Lulu Island Line

The Lulu Island Line is a 17.4 mile freight-only railway line of the British Columbia Railway (BC Rail) running from the Fraser River Bridge on the Inter-Dominion Line to Fraser Wharves; there are also 9.9 miles of operational branch lines, and 3.0 miles of closed line.

The Lulu Island Line is Line 203, the Finn Slough Spur is Line 2031, the South East Branch is Line 2032, the North West Branch is Line 2033, and the former Sea Island Spur was Line 20331 of BC Rail's Lower Mainland Region.

History
The section from Fraser River Bridge to New Westminster was opened by the Vancouver, Westminster & Yukon Railway (VW&Y) in 1902; this was taken over by the Dominion Northern Pacific Railway (DNP) in 1914 when the DNP acquired the VW&Y. The DNP extended from New Westminster into Queensborough and on to Lulu Island, a total of 9.3 miles to Shell Road in 1916, connecting to the British Columbia Electric Railway's (BCER) Lulu Island Line there. The DNP in turn became the British Columbia Railway after its nationalisation in 1918; the line was named Lulu Island Line in 1922.

In 1957, the BCR extended the line south from Shell Road to Fraser Wharves; then, in 1959, this was extended to the British-American Oil's petrochemical terminal opened there that year. From British American, the line looped back north to meet the mainline at Queensborough Junction.

North West Branch
The BC Electric Railway opened a 3.6 mile branch from its line from Thompson via Bridgeport to Shell Road in 1909; after the nationalisation of the BCER in 1960, this line passed to its successor, the BC Hydro Railway. With the conversion of the BCH line in Richmond to create the Expo Line of the Greater Vancouver Metro, in 1985 the BCR took over BCH freight operations on Lulu Island.

Sea Island Spur
This 1.5 mile branch was built by the BCER in 1930 from Dinsmore (1.2 miles from Bridgeport) to Sea Island to serve the De Havilland Aircraft of BC plant opened there that year. In 1985, it was transferred to the BCR along with the rest of the BCH freight operations in Richmond, and the line was closed in 1991 when the Boeing (formerly De Havilland) plant on Sea Island was closed.

South East Branch
The South East Branch was created in 1986 when the track between Fraser Wharves and British American was taken up to make room for the expansion of the Japan Auto Terminal at Fraser Wharves.

Services
This is a very busy freight-only line serving numerous industries in New Westminster, Queensborough, and Richmond.

The main line on the north side of Lulu Island serves numerous small industries along the riverfront between the Ewen yard and Shell Road, before turning south to head to the south side of the island to head to the large Japan Auto Terminal at Fraser Wharves - where all cars imported to BC from Japan arrive, and all cars exported to Japan depart. Finn Slough is a small yard east of Fraser Wharves off a triangle at the foot of Shell Road, about a mile long parallel to Dyke Road adjacent to the community of Finn Slough, with sidings to Regal Terminals.

From Queensborough Junction a branch heads south to the south shore of Lulu Island, turning west adjacent to BC Hydro Railway's Ewans Landing facility and running to Portside, a sorting yard from which shunting movements to and from a number of small industries in the area are run. West of Portside is a yard called British American, serving British Americal Oil's petrochemical terminal.

Route
A grey background indicates a closed section; italic text indicates a closed station or closed connection.