PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — Under high fog and dim pre-dawn light, the last B.C. Rail passenger train left here Thursday with 72 passengers, the Canadian Press reported.
B.C. Rail is derailing the North Vancouver to Prince George passenger service to cut costs.
Prince George station personnel said more passengers would be picked up at Quesnel, Williams Lake and other centres, and the two Budd cars would be full by the time the train reached Lillooet.
The train was expected in North Vancouver around 10 p.m. Thursday.
The final train ran into two protests along its route Thursday.
The first occurred in Williams Lake, where about 40 protesters delayed the train for a short time.
Louie Halbig of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Tourism Association said the train has helped the region with both tourism and economic activity.
Later, the train ran into a native blockade in the Seton Lake area.
Gary John, head of the Lillooet tribal council, said the 45-minute blockade was intended to demonstrate native opposition to the decision to cut the passenger service.
B.C. Rail spokesman Alan Devers called it a sad day for the Crown-owned railway, which is losing $5 million a year on the route.
He said B.C. Rail is in a financial fight for its survival and it needs to focus on its core business of moving freight. The only passenger service left will be a 60-kilometre run from Darcy to Lillooet.
Dave Johnson, a director of AmericaRail Tours, was in charge of 23 U.S. tourists who were among the passengers on the last train.
He said they were railway enthusiasts who had specifically travelled to Prince George to take the trip on the last Cariboo Prospector.
At 6:55 a.m. the metal platforms for passengers to step on the train were pulled up for the last time as conductors called out All Aboard.
Cameras flashed both inside the train and on the platform as people sought to record the historic last departure. As the train started to move out, a woman working in the still open baggage compartment said hopefully to well-wishers on the platform, “We’ll be back. We’ll be back.”
Station personnel on the platform embraced and many broke into tears as the train moved out past the platform on its last run.
Inside the brightly lit, modern passenger terminal, they had a woman take a group photo of them during their last shift working together.