Canadian Railroads > On this day -- End of an Era

On this day, October 31, 2002, regular passenger service on BC Rail came to an end. Also in that time era, the Starlight Dinner train, Whistler Northwind tourist train as well as TOFC traffic was discontinued. These service cuts were all being done in preparation for the "sale" of BC Rail.
The passenger train between North Vancouver and Prince George was popular and well used by the local population. The train was quite busy in the summer with tourists from around the world enjoying the trip and beautiful scenery along the way.
Lots of folks and former BC Rail employees even till this day are still bitter about the loss of passenger service as well as the demise of BC Rail.

photos:
BC31 southbound train #2 at Onward, BC, August 1987
"Notice" in the window at Exeter station, February 2005, nobody there to take the notice down.

thanks for looking,
Doug

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I missed out on a lot of things I should have taken a ride on (Newfoundland comes to mind in particular), but I'm glad to say BC Rail passenger service wasn't one of them, even if it was on the other side of the country.  In July of 1992 we rode from Pr. George all the way to North Vancouver, after taking the ferry north to Pr. Rupert.  It was a 4-car train out of Pr. George and they added four more at Lillooet.  I heard somebody joking on the radio that they now had a "tonnage train" going south.  Got to ride the Skeena on the same trip.

GTD

I feel very fortunate to of experienced the best of British Columbia Railway during annual visits between 1983 and 1991.
Wonderful people, scenery, and railroad.
Regards, Jim Evans



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/24 08:44 by FiveChime.

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Interesting video as it's one of the few times I've heard the RDC power plant making noise rather than the horn making all the noise.

Apparently they were a lot of work to keep them running and to justify in the budget but I know they brought visitors to the terminals and were used often by the local residents. Thanks for the efforts and thanks for the last run dates.

You can blame the Government of the day there in Victoria for this. It made balancing the budget easier.

How did it work again at Pemberton - wasn't it five cars to/from Pemberton and North Vancouver, and then three cars north of Pemberton. And three days a week only at the end? I know it was a bit of an interchange at Pemberton (or was it Lilloet) to drop and add cars........Love this route! Loved BC Rail!

The Budd cars ran 7 day a week round trip between North Vancouver and Lillooet. The train ran 3 days a week Noth Vancouver to Lillooet to Prince George. On the days it ran to Prince George, the train would be split at Lillooet, a set of Budds went north and the other set went back south to North Vancouver. On the days the train ran Prince George to North Vancouver, the 2 trains would be joined at Lillooet and go to North Vancouver. On school days, the school kids would ride the Budds south from Lillooet to Seton Portage.
Doug

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How did it work again at Pemberton - wasn't it
> five cars to/from Pemberton and North Vancouver,
> and then three cars north of Pemberton. And three
> days a week only at the end? I know it was a bit
> of an interchange at Pemberton (or was it Lilloet)
> to drop and add cars........Love this route! Loved
> BC Rail!

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How did it work again at Pemberton - wasn't it
> five cars to/from Pemberton and North Vancouver,
> and then three cars north of Pemberton. And three
> days a week only at the end? I know it was a bit
> of an interchange at Pemberton (or was it Lilloet)
> to drop and add cars.

The change was at Lillooet, and the number of cars varied by season and fleet availability.

In the final few years, the Lillooet-Prince George portion ran only twice a week in the fall/winter, but three times weekly in the spring/summer. The North Vancouver-Lillooet turn continued to be daily. In that period, the daily to Lillooet was usually two cars, with another two cars on days when the train ran to Prince George.

Service between North Van and Prince George had been daily in the summer from 1988 until 1994, after which the government withdrew its annual subsidy of $2.8 million. From then on, BC Rail had to fund (and internally subsidize) the service itself, and fares were raised considerably as of 1995. The highest passenger volume was in 1992, with 107,000 carried.

At the high point of service, from 1990 to 1994, with a fleet of 11 serviceable cars, eight-car consists were common in high season between North Van and Lillooet, where the train would split, with four cars continuing north. There were even two occasions in the Christmas season of 1990 when 10-car trains were operated, with seven cars continuing to Prince George.

During the subsidized period, the full fare from North Van to Prince George in the premium Cariboo Class, with reserved seats and meal service, was $87 in 1988 and $113.50 in 1992.  With the end of the subsidy, the fare had reached $194 by 1999 and $247 in 2002, the final year of service.

By 2001, ridership was down to 81,000 (80% tourist traffic) and BC Rail lost $4.8 million on the service that year. Most of the non-tourist traffic was local residents travelling between Pemberton and Lillooet.

With the fleet down to seven by the end of 2000, BC Rail was asking the government to reinstate the subsidy and to provide $30 million to renew the fleet, which was refused. By the end of service, the operating fleet was just four cars. 

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/24 04:56 by railsmith.

Thanks for all the information.........So at the end of the BC Passenger Rail Service, there was no government subsidy at all to operate the train? 

The wunderlust years must have been before 1985, I just walked up to the window and bought a ticket, had a great time.

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for all the information.........So at the
> end of the BC Passenger Rail Service, there was no
> government subsidy at all to operate the train? 

That is correct -- the subsidy ended in 1994. The left-leaning New Democratic Party was in power then. It was still in power in late 2000 when BC Rail made its appeal for a return of the subsidy and $30 million in capital funds for fleet renewal. The request was still pending when the conservative Liberal Party won the election in May 2001 and it was subsequently refused.

During that post-1994 period, BC Rail tried various ways to increase passenger revenues, rather than simply cut costs. First, as noted in my previous post, it greatly increased fares for the RDC service and essentially required all but local passengers to book reserved Cariboo Class service with meals in cars equipped with reclining seats.

It also introduced a high-season day trip from Whistler to Kelly Lake and back, using anywhere from one to three RDCs. That lasted from 1995 to 2001, and in that final year it ran only to Pavilion using a single-car from the regular train that was detached at Lillooet.

Another innovation was the Pacific Starlight Dinner Train, launched in 1997 with rolling stock purchased from a dinner train operation in Washington state. This ran from North Van to Porteau Cove (25 miles) and return. Running five days a week from June to October, it turned a profit for its first three years and service was expanded to a sixth day for 2000, but it started to lose money at that point. By the final year, it was losing $420,000. The last train ran on October 21, 2002. (The rolling stock was sold to Ontario Northland).

The biggest investment was in the Whistler Northwind luxury train, with $12 million spent on acquiring a consist of new and refurbished cars. BC Rail was hoping to repeat the success of Rocky Mountaineer with a similar type of train, running from North Vancouver to Prince George with overnight stops in Whistler and 100 Mile House. This was launched in 2001 and the timing was terrible. This was soon after the dot-com bubble burst and just before 9/11.

In its first year, the train drew only 2,000 passengers and lost $2.3 million. The second year was even worse, with numerous trips cancelled, and even the last run was brought forward by several weeks, with the last train departing on September 18.

Meanwhile, the Royal Hudson steam excursion had been hit by failures of both the locomotives it had used over the years, with Hudson 2860 sidelined after 1999 and Consolidation 3716 damaged at the start of 2001 after other troubles in the previous year. The train was diesel-hauled by an F-unit in 2001, its final year. BC Rail sought government funds to repair both steam locomotives and refurbish the passenger cars, but that was refused.

The common link between all these services was BC Rail's excellent passenger rail reservations and administration department. Its financial support came mostly from the operation of the North Van-Prince George service but it provided the ticketing and admin services needed for the seasonal trains, which could not have sustained this essential office on their own. With the end of the mainstay RDC operation, this office was closed as of November 2002.

CN bought BC Rail's freight operations as of July 2004 and assumed a long-term lease of the infrastructure that will last, at minimum, to 2064. The only passenger rail stipulations in its agreement with the BC government were: (1) to allow a tourist train operation over its ex-BCR tracks between North Van and Prince George (this began in 2006); (2) to continue operation of the shuttle service between Lillooet and Seton Portage that had begun on November 1, 2002, immediately after the last RDC run; and (3) to continue a remote operation on the Takla Subdivision between Lovell and Minaret (using a converted maintenance-of-way vehicle). The last two of these requirements are specifically for the benefit of two Indian bands.

WOW! I knew some of this information - the "Dinner Train" the "North Wind" etc. But it was good to see some of the context and full story. Timing and politics didn't help at all with the demise of BC passenger rail.