British Columbia Electric Railway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| British Columbia Electric Railway | |
|---|---|
| Locale | southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver Island |
| Dates of operation | 1891–1989 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
The British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) 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 mid-1890s, operating streetcar systems in Vancouver, New Westminster, North Vancouver and Victoria.
Power was supplied by then-innovative diversion projects at Buntzen Lake and on the Stave River system farther east, all of which were built primarily to supply power for the interurbans and street railway. A six-mile branch line, isolated from the main interurban network, ran the six miles / 9.66 km to the power plant and community at Stave Falls from the Canadian Pacific Railway station at Ruskin, British Columbia.
BCER interurban trams ran along 3 lines between Vancouver and New Westminster (via Burnaby), as well as between Vancouver and Richmond, New Westminster and Chilliwack, and Victoria and North Saanich. During and after the streetcar era, BC Electric also ran bus and trolleybus systems in Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria; these systems subsequently became part of BC Transit. Trolley buses still run in Greater Vanvouver, but had disappeared from Vancouver Island by 1952.
In 1961, the provincial government took over BC Electric, with the railway becoming a division of Crown corporation BC Hydro. In 1989, BC Hydro sold the railway to a new shortline operator and the railway is now known as the Southern Railway of British Columbia and is exclusively a freight railway.
Part of the Vancouver Skytrain Expo Line follows BCER's former Central Park Line through Burnaby to New Westminster.
