Abandoned places have always fascinated me - the stories they hold, the lives they have seen come and go, but this one is a little different. This rail line is nearly 700 km long, and was built to connect Northern BC to the rest of the province rail system. The entire rail grad, including this massive bridge was laid, constructed and levelled, but just several km before completion, the entire project was abandoned. This was at a massive cost to the country, coming in at more than 2 billion dollars in todays value.
What is the most strange to me, is that it has basically become forgotten. With all of the large scale mining happening in northern BC, especially in this particular area, the infrastructure for a rail line has been hidden in the forest for half a century, but nobody has taken advantage of the opportunity.
Fuel is expensive in the north, food is expensive in the north, everything is expensive in the north, all because it costs so much to ship goods that far. In fact, things are so expensive that people living in the north actually get a tax break. Yet, for the past fifty years, a mostly finished railway has been sitting, waiting for rail and waiting to service the north.
Trains are massive machines, and they have to burn a lot of fuel to power those big electric motors, but for the amount cargo they can carry, they are one of the most efficient forms of transportation. Countries all around the world utilize a rail system for all different types of transportation, from human to livestock and freight. You can travel across continents on trains, and even under the ocean, but here in Canada our only passenger train is for tourists. I wish our country had a rail system open for passengers, because it would be a beautiful and affordable way to travel around the country.
Abandoned or not, I am happy to have finally had the chance to make my way out there and find that old train trestle bridge.
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