Need advice — unbearable SkyTrain noise after moving into New West condo, can we end our 1-year lease?

My friend and I signed a 1-year lease and moved into a condo in New Westminster about 3 weeks ago. We honestly didn’t realize how bad the train noise would be until after we moved in, and now we’re kind of desperate for advice on what we can do.

The condo is just a few meters away from the SkyTrain track — like right outside our windows, almost parallel to the building. It’s an older building with zero soundproofing. During the day it’s tolerable if all the windows are closed, but at night it’s horrible. From around midnight to 6 a.m., we hear the trains and honking around 10–15 times, measured around 70–90 dB on my phone. Even with earplugs, it’s impossible to sleep.

Both of us work from home, and the constant lack of sleep and noise is driving us insane. We’ve started needing sleeping pills and headache meds just to get by. We really thought we’d get used to it, but it’s only getting worse.

We spoke to the landlord’s agent, but they said we can’t terminate the lease early. We know it’s technically our responsibility to have checked this before signing, but we honestly didn’t expect the noise to be this extreme.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is there any legal or practical way to end the lease early, or maybe transfer it to someone else? We just can’t stay here much longer — the noise is unbearable.

Any advice or suggestions would be super appreciated. 🙏