Passenger trains will be rolling through Squamish again starting in 2006 - now it's a matter of making them stop here.
After an extensive Request for Proposal process Canadian National (CN) officials announced last Friday (Sept. 3) that Great Canadian Railtour Company (GCRC) best met its criteria for train service in the corridor.
GCRC plans include the introduction of the Whistler Mountaineer, which will operate between North Vancouver and Whistler. The company's existing Rocky Mountaineer train service will also be expanded to include a new route from Whistler to Jasper, with an overnight stop in Prince George. The two new tourist routes are scheduled to begin operation in 2006.
"It is certainly an exciting day for tourism in British Columbia and passenger service," said James Terry, GCRC executive vice president. "We want to remind people that we are much more than a train operator. We are vacation provider with the ability to showcase all regions in the province."
The company intends to highlight communities along the route with the help of a new Economic Development Officer. GCRC plans to set up a series of "Product Partnership Workshops" in the coming weeks to identify tourism products that would warrant additional stops along the route. Dates for the workshops, which are planned in Squamish, 100 Mile House, Lillooet, Prince George, Quesnel, Price George, Williams Lake and Whistler, will be announced in the next 60 days.
"We are looking forward to meeting with communities and identifying tourism products," Terry said. "These communities will feel the economic impact of these new routes through increased tourism and employment opportunities."
As part of the deal with CN, the GCRC will pay for access to the rail line on a commercial contract basis. Ideally, GCRC would like to operate seven days a week but initial plans include six-day-a-week service from May to October.
The new GCRC partnership is part of a CN commitment to select a tourist train operator in its B.C. Rail Partnership agreement with the B.C. government.
Squamish Chamber of Commerce president Gord Prescott said the news was good for the province as a whole and was positive on the chances of bringing tourist trains back to Squamish as well, particularly for rail fans who want to visit the West Coast Railway Heritage Park.
"I think it's important to have an opportunity to have people stop in Squamish," Prescott said. "There are lots of interesting things to do here."
Prescott suspects the North Van/Whistler run would have less potential for local stops but the longer runs to Jasper could include Squamish.
"There's no reason to believe we couldn't see Squamish becoming one of the destination stops."
But he doubts that train service would include the Royal Hudson steam engine, which ran a six-day-a-week summer service between North Vancouver and Squamish from 1974 to 2001. The engine is currently being restored at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish.
Don Evans of the West Coast Railway Association (WCRA), which operates the Heritage Park, was also pleased with the decision.
WCRA has been partnering with GCRC on the North Coast Explorer out of Prince Rupert for the last few years, and is bringing the train down to Squamish for a special excursion at the end of September (see story this page).
"We have a long-standing and very supportive relationship," Evans said, adding that GCRC was the one of the major supporters of the Heritage Park's new Mac Norris station.
"Certainly from our point of view we're delighted to see passenger rail coming back to the corridor and we certainly believe they would be able to do a very credible job for the long term given their experience."
Future partnerships with GCRC have not yet been worked out as of yet, but the WCRA hopes to do more specialty charters with GCRC "leaving from and/or terminating in Squamish," he said.
Evans was also hesitant about whether those future plans would include the Royal Hudson."I think the odds are the Royal Hudson will see service," he said. Whether or not it's in partnership with Great Canadian I don't know. Steam trains are not a typical tourism adventure. It could just as easily be a specialty operation."
