine oceanfront.
They’ll also receive a “mass mooning” by the Surrey United Naturists, who for years have utilized the beach as a place to acquire that complete suntan.
More importantly, they’ll draw attention to the BNSF’s increasing shipments of dangerous and hazardous goods, especially over its rail section along the bottom of Ocean Park bluff between White Rock and Crescent Beach.
This is why this birthday-suit brigade will display a banner reading: “BNSF — Butt Out of the Beach!”
And while the protest has a cheeky side (sorry about that), it has a more serious side as well.
The naturists have joined forces with another community group, SmartRail, in a quest to draw attention to what is seen by many in the area as major threats to public safety and to the sensitive ecosystem in nearby Boundary Bay.
Many of these concerns centre on the highly unstable nature of the Ocean Park bluff, which last winter alone experienced 11 mudslides.
Two of those slides forced BNSF in March to close its rail line to Amtrak passenger service for a total of 72 hours for safety reasons — yet the railway continued running its own freight trains, which SmartRail says haul an average of about 25 cars daily that carry some form of hazardous or dangerous materials such as chlorine or ammonia.
Apparently, exact data on car content of hazardous material is kept confidential for security reasons.
“Naturally, mixing mudslides capable of derailing rail cars with the transportation of dangerous and hazardous goods along this section of track is a recipe for disaster,” said a SmartRail submission to Transport Canada’s recent public review of the Railway Safety Act.
Now, SmartRail has more worries.
A few days ago, it was informed by Vancouver Port Corp. that it has approved an application by North Vancouver-based Canexus Chemicals to extend its lease from 2018 to 2030 and to expand its plant. This means chlorine rail traffic along the BNSF line will increase by about one railcar — or 90,000 tonnes — per day.
But the Vancouver Port Authority and BNSF say chlorine transport on this line is safe.
“VPA’s consultant considers the risk associated with the movement of chlorine rail cars as low and acceptable,” the Port Authority said in a letter to SmartRail.
Added BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas in a telephone interview from Seattle yesterday: “We feel this route is safe and our outstanding safety record speaks for itself.”
However, community critics say that the long-term safety record on the line, which has run since 1909, isn’t so good and that it’s only a matter of time before a major mishap occurs.
In short, they want the BNSF line moved inland where, they say, it could run north along 176th Street (Highway 15), which was the original rail route from the U.S.
The groups are now appealing to the mayors of Surrey and White Rock for relocation which, they add, would also improve public access to the beachfront.