Peace River Line

The Peace River Line is an electrified 257.5 mile railway line of the British Columbia Railway (BC Rail) running from Prince George, where it connects with the Grand Trunk Line and the North Fraser Line, to Dawson Creek, where it connects to the Canadian National Railway's Dawson Creek Subdivision. In addition, there are numerous other connections along the length of the line: at Northwood to the Shady Valley Connecting Line, at Summit Lake Junction to the Omineca Line, at Wakely to the Tumbler Ridge Line, at Kennedy to the Williston Lake Line, at Chetwynd to the Fort Nelson Line, and at Sundance Lakes to the Mechpulp Branch. 97.2 miles of the line are double tracked.

The Peace River Line is Line 80 and the Mechpulp Branch is Line 8001 of BC Rail's Northern Region.

History
The Peace River Line was opened by the British Columbia Railway in 1958, coinciding with Dawson Creek's designation as the first "New Town" in British Columbia, following the British development of planned model cities of the same name. It was this planned development, together with policies of directed immigration and incentives to encourage people from the Lower Mainland to relocate to the New Towns, that led to them becoming the important economic and cultural centres of the North that they have become, led by Dawson Creek - which, with a population of 317,000, is the largest city north of the Grand Trunk Line.

The section of line from Prince George to Kennedy was electrified from its opening. Electrification from Kennedy to Chetwynd was completed in 1977, whilst the remaining section from Chetwynd to Dawson Creek was energised in 1980. The River Bend–Summit Lake section was double-tracked in 1996, followed by Chetwynd–Dawson Creek in 2001.

A smaller scale derivative of the "New Towns" plan, called the "Liveable North Programme", was introduced in 1976. Chetwynd was the first community to receive expansion investment under the programme, followed by Summit Lake in 1978.

Mechpulp Branch
The electrified 2.6 mile Mechpulp Branch from Sundance Lakes to Mechpulp Yard was opened in 1969 to serve the Chetwynd Mechanical Pulp mill opened that year; the branch was electrified in 1980.

Services
The Peace River Line is one of the five busiest railway lines in BC.

Freight
Freight traffic on the Peace River Line is extremely heavy.

Passenger
The various categories of passenger service are defined by the Ministry of Labour, Industry & Railways in conjunction with the Ministry of Transport & Communications; these categories are applicable to and used by all railways providing passenger service in British Columbia. Like all other railways in BC, ticket prices for BC Rail passenger trains are based on the Ministry's Schedule of Railway Fares.