VANCOUVER — According to Google Maps, it’ll take you all of 26 minutes to get from the Maersk Deltaport facility to its Robert Bank port, at Tilbury. It’s a fairly straight trip, mostly along River Road.

Maersk, one of the world’s most accomplished shipping companies, wants to launch a pilot project using LCVs to move freight containers between the two points — only under ideal weather conditions with the most experienced drivers of course — but surprise, surprise a few local politicians are mouthing opposition to the plan.

According to the Delta Optimist, the provincial MLA for the riding of Delta South, Vicki Huntington, said she’s worried about having LCVs on the roads. "I don’t like the concept of truck trains in urbanized areas," Huntington has said. "I’m very concerned about the safety aspect."

Ironically, on her home page, Huntington boasts about the importance of transportation to her region. "Given our strategic location, transportation is extremely important in Delta South Highways and rail lines carry people and goods from the ferries and the Port of Vancouver facility at Deltaport to points throughout the province and beyond,” it says.

Never mind that.

She is joined in her protest by NDPer Guy Gentner, MLA for Delta North. "It raises a whole lot of questions," states Gentner. "I think this is just the beginning of the horror show on B.C. roads."

"Horror show?" The rhetoric knob is apparently set to maximum over in Victoria.

Geltner has requested the double-containers be stopped from using the roads until the provincial government addresses safety concerns and sustainable transportation alternatives.

Maersk’s plan, meanwhile, has the full support of the local community politicians, the police, as well as the British Columbia Trucking Association (BCTA).

Special Const. Sean Kelly of the Delta police, who works in the vehicle inspection unit, expressed support for the project during a recent presentation to Delta council, the Optimist reports.

And Const. John Merrymen, who works in the Delta police collision investigation unit, said he had initial misgivings but after some investigation of LCVs, he feels satisfied that they’re safe.

Maersk is still working on obtaining all the necessary permits before the six-month trial can begin. The company also has to ensure road-conditions are satisfactory.

In a recent letter to the editor, BCTA President Paul Landry stated that he’s downright "grateful" for the Delta police’s rational perspective on Maersk’s proposal.

After all, studies show LCVs reduce traffic by approximately 50 percent. And by almost any standard, they’re environmentally more benign than running two tractors with two trailers.

States Landry: "This decision is validated by more than 40-odd years of experience by other jurisdictions and a variety of studies, research and analyses by independent third parties that have all reached the conclusion that long combination vehicles [i.e. truck trains] are, as a class, safer than the average truck on the road primarily because of strict training and operating conditions imposed under permit, not to mention the reduced number of truck trips."

The BCTA also has a thing or two to offer regarding Gentner’s and Huntington’s seemingly uninformed anti-LVC campaigns, which appear even more aggressive than federal MP Deal Del Mastro’s misguided effort to rid Ontario of trailer LCVs.

"Unfortunately, MLAs Guy Gentner and Vicki Huntington have chosen to focus on fear-mongering over fact-finding, publicity-seeking rather than engaging in public dialogue and justifying their position simply by cloaking themselves in the all-purpose, motherhood banner of ‘safety.’

"Public officials have a responsibility to themselves and the citizens they serve to be impartial when reviewing facts and informing themselves before they take a stand that could affect public opinion."

He challenged either MLA to come up with contemporary research or other reliable data that contradicts the safety and environmental record of LCVs.