Quesnel City Council is being encouraged to contact the MP and the MLA to stress the importance of saving the railway between Squamish and 100 Mile House.
Time is running out as CN Rail is scheduled to decommission the line in July.
Peter Scholz, a transportation and city planner with Cornerstone Planning, spoke to Council at last weeks meeting.
One of the hurdles has been overcome, which is to find someone new to operate the rail line.
” Their name is Columbia Rail. They are very confident they can achieve operational profitability if a few terms are met. The key ones being that the maintenance issues of the last few years are taken care of, they don’t have to put 10 of millions of dollars upgrading the track, mainly on the hill between Clinton and Lillooet. Number two that they have a solid interchange arrangement with CN at either end of the portion of the track that they would be leading.”
Scholz said the condition of the track is less than optimal right now, and has been going in that direction for the last 10 to 15 years.
He said that they have received 7 letters of interest from First Nations and were hoping to get more.
Mayor Ron Paull said that he was part of a Mayor’s group that was meeting every two or three weeks on this topic as well.
He also noted that Rocky Mountaineer’s continuation in Quesnel is at stake.
“I think for Quesnel the real critical thing is the uncertainty with Rocky Mountaineer, and that uncertainty comes in year number 20 that Rocky Mountaineer has been using Quesnel as an overnight stop, so I think that’s critically important. If we don’t have that availability of the line through the Squamish and Lillooet subdivisions, then Rocky Mountaineer is going to have to pull the pin on Quesnel and we don’t want that to happen.”
Scholz said that he had a conversation with Rocky Mountaineer as well.
“When I spoke to them about five weeks ago, they said they’d be happy to work with the short line operator. Rocky Mountaineer told me that 15 years ago they would schedule about 8 hours to get from Whistler to Quesnel and because of the condition of the track, primarily between Clinton and Lillooet on the big hill there, it’s now 12 hours. They’re moving at 10 to 15 kilometres an hour because of track safety issues.”
Scholz said he was told that the company would also continue to operate in Quesnel well into the future should the line between Squamish and 100 Mile remain open.
