The SkyTrain has been a key link between Greater Vancouver communities for over three decades.
But complaints about the system’s noise have mounted in the last three years as people have grown tired of ear-piercing squeals in parts of the region.
Coverage of SkyTrain on Globalnews.ca:
Noise complaints about the SkyTrain have shot up, growing by about 1,000 in three years.
Some say they can adjust to it. But few that Global News spoke to on Friday denied how much they notice the sound of the trains.
“Sometimes they seem to be running on square wheels,” said one person.
The noise complaints come at a time when development has been focused around the tracks. And that wasn’t always the case, said TransLink spokesperson Chris Bryan.
“There was a time when people were living away from SkyTrain stations,” he told Global News.
“Now we have, everybody’s clustered up right up close to our SkyTrain system. It’s a great place to live for people, easy access to transit, but it also means they’re more sensitive to the noise in the area.”
READ MORE: False Creek residents file complaint against TransLink over SkyTrain noise
Many complaints are focused around eight locations in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster.
And it’s a result of development that Bryan said was “virtually unheard of in North America.”
“10, 15, 20 years ago, people didn’t develop around SkyTrain,” he said.
“Now we have upwards of $18.5 billion of infrastructure, new residential development being built around our SkyTrain system.”
TransLink is taking the complaints seriously. The organization is readying to do a noise assessment study.
That could result in a range of solutions such as putting up noise barriers, retiring old SkyTrain cars or renovating the rails.
Bryan said the older SkyTrain cars tend to create more noise than the others, but he wasn’t certain that would be fiscally responsible.
The noise assessment will start next year; any solutions won’t be rolled out until 2019.