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Thornton Tunnel

Coordinates: 49°16′46″N 123°01′06″W / 49.27952°N 123.01843°W / 49.27952; -123.01843
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Thornton Tunnel (also known as Thornton Rail Tunnel)[1] is a freight railway tunnel in Burnaby, British Columbia, running under the Willingdon Heights and Vancouver Heights neighbourhoods.[2]

History

[edit]

On April 29, 1965, the Canadian National Railway (CNR) publicly announced that it would undertake a CAD$27 million dollar infrastructure expansion project in the Greater Vancouver area to handle new, out-of-province customers planning to use shipping terminals on the North Shore of the Burrard Inlet. It included the construction of a new rail yard in North Vancouver and doubling the size of a marshalling yard in Port Mann, Surrey to make it the CNR's primary yard in the Lower Mainland. In addition, construction would include a new CAD$8.5 million, single-track railway bridge over the Burrard Inlet, and a CAD$10 million, 3.2-kilometre (2 mi), north-south single-track railway tunnel in Northeast Vancouver from the new bridge to near the Lougheed Highway to connect directly with CNR's main line track. The entire project was expected to be completed by January 1970.[3] The bridge would replace the original Second Narrows Bridge, which CNR purchased a few months earlier for $1.[4]

The tunnel would allow CNR to bypass the existing, meandering route from the Fraser River west through central Vancouver and east along the South Shore of the Burrard Inlet before crossing into North Vancouver. This change reduced the route length between the Fraser River Bridge and the Second Narrows Bridge by 11 kilometres (7 mi), most of which was along congested tracks owned by other railroads, and it would avoid CNR's rail yard near downtown Vancouver.[5]

By March 1968, the cost of the entire project increased to CAD$32 million, and the tunnel portion now cost CAD$11 million, but diggers from both ends of the tunnel had broken through to complete the boring segment of construction.[6] The rails in the tunnel were manufactured in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they were welded into eight 416-metre sections (1,365 ft) and transported to the tunnel cross-country by freight rail.[7] By August 1968, the entire tunnel was nearing completion.[8]

On May 6, 1969, the new bridge and tunnel opened for service.[9] However, after several years the tunnel itself began to be regarded as a source of congestion.[10] By 2018, the Second Narrows Bridge, the Thornton Tunnel, and the New Westminster Bridge were considered the three major bottlenecks in the Vancouver area for all railways.[11]

Description

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The tunnel is 3.4 kilometres (2.1 mi) long, and it is a single-track railway.[12] The maximum speed limit in the tunnel is 16 kilometres per hour (10 mph).[13] The tunnel is named after Sir Henry Worth Thornton, who was an early president of CNR.[14] CNR designated the branch line containing the tunnel and bridge as the Thornton Branch.[15]

In the middle of the tunnel there is a fake house to cover up a ventilation shaft and fan systems to blend in a residential neighbourhood. It is located on the northeast corner of Frances Street and Ingleton Avenue, in Burnaby.[14][16] The ventilation system previously cleared the exhaust from a passing train after 20 minutes so that the next train would have enough oxygen to safely enter the tunnel. An upgrade project, which would reduce the ventilation delay from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes,[17] was completed in May 2022.[18]

References

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  1. ^ "Rail and road projects proposed by the Port of Vancouver". Vancouver Sun. December 9, 2017. p. 14. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved February 13, 2025.
  2. ^ "Geocaching - the Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site".
  3. ^ Peacock, Jim (April 30, 1965). "$27 million CNR project to aid North Shore growth". Vancouver Sun. Vol. 79. p. 35. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  4. ^ "Old bridge sold to CNR for dollar". Vancouver Sun. Vol. 79, no. 24. October 29, 1964. p. 41. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  5. ^ "CN plans shorter route to shore". §5: Report on North Vancouver. The Financial Post. Vol. 60, no. 7. February 12, 1966. pp. 63, 65. ISSN 0015-2021.
  6. ^ "Blast pierces last barrier in 11,200-foot CNR tunnel". Vancouver Sun. Vol. 82, no. 131. March 8, 1968. p. 61. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  7. ^ "Rails travel by railway". Vancouver Sun. Vol. 82, no. 225. June 28, 1968. p. 11. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  8. ^ "Almost complete". Vancouver Sun. Vol. 82, no. 262. August 13, 1968. p. 25. ISSN 0832-1299.
  9. ^ "New bridge opened". Victoria Daily Times. No. 277. Canadian Press (CP). May 7, 1969. p. 12.
  10. ^ Walker, David (May 10, 1976). "Coast terminals criticized: Out-of-date facilities costly to grain producers". §3: Farm report. Regina Leader-Post. p. 33. ISSN 0839-2870.
  11. ^ Janet Drysdale, Canadian National Railway (February 28 – March 1, 2018). Expanding capacity for the future (PDF). Annual General Meeting (2018 ed.). Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Federation of Agriculture. pp. 14–18. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  12. ^ Naylor, Cornelia (September 18, 2024). "Train exiting hidden tunnel belches black smoke in North Burnaby". Burnaby Now. ISSN 0841-8462. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  13. ^ Chan, Kenneth (July 9, 2024). "From Brentwood to Burrard Inlet: All about the 3.2-km-long railway tunnel deep under Burnaby and its fake house". Daily Hive. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
  14. ^ a b Lawrence, Anne-Marie (24 November 2023). "Bridge over Burrard's Water". North Shore Heritage. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  15. ^ Kemp, F. A. (July–August 1969). "Observations" (PDF). Canadian Rail (212). The Canadian Railroad Historical Association: 213–215. ISSN 0008-4875.
  16. ^ "Google Maps".
  17. ^ Lee-Young, Joanne (December 8, 2017). "Building access over railroad crossings to ease traffic congestion". Vancouver Sun. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  18. ^ Balzer, Jess (May 30, 2022). "Access upgrades complete from Burnaby rail corridor to North Shore port terminals: CN". Burnaby Now. ISSN 0841-8462. Retrieved January 17, 2025.

49°16′46″N 123°01′06″W / 49.27952°N 123.01843°W / 49.27952; -123.01843

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