CN Rail had two lines in the eastern part of Richmond. Are they still in use? What industries or businesses were served on these two lines?
CN refers to this area as Lulu Island. There are a bunch of smaller customers, but the main one on the western line is the the auto import terminal, which ships at least several hundred outbound loads each week, sometimes as unit auto trains which will be re-classified at Winnipeg. Autoracks destined for Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon or CP interchange points will usually move in different trains.
The largest customers on the eastern CN line appear to be a large Lafarge cement plant and Coast Terminals, which handles a lot of break-bulk forest products in boxcars, among other things.
Until a few years ago CP had a line reaching onto the northwest corner of Lulu Island, but it has now been abandoned and the swing portion of their bridge has been removed.
Southern Railway of BC crosses the extreme eastern tip of Lulu Island on their way to Annacis Island, which is the site of another, even larger auto terminal and the barge slip for their service to Vancouver Island and several isolated mills that have their own railyards, but no outside rail connection.
There are a couple other forum members from the Vancouver area who will have a better idea of what current switching operations are like.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
So glad that CN still uses the beautiful name of Lulu Island instead of Richmond, good on you CN.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.