Skeena Pacific Railway

The Skeena Pacific Railway (AAR reporting mark SPR) is the third largest railway company in British Columbia, operating over a total of 523.3 miles of railway, and is the largest of BC's privately owned railway companies. The SPR's passenger and freight trains play a vital role in the social and economic life of the northwestern part of the Dominion.

History
The Kitimat & Omenica Railroad (K&O) was chartered in 1889 to built a railway from Kitimat to Terrace (renamed Ganiks Laxha in 1980). Construction of the line north from Kitimat began in 1891, and in 1892, the first two miles of track were opened, operated as a logging railway. Due to an extreme shortage of funds, by 1922 only six miles of track had been built. In 1924, a new group of owners bought the K&O and renamed it Skeena & Kitimat Railway (S&K), with the line being extended only as needed for logging.

By the summer of 1941, the K&A's route length was just over 9 miles of mainline track. The outbreak of the Pacific War, fears of Japanese attack against Prince Rupert led to the expansion of Kitimat as a port, and with a loan from the Dominion government, a massive construction effort was begun in the middle of December, 1941. Despite the harsh winter conditions, the line from Milepost 9.0 North to Terrace was completed and opened for service in March 1942; at that time, the company was renamed again, becoming the Skeena & Pacific Railway. The S&P moved significant amounts of freight and troops from Terrace to Kitimat, even after the threat of Japanese attacks on the coast had vanished.

After the end of the war, plans were made to build a vast hydroelectric power station to supply power to a large new aluminium smelter to be built nearby. To aid in the construction of these projects, the line was extended south from Kitimat to the selected site, where a new town for the workers was built, called Kemano. This line was completed in 1947, and at the same time, the company was once again renamed, receiving its present name, Skeena Pacific Railway (SPR). At the same time as construction of the new, fully electrified line took place, the existing line between Kitimat and Terrace was also electrified.

In the 1950s, the Dominion government began implementing a farsighted, long term plan for development of the North, the New Towns Project. Inspired by the British undertaking of the same name, this project envisioned the transformation of a number of towns and settlements in northern BC into planned "model cities". Two of the settlements selected for this project were New Aiyansh (renamed Gitlaxt'aamiks in 1988) and Meziadin. As railway service was vital to the success of the project, the SPR was offered a 25-year subsidy by the government to build and operate the line. Accepting the offer, the SPR built a new electrified trunk line north from Terrace, reaching Nass Camp (north of New Aiyansh) in 1957, and extending to Meziadin in 1963.

After the BCR finalised its plans for a line to Dease Lake, the SPR began another extension of its northern trunk line. In fact, it was the SPR that built the line from Iskut Junction to Dease Lake; this was sold to the BCR after the Stikine Line from Fort St James reached Iskut Junction on 1975. After the sale, the SPR retained running rights into Dease Lake - the Iskut Junction–Dease Lake section is the only electrified section of the Stikine Line.