CHURCHILL, Manitoba — The first passenger train to reach Churchill, Man., since May 2017 is set to arrive at the remote Hudson Bay community on Tuesday, Dec. 4. VIA Rail Canada’s announcement on Nov. 26 says required repairs and inspections on the Hudson Bay Railway route, out of service since being closed by flooding, have been completed. Hudson Bay Railway’s new owner, Arctic Gateway, LP, “confirmed that the track is safe for passenger operations.”
The first train to travel over the previously damaged track rolled into Churchill on Halloween night [“Service on long-closed line to Churchill to resume soon,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 6, 2018]. However, snow and temperatures in the minus-30-degree (Fahrenheit) range hampered final reconstruction efforts, according to a manager reached by Trains News Wire at The Pas, Man. The next freight train with supplies didn’t arrive into Churchill until Saturday, Nov. 24 (see video).
Beginning Dec. 2, schedules will revert to what they were before the closure: two weekly round trips from Winnipeg, departing Sundays and Tuesdays and returning from Churchill on Thursdays and Saturdays. Two sets of equipment allow VIA to run an additional round trip between Churchill and The Pas.
VIA has been operating one set of equipment out of Winnipeg, Man., every week. That train leaves Wednesdays and returns Tuesdays, after serving remote communities between Gillam, Man., and Thompson, Man., with tri-weekly roundtrips, and between Thompson and The Pas with two round trips.
As of 2 p.m. CT on Tuesday, travel to and from Churchill still could not be booked at the VIA website. A VIA call center reservationist tells Trains News Wire that inventory is being loaded into VIA’s reservation system and ticketing should be available sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Churchill will always need a permanent rail line. It makes sense since building a highway to that community will be outrageously expensive since much of that terrain is settled on wetlands that require deeper digging per mile
at wider width and degrade the environmental impact.
In 1984 a friend and I wanted to ride the Fort MacMurray to Edmonton remote service. Northern Alberta Railways had by then sold out to CNR. We rode an NAR coach behind CNR F-units. This was a great experience. But guess how we got to Fort MacMurray? We flew. The airplanes were frequent. (This was Pacific Western Airlines; two mergers later it’s Air Canada now.)
There are differences between Fort MacMurray and Churchill. Fort MacMurray is prosperous and the terrain is favorable to highway construction which is why the train no longer runs.
No roads to Churchill. Plenty of locals use passenger service to visit extended family that planes don’t go to. Tourist is divided between air & train travel mostly during the polar bear & baluga whale seasons. The freight trains are the true life blood for this region. When the trains stopped, prices ballooned about 4-5 times. Getting propane there was a logistic mission without the train. While the train directly serves Churchills 900 residents, it also indirectly serves numerous other towns & villages effecting about 10,000 people.
That line is an economic lifeline for Churchill, as well as many other communities on the line. People do fly in and out. But the main economic driver in the line is the reduced cost of rail service. Without the rail service Churchill would become like many communities along the Labrador cost. Abandoned ghost towns.
…if the locals keep on flying out and in then they deserve and should loose it.Tourists support the VIA TRAIN more then the locals.Am I RIGHT, WRONG or in betwen ?
I honestly thought this service would EVER come back.
Now to ride it before something else happens!