The Cariboo Prospector passenger train started taking passengers from North Vancouver up to Lillooet and Prince George in 1915. By the 1930s, the Prospector’s operator, Pacific Great Eastern (PGE), was advertising it as “the perfect vacation.”
In its last year of operation, the line carried 81,000 total passengers up the Sea to Sky area and beyond, following the same path used now by the summertime luxury train, the Rocky Mountaineer.
But in 2002, the rail shuttered after posting an operating loss of $4.8 million, creating a transportation challenge for communities that already struggle with their remoteness from health-care, education and employment services.
After a series of false starts, efforts to re-establish rail service to the area are once again underway, this time at the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD).
On Feb. 12, SLRD chair Jen Ford wrote to Mike Farnworth, minister of transportation and transit, and Spencer Chandra Herbert, minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport, to express support for the District of Lillooet in re-establishing passenger rail from Vancouver to Lillooet.
“The SLRD Board strongly supports the District of Lillooet’s call for the provincial government to work collaboratively with local stakeholders to re-establish passenger rail service,” wrote Ford in her letter.
“We believe that the reinstatement of rail service is an essential step toward supporting the long-term resilience and prosperity of our communities.”
Ford’s letter flags the challenges associated with living in a remote community exacerbated by the lack of transportation by rail, including barriers to health-care, education, and employment, as well as the “detrimental effect on tourism, which is a crucial industry for many ... communities.”
Ford also noted passenger rail would help reduce carbon emissions by offering commuters an alternative to their cars.
Existing rail infrastructure is capable of supporting high-end tourism like the Rocky Mountaineer in the summer. The entire line is owned and managed by CN Rail, which licenses rail out to operators like the Armstrong Hospitality Group, which runs the Mountaineer.
“This initiative is of critical importance not only to Lillooet but to the entire region, and we stand united in urging the provincial government to take immediate action,” Ford wrote to the Ministry.
The ministry responds
Minister Farnworth responded on Feb. 26. The bulk of the letter touts the provincial government’s support for inter-regional travel options and investments into public transportation. Less than half of the letter addressed Lillooet rail directly.
“As you may know, the rail line between Vancouver and Lillooet is leased to CN Rail,” wrote Farnworth. “Under the lease agreement, if other rail operators would like to provide passenger service on the line, CN Rail must allow them to use it.”
The Minister then suggested municipalities and regional districts along the line—notably, Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton, Mount Currie, Lillooet and the SLRD—work with operators like CN Rail, VIA Rail, and the Rocky Mountaineer to move forward.
Director Tony Rainbow pulled the letter out during a March 26 SLRD board meeting, suggesting it be taken up by the Sea to Sky Regional Transit Committee.
“We have a transit committee which is basically tasked right now with Sea to Sky transit,” he said.
“But we are a regional district and Lillooet and that area is part of the district [but] won’t be included in Sea to Sky transit. [So] I would like to see us add this request, this concern about rail transportation from that area [to the committee].”
If it came through the Sea to Sky it would also benefit people in the Sea to Sky, he added.
Ford raised a motion to forward the letter to the transit committee, noting the SLRD hadn’t been ignoring it, but that it was valuable to formalize efforts in regional rail.
Director Vivian Birch-Jones of Area B, which includes Lillooet, emphatically agreed with the motion.
