The Barrie-Collingwood Railway , commonly referred to as the BCRY, is a shortline railway operating between the towns of

Innisfil Innisfil is a town in Ontario, Canada, located on the western shore of Lake Simcoe in Simcoe County, immediately south of Barrie and north of Toronto. It has historically been a rural area, but due to being geographically sandwiched in between ...

and Utopia in south central

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. The line was started in 1998 and runs on abandoned

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN ...

(CN) trackage which was collectively purchased by the railway's namesake municipalities. The BCRY continues to run under the ownership of the City of Barrie and is operated by Cando Rail Services Ltd., based in Brandon, Manitoba.

History

In 1996, the Canadian National Railway abandoned its

Newmarket Subdivision The CN Newmarket Subdivision is a rail line in Ontario operated by Canadian National Railway (CNR). The original route runs northward from just west of Union Station, Toronto, Union Station in downtown Toronto, ending just south of North Bay, Onta ...

from

Bradford, Ontario Bradford is the primary country urban area of the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario, in Canada. It overlooks a farming community, known as The Holland Marsh, located on the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe. History The easte ...

to Ramara, Ontario, as well as its entire Meaford Subdivision which ran from

Barrie Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Although physically in Simcoe County, Barrie is politically ...

to Collingwood (both parts of the former

Northern Railway of Canada The Northern Railway of Canada was a railway in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first steam railway to enter service in what was then known as Upper Canada. It was eventually acquired by the Grand Trunk Railway, and is therefore a p ...

). CN had plans to rip up its tracks; however, the City of Barrie and the Town of Collingwood stepped in to purchase the lines to maintain their rail infrastructures. Barrie purchased the remainder of the

, the Meaford Subdivision from Barrie to Utopia in

Essa Township Essa is a township in Ontario, Canada, west and south of the city of Barrie in Simcoe County. It is bounded by County Road 90 to its north, County Road 27 to its east, and Ontario Highway 89 to its south. The township is about from Toronto. Th ...

and the remainder of the abandoned Beeton Subdivision (originally the

Hamilton and North-Western Railway The Hamilton and North-Western Railway (H&NW) is a former railway in Ontario, Canada. It ran north from Hamilton on the western end of Lake Ontario to Collingwood on Georgian Bay and Barrie on Lake Simcoe. Through the purchase of the Hamilton an ...

) which runs south from Barrie to Innisfil and connects with the other two subs at the site of the former Allandale Yard in Barrie. Collingwood purchased the rest of the Meaford Subdivision from Utopia westward. In 1998, the BCRY was created to service various customers in Innisfil, Barrie, Colwell, Angus, Stayner and Collingwood along the Beeton and Meaford Subdivisions. The line crosses the

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

(CP) Mactier Subdivision at Utopia, where a small interchange yard was subsequently built using old rails and ties pulled up from Allandale Yard. This was necessary as the abandonment of the Newmarket Sub north and south of Barrie effectively isolated the line from the North American rail network. The yard is also where

maintenance of way Maintenance of way (commonly abbreviated to MOW) refers to the maintenance, construction, and improvement of rail infrastructure, including tracks, ballast, grade, and lineside infrastructure such as signals and signs. Track The most fundamen ...

(MOW) equipment and the locomotive is stored when not in use. Transloading facilities are also located here for customers not directly rail served. The yard has a storage capacity of 60 cars. The

is not used by the BCRY; it was purchased to preserve future

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...

expansion north from Bradford, which re-opened in late 2007. It has since been sold to Metrolinx, the operators of GO Transit. BCRY was used in the TV series '' Mayday'' for both the

San Bernardino train disaster The San Bernardino train disaster (sometimes known as the Duffy Street incident), was a combination of two separate but related incidents that occurred in San Bernardino, California, United States: a runaway train derailment on May 12, 1989; an ...

and the

Hinton train collision The Hinton train collision was a rail transport accident that occurred in Canada on 8 February 1986. Twenty-three people were killed in a collision between a Canadian National Railway freight train and a Via Rail passenger train called the '' S ...

Decommissioning of Collingwood portion of line

As of July 15, 2011, the Town of Collingwood had decided to decommission its portion of the line due to financial reasons. It was costing taxpayers up to $425,000 annually to keep providing regular rail service to essentially one customer, the

Canadian Mist Canadian Mist is a brand of blended Canadian whisky produced by the Sazerac Company. It is distilled in Collingwood, Ontario, and is bottled at 40% alcohol by volume. It is triple-distilled using a continuous distillation process, and it is ag ...

distillery, while Amaizeingly Green in the same industrial lot used it only sporadically. The only other user was a farm supply company in Stayner that was well served by

Ontario Highway 26 King's Highway 26, commonly referred to as Highway 26, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, connecting the cities of Owen Sound and Barrie. Between these two cities, the highway serves the southern shoreline ...

. In 2018, The trackage between Utopia and Collingwood was sold to the County of Simcoe. The City of Barrie continues to operate the line east of the Utopia yard, serving Barrie, Essa Township and Innisfil.

Current status

Today the railway services only four customers in the Barrie area. They include Tag Environmental and Western Mechanical in Barrie, and Tarpin Lumber and Comet Chemical in Innisfil, effectively reducing it to a local shunting operation. The line's future could be in jeopardy unless new customers can be attracted, as operating costs consistently exceed revenues. As of January 2016, unused stretches of track are being leased for empty tank car storage, due to the slow down in the oil industry. This has led to community backlash, citing safety concerns and impact on property values.

Equipment and track

Currently, the BCRY has only one locomotive, an EMD Phase III GP9, #1001, which was formerly Ohio Central (OHCR) #94 and

Baltimore and Ohio The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) #6594. Another GP9, #1000, was in the fleet until 2000, when it was transferred to the newly-created Orangeville-Brampton Railway (OBRY), another shortline which Cando operated until 2018. BCRY also possesses various MOW equipment and a road railer. The track is over a century old, though remains in satisfactory condition for the class of track. Speed is limited along the line due to the short length of each subdivision. Track speed is currently . Efforts are continuously made to improve the right of way, including tie and rail replacement and signal upgrades. Between 2011 and 2018, all level crossings on the Meaford and Beeton Subdivisions (spurs excluded) have received signal upgrades. In 2013, the level crossing at Mapleview Avenue was removed during the street's widening and replaced with an overpass. Most of the abandoned track between Utopia and Collingwood remains intact, though some has been lifted. A

multi-use trail A shared-use path, mixed-use path or multi-use pathway is a path which is 'designed to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists'. Examples of shared-use paths include sidewalks designated as shared-use, bridleways and rail trails. A ...

has been constructed alongside it.

References

External links