North Shore Line
The North Shore Line is an electrified, double-tracked 7.4 mile railway line of the British Columbia Railway (BC Rail) running from Brentwood Junction on the Inter-Dominion Line to North Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Line via Brooksbank, start of the electrifed 3.9 mile Dollarton Branch to Dollarton.
The North Shore Line is Line 202 and the Dollarton Branch is Line 2021 of the Lower Mainland Region of BC Rail.
Moodyville is a collection yard for the extensive trackage at the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool terminal, the Richardson International port facilities, and Vancouver Drydock. Brooksbank yard serves the Neptune Bulk Terminals, the G3 Container Terminal, Lynnterm, and is the start point of the Dollarton Branch.
History
The North Shore Line was opened in 1925 by the British Columbia Railway over the Second Narrows Bridge. The original route was closed in 1966, when the current route via the Burnaby Tunnel from Brentwood Junction was opened.
Dollarton Branch
The Dollarton Branch is a short (3.9 miles), double-tracked industrial line running along the north side of Burrard Inlet from Brooksbank to Dollarton opened by the BCR in 1930 to serve the original Hoffar Aero Engines plant opened there that year; presently, this is the Hoffar Marine plant manufacturing yacht engines and boat parts. It also serves Allied Shipbuilders, a chemical terminal, and some smaller industries at Maplewood.
There is no passenger service along this line at present besides the West Coast Express service between Pacific Central Station and Squamish, but a proposal to extend the line from Dollarton to Deep Cove and to introduce a Deep Cove–Horseshoe Bay commuter service has been discussed over the years. One such proposal is the introduction of a frequent EMU service, similar to the Interurban operated by the BC Hydro Railway between Liverpool and Chilliwack, on the North Shore, which would make use of existing railway infrastructure (possibly with an extra track added) between Horseshoe Bay and Dollarton, with a purpose-built extension to Deep Cove. Consultations between BC Rail and the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority were made in 1999, 2004, and 2016, but so far no commitment has been made to the project.)
Services
Other than the West Coast Express, both the North Shore Line and the Dollarton Branch see only freight traffic, which is very extensive.
Route
A yellow background indicates an electrified section.
| Station | Milepost | Connecting lines | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brentwood Jct | 0.0 | Inter-Dominion Line | |||
| Brooksbank | 4.1 | Dollarton Branch | Neptune Bulk Terminals, G3 Container Terminal, Lynnterm | ||
| Moodyville | 4.8 | - | Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Richardson International, Vancouver Drydock | ||
| North Vancouver | 7.4 | Sea-to-Sky Line | BCR shops, sulphur terminal, coal terminal | ||
| Brooksbank | 0.0 | North Shore Line | Neptune Bulk Terminals, G3 Container Terminal, Lynnterm | ||
| Maplewood | 1.1 | - | Allied Shipbuilders, chemical terminal | ||
| Dollarton | 3.9 | - | Hoffar Marine | ||