CPR Fording River Subdivision

The Fording River Subdivision is a 33.8 mile railway line of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) running from Sparwood on the Cranbrook Subdivision to Fording.

The Fording River Subdivision is part of the Kootenay Division of the CPR's British Columbia District.

= History = The line from Sparwood to Elk Valley was opened in 1971 to serve Cominco's Elkford mine opened that year; the line was subsequently extended to the Fording when the Fording River mine was opened in 1983; the Fording River mine has reserves amounting to nearly 260 million Imperial tons of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 8.2 million Imperial tons of coal.

= Services =

Freight
Freight traffic on the line is mostly empties going up the line and downbound coal shipments.

Passenger
There is a Local passenger service (operated by diesel car, as are all CPR local passenger services in BC) running from Fernie on the Cranbrook Subdivision to Line Creek via Sparwood - Harmer is the location of Sparwood-Elk Valley International Airport, serving the Michel/Natal/Fording River area with scheduled flights to Vancouver and Kelowna in BC and to Calgary in Canada.

= Route =