BC rail

[KBCpresident]

While looking up pictures on he Burlington Northern's F units, I noticed that British Columbia railway was under fallen flag railroads. Is BC rail the same as British Columbia railway. What happened to British Columbia railway? Does anyone Know?

[Pathfinder]

Short history:

BC Rail was owned by the BC provincial government.  They sold the equipment and rights to run the railway to CN in 2004, so it is now part of CN.  The government has kept ownership of the right-of-way and just leases that to CN.

Long history is too long to post and involves very heated opinions here in BC, mostly political but here is a quick version of it (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Rail):

"On May 13, 2003, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced that the government would sell the operations of the railway (including all of the assets other than the rail right-of-way) . During the previous election, he had specifically promised not to sell the railway and he maintained that he was keeping this promise, by retaining ownership of the right-of-way and only leasing the land to the operator. On November 25, 2003, it was announced that Canadian National's (CN) bid of $1 billion would be accepted over those of several other companies. The transaction was closed on July 15, 2004. The original lease of the rail right of way was for 60 years with a 30 year option to renew. However, it has been reported that there are another fifteen 60 year options to renew the lease in the contract documents and CN would not have to pay anything additional to keep operating for 990 years. At each of these renew dates, the BC government would have the option of buying back all of the assets from CN.

The one portion of the BC Rail line, not included in this sale was the section from Robert's Bank connecting to the main CN, CP and Burlington Northern Sante Fe Lines. Originally the operation of this line was to be sold off separately. However, there were a number of irregularities that came up during the sale process including a government employee, David Basi being accused of accepting a bribe from a lobbyist working on behalf of OmniTrax and CP withdrawing their bid because other bidders had access to secret government information. The sale was cancelled and the remnants of BC Rail Company continues to operate and maintain this line."

[CShaveRR]

Yes, British Columbia Railway (which was previously the Pacific Great Eastern, until about 1974) became BC Rail in late 1984.  The rest is as described above.

[Pathfinder]

Brief History of BC Rail:

"BC Rail (AAR reporting marks BCOL and BCIT), known as the British Columbia Railway between 1972 and 1984 and as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE; AAR reporting marks PGE and PGER) before 1972, was a railway that operated in the Canadian province of British Columbia between 1912 and 2004. It was a class II regional railway and the third-largest in Canada, operating 2 320 km (1,441 miles) of mainline track. It was owned by the provincial government from 1918 until 2004, when it was sold to Canadian National Railway.

Chartered in 1912, the railway was acquired by the provincial government in 1918 after running into financial difficulties. A railway that ran "from nowhere, to nowhere" for over 30 years, neither passing through any major city nor interchanging with any other railway, it expanded significantly between 1949 and 1984. Primarily a freight railway, it also offered passenger service, as well as some excursion services, most notably the Royal Hudson excursion train. The railway's operations were not always profitable, and its debts, at times, made it the centre of political controversy."

[KBCpresident]

Thanks for the info. Last time I checked, (Which was a while ago) It said it was government owned. thanks! One more thing. How do you do those faces after a message?

[Murphy Siding]

Thanks for the info. Last time I checked, (Which was a while ago) It said it was government owned. thanks! One more thing. How do you do those faces after a message?

     Above the box where  you write your reply should be a horizontal row of words under the heading Message.  The far right hand box says insert smiley.  Press the pull down arrow and pick one out.

[KBCpresident]

What far right hand box?I tried dragging your smily to my message but it looks like "http://www.trains.com/trccs/emoticons/icon_smile_headphones.gif"Can I just change part of it?And are you on a windows? I hear it's easier to use that way

[Pathfinder]

Thanks for the info. Last time I checked, (Which was a while ago) It said it was government owned. thanks! One more thing. How do you do those faces after a message?

Glad it was helpful.  BC Rail was govt. owned until CN bought it as noted above.  Much hair pulling about this in BC and of course every time CN has an accident, it always comes back up.

And yes I hear some are having issues with things like smiley's.  Seems to depend on what operation system and/or broweser you use.

Maybe all you can do is drool over what we can do?

etc, etc, etc,........