Trains are on track for Arbutus within weeks

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Plus, sobering news about sushi and ferry travel

Ready to roll
Do you hear that? It’s the sound of Canadian Pacific trains rumbling down Arbutus street—within weeks. In a letter sent Tuesday, CP notified residents adjacent to the line that cuts through Vancouver’s west side that it would commence “transporting and storing rail cars on the tracks in the coming weeks,” pushing the saga of CP vs. the city into a new phase since the company’s removal of community gardens along the line last year. “It is illegal to walk, drive, or cycle on or alongside the railway line. Should you need to cross the tracks, do so only at marked crossings.” And neighbours used to a cross-track shortcut, beware: as in Montreal, CP is likely to patrol the corridor and ticket trespassers. And what next? A freight car parking lot in Shaughnessy? Waits for trains to cross Broadway? Burrard? Whatever happens, don’t expect development until a selling price for the land—which CP estimates at $400 million and the city pegs at $100 million—is settled on. 

The sea around us is sad
Imagine a world with no tuna, squid, prawns or salmon—and just a meagre selection of mackerel, sole and pollock. Now imagine it the next time you go for sushi. In 2050, that’s what the world’s oceans will have to offer, according to a report from the Nippon Foundation, UBC and a consortium of other universities. “Fisheries will be catching more warm-water species and smaller fish, thus fish supply through both domestic and overseas fisheries will be affected,” said William Cheung, associate professor at UBC and one of the co-authors of the report, in a statement.

Don’t drink-and-ferry
A warm breeze blows off the Strait of Georgia. There’s plenty of seating. And you can finally have a smoke with your drink. There may seem no better place to have a few beers than on the top deck of the ferry. Here’s an idea from BC Ferries: don’t. The crown corporation is reminding the public this week that a mid-trip drink, whether in line, on-board or even in a limo waiting at the terminal (yep, that happened), is a bad idea.“B.C. Ferries takes safety very seriously and that includes the sobriety of motorists on our property,” said Corrine Storey, BC Ferries’ vice president of customer services. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for passengers under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” Corrine Storey, the BC Ferries’ VP of customer service told the Times Colonist. And that means arrests, fines and possibly a trip to the drunk tank. So far, the RCMP have been called to deal with drunk passengers 16 times in June alone.