Semiahmoo Line
The Semiahmoo Line is an electrified 47.2 mile (24.6 miles are in BC) railway line of the Washington & British Columbia Railway (W&BC) running from Brunette on BC Rail's Inter-Dominion Line to Bellingham, Washington, United States, where it connects with the Burlington Northern & Gulf Railroad's Bellingham–Seattle line and to the North Western Pacific Railroad's Bellingham & Northern Line. The W&BC has running rights over between Brunette and Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, which it shares with BC Rail. The 43.2 mile section between Brownsville and Bellingham is double-tracked; the 13.2 miles between Mud Bay and Blaine Junction, WA are used exclusively by passenger trains except in emergencies.
The line makes numerous other connections along its length: at Sapperton to BC Rail's Lulu Island Line and CP Rail's Westminster Subdivision; at Brownsville to the New Westminster Southern Line and to the BC Hydro Railway's Liverpool Line; at Nordel Junction to the Tilbury Line; at Mud Bay to the Victoria Terminal Line; at Blaine Junction, WA to the New Westminster Southern Line; and at Custer, WA to the Neptune Beach Line. In addition, Grandview Junction on BC Rail's Inter-Dominion Line is the starting point of the W&BC's Burrard Inlet Line and BC Rail's South False Creek Line.
Brownsville is the site of the W&BC's main yard in Greater Vancouver.
The Semiahmoo Line is Line 14 of the Lower Mainland Region of the W&BC.
History
The Seattle & Montana Railroad (S&M) was incorporated at Seattle on 7 March 1890 as an operating subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway. Despite its name, the S&M began building north, not east, and between 6 June and 3 October 1891 laid 100.7 miles of track from Seattle north to Blaine, WA, connecting at Fairhaven to the Fairhaven & Southern Railway (a subsidiary of the Milwaukee Road), which had reached there from in February of that year, and to the New Westminster Southern Railway (NWS), which opened the same year connecting Blaine to South Westminster, BC, (the station was renamed "Brownsville" in 1939) giving the GN a direct connection between Seattle and New Westminster.
The equally confusingly-named Seattle & Northern Railway (S&N) opened its line from Anacortes, WA to Rockport (later renamed Concrete) in 1893, connecting the the S&M at Burlington and to the F&S at Sedro-Woolley. On 1 February 1902, the GN purchased the S&N and merged it together with the S&M under the Seattle & Northern name. With the Dominion government's opening of the Fraser River Bridge between New Westminster and Liverpool, Surrey - the first bridge across the Fraser River south of Yale - in 1904, the New Westminster Southern extended its line from South Westminster to Sapperton, New Westminster, at the same time acquiring running rights over the Vancouver, Westminster & Yukon Railway to Vancouver, building a station adjacent to the VW&Y's terminus - today's Pacific Central Station. The Great Northern acquired a 25% interest in the VW&Y in 1905.
In 1906, the S&N opened a 21.5 mile extension from Blaine to South Westminster. In 1909, the Great Northern was given permission by the Dominion government to absorb the Seattle & Northern into its own operations and to use the Great Northern name inside BC, but only along that line; other 'unofficial' subsidiaries of the GN like the New Westminster Southern and the Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway were required to continue operating as separate companies.
The VW&Y never got beyond the V&W portion, and in 1914 - shortly before the Dominion Northern Pacific Railway's line to Jasper, Canada, was completed - the DNP bought the VW&Y and incorporated the existing line into the new transcontinental line. The Great Northern retained the 25% share it had held in the VW&Y, and the GN retained running rights over the section from New Westminster to Vancouver, and contributes 25% of the maintenance costs for that section. After the GN's BC lines were transformed into the Washington & British Columbia Railway in 1937, the W&BC retained these running rights. Electrification of the line was completed in late 1938, and double tracking of the Brownsville–Bellingham section was completed in 2006.
Services
Passenger trains run over the entirety of the Semiahmoo Line, but freight service is usually restricted to the sections between Grandview Junction and Mud Bay in BC and between Blaine Junction and Bellingham in Washington state.
Freight
Freight service on these sections is very extensive - together with the New Westminster Southern Line, it forms the W&BC's busiest route.
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.
Limited Express
The W&BC operates one seasonal Limited Express making very few or no intermediate stops; this makes no stops on the Semiahmoo Line, running between Pacific Central and Mud Bay before moving to the Victoria Terminal Line.
- 431/432 Hozameen Limited: Vancouver (Pacific Central) – Manning Park
- One return trip daily Friday through Sunday, summer timetable only. First and second class chair cars with a cafeteria car, baggage service free of charge to both classes.
Intermediate stops: Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Hope
Express
The W&BC's Express trains are international services. The short-trip surcharge is not applicable to travel occuring entirely inside Washington state on these trains.
- 141/142 Cascades (W&BC/Amtrak): Vancouver, BC (Pacific Central) – Eugene, Oregon, USA
- Two daily return trips with special Talgo consists jointly owned by the W&BC and Amtrak and painted in a distinctive Cascades livery; second class chair cars only, with cafeteria car, no baggage service.
Intermediate stops:- BC: White Rock (BC customs checks)
- Washington: Blaine (US customs checks), Ferndale, Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Stanwood, Everett, Edmonds, Seattle, Tukwila, Tacoma, Olympia-Lacey, Centralia, Kelso-Longview, Vancouver
- Oregon: Portland, Oregon City, Salem, Albany
- 171/172 Coast–Kootenay: Vancouver (Pacific Central) – Nelson
- Daily service with a morning departure from each end. First and second class chair cars only (no sleeping accomodations), with a cafeteria car; baggage handling free of charge to first class passengers, and available to second class passengers with a surcharge. This train does not stop anywhere on the section between Bridesville and West Midway. As is the case with the Hozameen Limited, this trains makes no stops on the Semiahmoo Line, running between Pacific Central and Mud Bay before moving to the Victoria Terminal Line.
Intermediate stops:- BC: Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Hope, Allenby, Princeton, Keremeyus, Chopaka (BC and US customs checks)
- Washington: Oroville, Molson, Curlew, Danville (BC and US customs checks)
- BC: Grand Forks, Billings (BC and US customs checks)
- Washington: Kettle Falls, Boundary (US customs checks)
- BC: Fort Sheppard (BC and US customs checks), Columbia Gardens, Salmo
Local
Local trains are passenger trains that make scheduled stops at all stations and halts along the route they serve. Most are second-class only with seat-side drink and snack service, but some trains covering longer distances have first class chair cars and a cafeteria car; none of the domestic Local trains do not have baggage handling, and they do not have official names, instead they have only numbers. Both of the Local services on the Semiahmoo Line are operated with locomotive-hauled trains.
International
- 1401.1-3/1402.1-3: Vancouver, BC (Pacific Central) – Bellingham, Washington, USA
- Three daily return trips, second-class only with seat-side drink and snack service.
Domestic
- 1701.1-2/1702.1-2: Vancouver (Pacific Central) – Princeton
- Two daily return trips, first and second class with a cafeteria car. Runs between Pacific Central Station and Mud Bay on the Semiahmoo Line.
Commuter services
The W&BC operates the West Coast Express commuter service between Pacific Central Station and White Rock under contract to the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority. Fares are fully integrated into the GVTA fare structure.
Route
A yellow background indicates an electrified section; a blue background indicates a section of the Inter-Dominion Line owned by BC Rail over which the W&BC has running rights.
● - Scheduled Limited Express, Express, and Local stop
▲ - Scheduled Express and Local stop
• - Local stop
W - West Coast Express stop only
| - No passenger service
| Station | Milepost | Tariff-miles from prev. stn. |
Connecting lines | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver (Pacific Central) |
0.0 | 0 | ● GVM Central Line | Passenger only | |
| Grandview Jct | 1.3 | - | Burrard Inlet Line (W&BC) South False Creek Line (BCR) |
Junction only, no commercial service | |
| Still Creek | 3.4 | - | - | Freight only | |
| Brentwood Jct | 4.8 | - | North Shore Line | Junction only, no commercial service | |
| Brunette | 10.9 0.0 |
- | Inter-Dominion Line (BCR) | Freight only, interchange yard | |
| New Westminster | 0.8 | 12 | - | Passenger only; W&BC corporate headquarters | |
| Sapperton | 1.3 | - | Lulu Island Line (BCR) Westminster Sub (CP) |
Freight only; multiple industrial leads/spurs | |
| Brownsville | 4.0 | - | Liverpool Line (BCH) New Westminster Southern Line |
Freight and West Coast Express only; main W&BC freight yard; industrial spurs. Called South Westminster until 1939 | |
| Nordel Jct | 7.1 | - | Tilbury Line | Freight only; industrial spurs | |
| Sunshine Hills | 8.6 | - | - | West Coast Express only | |
| Mud Bay | 12.9 | 12 | Victoria Terminal Line | ||
| Crescent Beach | 16.7 | - | - | West Coast Express only | |
| White Rock | 22.0 | 9 | - | Passenger only; BC customs checks | |
| Blaine | 25.5 | 4 | - | Passenger only; US customs checks | |
| Blaine Jct | 26.1 | - | New Westminster Southern Line | Junction only, no commercial service | |
| Custer | 32.1 | 7 | Neptune Beach Line | ||
| Ferndale | 38.2 | 6 | - | ||
| Marietta | 42.4 | 4 | - | ||
| Locust Beach | 44.8 | - | - | Freight only; cement plant | |
| Bellingham | 47.2 | 5 | Bellingham & Northern Line (NWP) Bellingham–Seattle line (BN&G) |
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