One issue that has barely been mentioned during the current federal election campaign is one that will have a profound effect on the future of 91Ô­´´ — in particular the central business area of Willowbrook and 91Ô­´´ City.

The issue is the response to rail traffic to and from the Deltaport facility. Current plans call for two overpasses to be built on the outskirts of the central business area — along the 196 Street corridor, and somewhere near Mufford Crescent. These are being financed through the Roberts Bank Rail Corridor program, a federal initiative. Significant additional funds in it come from TransLink, the province, the port, railways and local governments.

There are no plans to deal with the congestion on the three busiest streets within the central business area — Highway 10 (91Ô­´´ Bypass), Fraser Highway and 200 Street. The only undertaking to deal with an expected volume of 38 trains a day, many of them two miles long, will be a series of advance warning indicators on various local roads, which will tell drivers that a train is coming and suggest they use alternate routes.

If overpasses are ever to be built on any of the three busy roads, it will require a commitment from Ottawa to help fund them. Costs for an overpass on any of those streets would be in the range of $150 million, as there would almost certainly be a need for land acquisition in addition to the actual construction costs.

The Roberts Bank Rail Corridor program is set to expire within a couple of years. Thus far, no federal candidate has publicly suggested that a follow-up program is needed. Nor has any candidate suggested that funds for the stalled Mufford Crescent overpass (rejected by the Agricultural Land Commission) should  be redirected to an overpass on 91Ô­´´ Bypass, where the need is greatest and there is some vacant land adjacent to the rail line.

If 91Ô­´´ residents are content to wait for up to 10 minutes at a time to cross the tracks (as happened on Monday night at 9 p.m. as a slow-moving container train went through), then this issue doesn’t need to be raised.

But if 91Ô­´´ is to continue to have a future where people can move freely, without waiting for trains to pass by, this issue needs to be addressed promptly. And the only way something will happen is if the federal government buys in.

- 91Ô­´´ Times