Langley Township launches new push to revive Interurban rail line

Langley Township council will try to revive the option of the old Interurban rail line again, after passing a motion in June that will send the issue to the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

Councillor Tim Baillie put forward the motion at the Monday, June 26 council meeting, and drew unanimous support.

“While I’m old, I’m not old enough to have ridden on the Interurban,” Baillie noted.

But he said recent presentations have shown how much previous generations valued the former rail service, which was officially known as the British Columbia Electric Railway.

Built and operated between 1910 and 1950, at its peak the line extended all the way from Vancouver through Burnaby, New Westminster, across the Fraser River to Surrey, and through Langley as far east as Chilliwack.

It provided passenger and light cargo service for what were then predominantly rural communities south of the Fraser River and out into the Valley. Milk, picked up from the many small dairies dotting the region, was one of its major cargoes.

The rail lines are still in place and portions of them are used by mile-long freight trains as part of the Southern Railway of British Columbia.

Baillie lamented the lack of transit options being offered to the South of the Fraser region, and noted SFU would get a mountain gondola before the Fraser Valley received a mass transit option.

He noted that the line wouldn’t be high speed, and could take an hour and a half to get from Surrey to Chilliwack – not that far from the same trip in a car.

“I’d rather do that sitting on a train, maybe being able to have a cup of tea,” Baillie said.

He also said he was not worried about one of the more frequent criticisms of plans to revive the Interurban – its lack of connections to many major population centres.

Baillie said the UBCM motion will force the provincial government to have a serious look at the proposal.

There has been a push to revive the Interurban for years, much of it coming from high-profile former politicians including ex-premier Bill Vander Zalm and former Langley Township mayor Rick Green.

The portion of the old line South of the Fraser runs from North Delta through Surrey, and does pass through or come close to Cloverdale, Langley City, and the Gloucester Industrial Estate.

However, most of the rest of its route passes through rural areas, in North Langley and Abbotsford. It doesn’t pass close to major centres like Willoughby, Walnut Grove, Murrayville, or Aldergrove.

TransLink reports in 2006 and 2019 suggested the route faced significant obstacles or cost implications. In 2021, then-minister of state for infrastructure Bowinn Ma suggested the province would consider the Interurban.

READ ALSO: B.C. considering Interurban for future transit

READ ALSO: Service on Interurban rail would be expensive, miss key destinations: TransLink