To the editor:
Re: “‘Fair value’ for Arbutus Corridor at stake,” July 23.
I have a couple of questions for CP Rail regarding the Arbutus Corridor. They have been working very hard at putting this 11 km length of track back to work. However, they do not seem to have accomplished very much, apart from disturbing the residents who live near the line and the gardeners who have been tending their allotments for years.
We all know by now that the tracks have not been used for 13 years and that the tracks have been largely ignored by CP. This leads me to my first question.
How embarrassed is CP by their lack of maintenance of their property?
Some stretches of the track had trees growing up between the rails and the section between 37th and 41st avenues became so overgrown as to be impassable by all but rats.
This was all in direct contravention of the City of Vancouver Untidy Premises bylaw, which states that private property is to be maintained within a reasonable standard of the neighbourhood. To be sure, some of the Arbutus Corridor has been very nicely maintained with grass trimmed and some really attractive gardens and public spaces created — but not by CP.
No, this was (and, for now, still is) done by community gardeners. Take a stroll through the Pine Street or Kerrisdale Community Gardens and see the standard that CP has no interest in. And they haven’t shown much appreciation of this work, despite the fact that they have benefitted (at least some of their property has looked presentable). They are simply saying; please vacate our premises by July 31. This brings me to my second question.
What will CP do if it turns out that there is no financially viable use for the Arbutus Corridor?
What will they do if they determine that no use of their property will repay the amount of capital expenditure that will be required to bring the rails up to standard? I am no transportation expert, but I find it hard to imagine that any use will repay the millions that would be needed to repair the sleepers and rails as well as update the crossings.
That will mean that the paths and gardens will all have been disturbed and destroyed for no purpose. Then what? Will CP erect fences to prevent such horticultural hooliganism from recurring? Or will the gardeners get their hoes and seeds out and start all over again?
Perhaps a better approach would be to complete the cost analysis of the possible uses of the Arbutus Corridor and then take the appropriate action. There’s no rush.
Dr. John Aveline,
Vancouver
