BC Rail

The Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) was incorporated on February 27, 1912, to build a line from Vancouver north to a connection with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) at Prince George. Although independent from the GTP, the PGE had agreed that the GTP, whose western terminus was at the remote northern port of Prince Rupert, could use their line to gain access to Vancouver. The railway was given its name due to a loose association with England's Great Eastern Railway. Its financial backers were Timothy Foley, Patrick Welch, and John Stewart, whose construction firm of Foley, Welch and Stewart was among the leading railway contractors in North America. Upon incorporation, the PGE took over the Howe Sound and Northern Railway, which at that point had built nine miles (14 km) of track north of Squamish.[10] The British Columbia government gave the railway a guarantee of principal and 4% interest (later increased to 4.5% to make the bonds saleable) on the construction bonds of the railway.[11]

By 1915, the line was opened from Squamish 176 miles (283 km) north to Chasm. The railway was starting to run out of money, however. In 1915 it failed to make an interest payment on its bonds, obliging the provincial government to make good on its bond guarantee. In the 1916 provincial election campaign, the Liberal Party alleged that some of the money advanced to the railway for bond guarantee payments had instead gone into Conservative Party campaign funds. In the election, the Conservatives, who had won every seat in the legislature in 1912 election, lost to the Liberals. The Liberals then took Foley, Welch, and Stewart to court to recover $5 million of allegedly unaccounted funds. In early 1918, the railway's backers agreed to pay the government $1.1 million and turn the railway over to the government.[12]

When the government took over the railway, two separate sections of trackage had been completed: A small twenty-mile (32 km) section between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, and one between Squamish and Clinton. By 1921, the provincial government had extended the railway to a point 15 miles (24 km) north of Quesnel, still 80 miles (130 km) south of a connection to Prince George, but it was not extended further. The track north of Quesnel was later removed. Construction of the line between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish was given a low priority because there was already a barge in operation between Squamish and Vancouver, and the railway wanted to discontinue operations on the North Vancouver-Horseshoe Bay line. However, the railway had an agreement with the municipality of West Vancouver to provide passenger service that it was unable to get out of until 1928, when they paid the city $140,000 in support of its road-building programme. The last trains on the line ran on November 29, 1928, and the line fell into disuse, but was never formally abandoned.[13]

For the next 20 years the railway would run from "nowhere to nowhere". It did not connect with any other railway, and there were no large urban centres on its route. It existed mainly to connect logging and mining operations in the British Columbia Interior with the coastal town of Squamish, where resources could then be transported by sea. The government still intended for the railway to reach Prince George, but the resources to do so were not available, especially during the Great Depression and World War II. The unfortunate state of the railway caused it to be given nicknames such as "Province's Great Expense"," "Prince George Eventually", "Past God's Endurance", "Please Go Easy", and "Puff, Grunt and Expire".

Pacific Great Eastern Railway logo

Starting in 1949, the Pacific Great Eastern began to expand. Track was laid north of Quesnel to a junction with the Canadian National Railways at Prince George. That line opened on November 1, 1952. Between 1953 and 1956 the PGE constructed a line between Squamish and North Vancouver. The PGE used their former right-of-way between North Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, to the dismay of some residents of West Vancouver who, mistakenly believing the line was abandoned, had encroached on it. The line opened on August 27, 1956. By 1958 the PGE had reached north from Prince George to Fort St. John and to Dawson Creek where it met the Northern Alberta Railways.[14]

A 1964 PGE passenger timetable cover; Peace River at Taylor.

In 1958, British Columbia Premier W.A.C. Bennett boasted that he would extend the railway to the Yukon and Alaska, and further extension of the railway was undertaken in the 1960s. A 23-mile (37 km) spur was constructed to Mackenzie in 1966.[15] A third line was extended west from the mainline (somewhat north of Prince George) to Fort St. James. It was completed on August 1, 1968. The largest construction undertaken in the 1960s was to extend the mainline from Fort St. John 250 miles (400 km) north to Fort Nelson, less than 100 miles (160 km) away from the Yukon. The Fort Nelson Subdivision was opened by Premier Bennett on September 10, 1971. Unfortunately, the opening of the line was overshadowed by the inaugural train derailing south of Williams Lake, south of Prince George.

British Columbia Railway logo (1972–1984)

The railway underwent two changes of name during this time period. In 1972, the railway's name was changed to the British Columbia Railway (BCR). In 1984, the BCR was restructured. Under the new organization, BC Rail Ltd. was formed, owned jointly by the British Columbia Railway Company (BCRC) and by a BCRC subsidiary, BCR Properties Ltd. The rail operations became known as BC Rail.

In 1973, the British Columbia government acquired and restored an ex-Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-4 steam locomotive of the type known as "Royal Hudsons", a name that King George VI permitted the class to be called after the Canadian Pacific Railway used one on the royal train in 1939. The locomotive that the government acquired, numbered 2860, was built in 1940 and was the first one built as a Royal Hudson. The government then leased it, along with ex-Canadian Pacific 2-8-0 #3716 to the British Columbia Railway, which started excursion service with the locomotive between North Vancouver and Squamish on June 20, 1974. The train ran between June and September on Wednesdays through Sundays from 1974-2001. During this time, the Royal Hudson Steam Train was the only regularly scheduled, mainline steam operation on a Class 1 railroad in North America.

Map of the British Columbia Railway

In the 1960s, a new line had been projected to run northwest from Fort St. James to Dease Lake, 412 miles (663 km) away. On October 15, 1973, the first 125 miles (201 km) of the extension to Lovell were opened. The cost of the line was significantly greater than what was estimated, however. Contractors working on the remainder of the line alleged that the railway had misled them regarding the amount of work required so that it could obtain low bids, and took the railway to court.

The Dease Lake line was starting to appear increasingly uneconomical. There was a world decline in the demand for asbestos and copper, two main commodities that would be hauled over the line. As well, the Cassiar Highway that already served Dease Lake had recently been upgraded. Combined with the increasing construction costs, the Dease Lake line could no longer be justified. Construction stopped on April 5, 1977. Track had been laid to Jackson Creek, 263 miles (423 km) past Fort St. James, and clearing and grading were in progress on the rest of the extension. It had cost $168 million to that point, well over twice the initial estimate. The trackbed can be seen on Google Earth all the way to Dease Lake, via the small towns of Leo Creek and Takla Landing.

The management and operation of the railway had been called into question, and on February 7, 1977, the provincial government appointed a Royal Commission, the McKenzie Royal Commission, to investigate the railway. Its recommendations were released on August 25, 1978.[16] It recommended that construction not continue on the 149 miles (240 km) of roadbed between Dease Lake and the current end of track, and that trains be terminated at Driftwood, 20 miles (32 km) past Lovell. The rest of the track would be left in place but not used. In 1983, after logging operations ceased at Driftwood and traffic declined sharply, the Dease Lake line was closed. However, it was reopened in 1991 and, as of 2005, extends to a point called Minaret Creek, British Columbia, still over 175 miles (282 km) south of Dease Lake. Many of the Commission's other recommendations, including the abandonment of the Fort Nelson line, and discontinuation of uneconomic operations such as passenger services, were not followed.[17]

In the early 1980s the railway built a new line and acquired another. The Tumbler Ridge Subdivision, an 82-mile (132 km) electrified branch line, opened in 1983 to the Quintette and Bullmoose mines, two coal mines northeast of Prince George that produced coal for Japan. It has the lowest crossing of the Rocky Mountains by a railway, at 3,815 feet (1,163 m). There are two large tunnels under the mountains: The Table Tunnel, 5.6 miles (9.0 km) long, and the Wolverine Tunnel, 3.7 miles (6 km) long. Electrified owing to the long tunnels and close proximity to the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and transmission lines, it was one of the few electrified freight lines in North America. Although initially profitable, the traffic on the line was never as high as initially predicted, and by the 1990s was under one train per day. The railway had incurred much debt building the branch line, and the expensive, unprofitable operations on the branch line could not help to repay that debt. In 1984 BC Rail acquired the British Columbia Harbours Board Railway, a 23-mile (37 km) line that connects three class I railways with Roberts Bank, an ocean terminal that handles coal shipments. Since the line had been constructed in 1969, it had previously been leased to CPR, Burlington Northern Railroad, and Canadian National Railway in succession.

Two SD40-2s and a GE C44-9WL at Pemberton in 1995.

In the early 1990s, the provincial government reduced subsidies to BC Rail. As a result, BC Rail, burdened with several money-losing services that it was required to operate, saw its debtload grow more than sixfold between 1991 and 2001.

In the 1990s, BC Rail branched out into shipping operations, acquiring terminal operator Vancouver Wharves in 1993 and Canadian Stevedoring and its subsidiary, Casco Terminals, in 1998. In 1999 these operations became the three operating divisions of a new entity, BCR Marine. BCR Group became the parent company of both BCR Marine and BC Rail. In early 2003, attempting to reduce the railway's large debt, BCR Group sold its BCR Marine assets except for Vancouver Wharves (which was also not included in the subsequent sale of BC Rail to Canadian National, and remains a provincial Crown corporation).[18]

On August 19, 2000, the Quintette mine closed, and the portion of the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision between Teck and Quintette, British Columbia, was abandoned. The last electric locomotives ran along the line on September 29, 2000, after which the line was worked by diesels. The Bullmoose mine closed on April 10, 2003, after which the remaining 69.6 miles (112.0 km) of the Tumbler Ridge Subdivision between Teck and Wakely was abandoned, although the track is still in place. The electric locomotives were shipped south to Tacoma, Washington, where they are being dismantled by CEECO Rail Services. One of the locomotives (6001) was purchased by the Paul D. Roy family and they donated it to the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum in Prince George where it is being preserved.

Several other services were also discontinued around this time. The Royal Hudson steam train excursion was discontinued at the end of the 2001 excursion season. The 2860 was out of service in 2000, needing extensive repairs. The backup steam locomotive, a 2-8-0 locomotive built for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1912, broke down in May 2001, and for the rest of the season BC Rail used a former Canadian Pacific Railway FP7A diesel locomotive #4069 that it had leased from the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish.

Passenger train service, which consisted of the Budd-RDC operated Cariboo Prospector and Whistler Northwind (Pacific starlight dinner train) trains, ended October 31, 2002. The service was unprofitable, allegedly owing to BC Rail's heavy dependence on their fleet of aging Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDC), which were becoming increasingly expensive to keep in service. Critics of the closure, which seriously harmed tourism and community life in communities along the line, maintain that the service was deliberately underfunded and mismanaged so as to lead to cancellation and pave the way for privatization.[19] The RDCs have since been sold to various museums and operators around North America, (such as the Wilton Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire and the West Coast Railway Association in Squamish)

Service between Seton Portage and Lillooet was replaced by a railbus. As well, around this time BC Rail ended its intermodal service.[20]

On May 13, 2003, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the government would sell the operations of the railway (including all of the assets other than the rail right-of-way).[21] During the previous election, he had specifically promised not to sell the railway and he maintained that he was keeping this promise, by retaining ownership of the right-of-way and only leasing the land to the operator. On November 25, 2003, it was announced that Canadian National's (CN) bid of $1 billion would be accepted over those of several other companies, including the Canadian Pacific Railway, the BNSF Railway, and OmniTRAX.[22] The transaction was closed on July 15, 2004.[18] The original lease of the rail right of way was for 60 years with a 30-year option to renew. However, it has been reported that there are another fifteen 60 year options to renew the lease in the contract documents and CN would not have to pay anything additional to keep operating for 990 years. At each of these renew dates, the BC government would have the option of buying back all of the assets from CN.[23] Conversely, as of July 15, 2009, the fifth anniversary of the contract, CN has the right to decommission any part of the line it wishes but upon doing so the land reverts to the Crown though the Crown can sell it back to CN for one dollar if it wants to.[19][24]

Since the sale (as of January 2013), Canadian National Railway has contributed $320,160 to the B.C. Liberal party.[6]

The one portion of the BC Rail line not included in this sale was the Port Subdivision from Roberts Bank connecting to the main CN, CP and BNSF lines. Originally the operation of this line was to be sold off separately. However, there were a number of irregularities that came up during the sale process including a government employee, David Basi being accused of accepting a bribe from a lobbyist, Erik Bornmann, working on behalf of OmniTRAX who turned Crown witness in exchange for conditional amnesty, which enabled the RCMP to press charges against Basi. Another irregularity that surfaced in pre-trial hearings was that CP withdrew their bid because Canadian National had access to secret government information, including confidential information on their own corporate operations. The sale of the spur line was canceled and the remnants of BC Rail Company continues to operate and maintain this line.

See also BC Legislature Raids

On August 5, 2005, a long CN train heading inland from Brackendale, derailed spilling 8 empty lumber flat cars and one tank car of sodium hydroxide. The tank car spilled its contents into the Cheakamus River, killing most of its fish.[25]

On June 29, 2006, a diesel locomotive hauling one flatcar of lumber down the steep Pavilion grade 18 miles (29 km) north of Lillooet had its air brakes fail at Moran. The train gathered speed, until it derailed over a steep gravelly slope; two of the three crew members were killed.[26] Due to inaction by transportation safety authorities in taking CN to task, the Teamsters have launched a civil suit on behalf of the victims' families against CN for damages resulting from criminal negligence.[19]

In late March 2020, CN announced to its employees that it planned on abolishing through freight on the Lillooet Subdivision, between Williams Lake and Lillooet; as well as on the Squamish Sub, between Lillooet and Squamish. With some mills already curtailing operations and a further slowdown expected due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, on-line traffic did not warrant use of the 271-mile section of railway, which runs through treacherous and maintenance-intensive territory. On April 7, 2020, the last regularly scheduled freight train between arrived at the yard in Squamish. The remaining traffic in Williams Lake and points north is now moved to the Greater Vancouver area via Prince George and the CN mainline. On the Squamish Sub, CN has reportedly provided service to Continental Log homes in Mount Currie, and continues to use the line for railcar storage.

Between 1928 and 1952, the PGE interchanges were difficult—at Squamish there was a barge connection to North Vancouver and the rest of the North American railroads; after 1952 the PGE could connect with CN at Prince George. Connections were made to other railways when the railway completed its Howe Sound link in 1956. The main connection to the North American rail network was in North Vancouver, where there was a connection to CN. There was also a rail connection to deep-sea terminal operator Vancouver Wharves, and some interchange occurred with the Union Pacific Railroad through the Seaspan railbarge link between North Vancouver and Seattle, Washington. The railway also interchanged with CN at Prince George, and with Northern Alberta Railways (acquired by CN in 1981) at Dawson Creek. CN's line between Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Hythe, Alberta, fell into disuse in 1998, but CN agreed to reopen it as a condition of purchasing BC Rail.[18] However, as of 2010 the line between Dawson Creek and Hythe is still disused.

For many years the PGE owned and leased tugs to move boxcars: it had PGE Transfer No. 2, and PGE Transfer No. 3. It chartered tugs Lilloet, Dola, Prestige II and Squamish Chief. The PGE owned its own steam tug, the Point Ellice. The PGE also chartered CPR tugs and barges and moved boxcars to Coal Harbour and Seattle.

BCIT 871027 in interchange service on the Burlington Northern in 1992.

Reporting marks are a system intended to help keep track of rolling stock and financial transactions between railways. The Pacific Great Eastern Railway used the reporting mark PGE. It later adopted the reporting mark PGER in 1971 for freight cars in international service. When the railway was renamed to the British Columbia Railway, it adopted the reporting mark BCOL. Initially, there was a distinction made between cars intended for local usage only (BCOL = BC On Line) and cars intended to be interchanged with other railways (BCIT = BC Interchange Traffic). Some cars, intended for use on the Northeast Coal connection were given BCNE.