(The Province published the following story by Clare Ogilvie on its website on August 28.)
WHISTLER — A Vancouver-based company is partnering with Via Rail in the hopes of launching a luxury tourist rail service to Whistler.
Via spokeswoman Catherine Kaloutsky confirmed yesterday that Whistler Rail Tours has signed a memorandum agreement to negotiate with the national railway so that it can help plan what sort of services could be provided in the 21/2-hour trip between Vancouver and Whistler, staffing levels, maintenance, etc.
“At this point in time, this is the type of expertise we can offer them,” said Kaloutsky. “Whether or not it goes to the next stage in terms of assisting them with personnel — well, we are definitely not there right now.”
However, Via Rail correspondence to Whistler Rail Tours does express the railway’s interest in providing train crews, equipment, maintenance, station staff and other infrastructure and services — if an acceptable agreement can be reached.
Privately-held Whistler Rail Tours partnered earlier this year with CruiseShipCentres as part of its strategy for the Vancouver-Whistler route. That plan focuses on taking cruise-ship passengers on day trips and adventure outings to Whistler and beyond. A similar cruise-ship service has already proved successful in Alaska.
Whistle Rail Tours is also studying expansion of the Vancouver-Whistler tourist train route to tie into the new $9-million cruise-ship port announced earlier this month for Prince Rupert.
B.C. Rail halted its regular passenger service on the line to Whistler last year because it was losing too much money and the provincial government is now seeking a private partner to purchase and operate B.C. Rail’s rolling stock.
However, the search for a private B.C. Rail operator has also temporarily sidetracked Whistler Rail Tour’s plans because the company still needs to negotiate a track agreement with B.C. Rail. “Once we have a track agreement in place essentially that is the green light for us to operate,” says company spokeswoman Jennifer Beresford.
She hopes the company’s tourist trains will be in service for the 2005 cruise-ship season. The new service could inject at least $300 million into the province’s economy between 2005 and the Winter Games in 2010, she suggests.
“The business demand we are seeing right now is exceeding our expectations, it’s is very, very strong,” she said. “The support we have been receiving from sectors [other than the cruise-ships] has really been overwhelming.”
Meanwhile, B.C. Rail said yesterday it’s still in “active discussions” with an unidentified company for the purchase of its 10-car Pacific Starlight Dinner Train rolling stock. That service was cancelled last October.