British Columbia Electric Railway
| British Columbia Electric Railway | |
|---|---|
| |
| Locale | southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver Island |
| Dates of operation | 1890s – 1989 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | |
The British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) was a historic Canadian railway which operated in southwestern British Columbia.
Originally the parent and later a division of BC Electric, the BCER operated public transportation in southwestern British Columbia from its establishment in the mid-1890s, operating streetcar systems in Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminster, and North Vancouver. Power was supplied by then-innovative diversion projects at Buntzen Lake and on the Stave River system farther east, all of which were built primarily to supply power for the interurbans and street railway. A six-mile branch line, isolated from the main interurban network, ran the six miles to the power plant and community at Stave Falls from the Canadian Pacific Railway station at Ruskin, British Columbia.
BCER interurban trams ran along 3 lines between Vancouver and New Westminster, as well as between Vancouver and Richmond, New Westminster and Chilliwack, and Victoria and North Saanich. During and after the streetcar era, BC Electric also ran bus and trolleybus systems in Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria; these systems subsequently became part of BC Transit.
In 1961, the provincial government took over BC Electric, with the railway becoming a division of Crown corporation BC Hydro. In 1989, BC Hydro sold the railway to a new shortline operator and the railway is now known as the Southern Railway of British Columbia and is exclusively a freight railway.
Part of the Vancouver Skytrain Expo Line follows BCER's former Central Park Line to New Westminster.
