Southern Railway of British Columbia
Encyclopedia
The Southern Railway of British Columbia, branded as SRY Rail Link is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 short line railway
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 operating in the southwestern mainland of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. The main facility is the port at Annacis Island
Annacis Island
Annacis Island is an island located in the South Arm of the Fraser River in Delta, British Columbia, Canada. The island is now mostly industrial, and it contains one of the Metro Vancouver's secondary wastewater treatment plants...

 with major import of cars, export of forestry products, and other shipments. The railway has interconnections with three Class I railroad
Class I railroad
A Class I railroad in the United States and Mexico, or a Class I rail carrier in Canada, is a large freight railroad company, as classified based on operating revenue.Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III...

s, including Canadian Pacific
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

, Canadian National
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

 and BNSF. It operates a fleet of 29 locomotives and 2,000 cars, and hauls approximately 70,000 carloads per year. It operates around 123 miles (197.9 km) of track, 62 miles (99.8 km) of which is mainline track.

History

The Provincial government sold the railway to the Itel Rail Group in 1988. The railway was renamed the Southern Railway of British Columbia. The line was originally built in 1910 as the British Columbia Electric Railway
British Columbia Electric Railway
The British Columbia Electric Railway was a historic Canadian railway which operated in southwestern British Columbia.Originally the parent company, and later a division, of BC Electric, the BCER operated public transportation in southwestern British Columbia from its establishment in the...

 (BCER), an interurban trolley service for passengers (until 1950) as well as for freight such as farm produce. The railway was taken over by Crown corporation BC Hydro
BC Hydro
The BC Hydro and Power Authority is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia generally known simply as BC Hydro. It is the main electric distributor, serving 1.8 million customers in most areas, with the exception of the Kootenay region, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis...

in 1961 and was known as the BC Hydro Railway. In 1994 it was bought by the Washington Group but kept the SRY name. The Washington Group has since merged with URS.

To this day the Province and BC Hydro retain the right to reintroduce passenger service. In recent years, with congestion and growing environmental concerns, there has been increasing demand for this service, and willingness to pay, from persons wishing to travel among Fraser Valley communities other than by private automobile.

External links

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