Thank you very much. It's a distinct pleasure to be able to speak to the committee today.
I am the mayor of the city of Langley, and I represent the perspective of this community as it relates to rail issues. I think the most important thing for the committee to know is that we fully recognize the challenges that a growing rail network poses right across the country.
However, there are varying impacts on communities. The city of Langley and the township of Langley are neighbours, and we are very much involved in aspects of the rail impact on our communities. We feel we have a very strong perspective and that we are perhaps in a unique situation.
In our community, the city of Langley, which is ten square kilometres--or four square miles--in area, we have in effect five level crossings that impact our community. Those crossings are all signalized. Through Transport Canada, we have been able to remove the whistling on four of those five crossings. The fifth one is being worked on as we speak. The impact of the train whistles has to some degree been minimized. However, we have crossings just outside of our border, in the city of Surrey and in the township of Langley. Because we live very close together, when the whistles blow for those, it of course impacts our citizens.
The other major issue we face--and I know the terms of reference of the committee are fairly broad and that there are a number of issues being deliberated--is safety. In our city, if a train stops at an inappropriate place anywhere within that four square miles, in effect our city is totally cut off from the north to the south. No emergency vehicles could cross through the normal routes.That has been a significant concern for many years now. It has a significant impact on the township as well, because of the length of trains--both the coal and the container trains--that go through our community from Roberts Bank.
The second critical element is that we currently have a significant traffic problem. All our crossings are over the normal warrants that have been defined by Transport Canada. Most of them--three of the major ones--are well over double what the current warrants are. In the township and the city, every single crossing we are referring to is over those recommended minimum warrants. So we have a significant problem with congestion that results from trains going through our community. Just to give you an example, if we have a 12,000-foot train that goes through our community, the traffic impact at every one of those crossings can last up to 20 to 25 minutes after that train has passed through. There are some significant congestion problems that come out of it.
The City of Langley is currently building a north-south overpass. We received minimal funding from the federal government for that project, but fortunately, the provincial government, TransLink, and the city came up with the necessary resources. So we have one crossing being built, and we totally support a second crossing in the township of Langley. This will eliminate one crossing that we share and help with east-west access, so that we again can mitigate some of the negative effects and safety issues we have.
That really is the essence of what I wanted to share with the committee. Of course I'm happy to answer any questions, should you have them.