Pipe dream or possibility? From the SeaBus terminal to fresh tracks in two hours.
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Over 15 years living in Whistler, road conditions on the Sea to Sky Highway have had an outsized impact on Brittia Thompson’s life. From a missed birthday party when a crash brought traffic to a standstill, and times she has had to work from home during heavy snow, to cancelled visits with family reluctant to drive the road at night.
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“It’s almost comical how crippled this little strip of highway becomes after it snows,” she said, referencing the part of the route between the Callaghan Valley and Whistler, which should take about 20 minutes in normal traffic, but often takes an hour-and-a-half during ski season.
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On one particular drive to her job in North Vancouver, those thoughts “collided” as she saw the empty train tracks at Britannia. What if there were a passenger train to take Squamish commuters to jobs in Vancouver? What if skiers could ride from North Vancouver to the ski resort and avoid having to circle the day lots in search of parking?
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Sunrise
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Thompson started a petition — and an online conversation — that has attracted both support and skepticism.
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“I never thought it would get as much attention as it’s getting,” she said as her petition reached 1,000 signatures.
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A more official push from local governments in the Sea to Sky corridor has received much the same response.
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“It’s a no-brainer,” said Lisa Muri, councillor with the District of North Vancouver, who recently made a successful motion to send a letter to the provincial government expressing support for the re-establishment of passenger rail services in the Sea to Sky corridor. The idea has fresh impetus since CN Rail indicated in July 2025 it would be ending its lease on the railway segment between Squamish and 100 Mile House, putting control of the rail line back in the province’s hands.
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But at a time when the provincial government is cancelling contracts to build health-care facilities, and given that discussions about adding a third crossing between Vancouver and the North Shore have been ongoing since the 1970s with little to show, passenger rail to Whistler may be blue-sky thinking.
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Here’s what to know:
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What is being proposed?
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Muri can imagine a day when you don’t need a car to get from Vancouver to Whistler. From the SeaBus terminal, visitors could get on a train and be at the mountain in about two hours. In the shoulder season, that’s about 20 minutes longer than the time it takes to drive. But in winter, when snow and traffic clog the road, it would be faster.
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There would be stations in North Vancouver and West Vancouver and stops all along the route, she said.
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North of Whistler, communities such as Lillooet and 100 Mile House want to see freight trains continue, possibly through a short-line operator model that could see sections that were once under the CN lease taken over by smaller companies overseen by a regional railway authority. There is already some interest from an American company, she said. First Nations partnerships would be key.
