VANCOUVER — Canadian Pacific Railway has sent a letter to residents living near the Arbutus Corridor in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood, warning them that trains will begin rolling down the tracks for the first time in 15 years.
"We will commence transporting and storing rail cars on the tracks in the coming weeks," states the letter from CP Rail, posted on CBC's website. "Should you need to cross the tracks, do so only at marked crossings."
The city of Vancouver has been fighting to stop CP Rail from reactivating its long-disused Arbutus spur line. In January, B.C. Supreme Court dismissed the city's application for an injunction to prevent the railway from ripping up encroaching gardens to re-establish the line for the storage of railway cars.
The judge ruled the city has no claims to the 11-kilometre route and cannot make any claims on behalf of residents who have built gardens and other structures along the line.
But the judge did not let CPR entirely off the hook, ruling that the city has raised legitimate questions about whether the company de facto abandoned the railway after it stopped running trains on it in 2001.
