A snowmobiler stopped a train near Blue River several weeks ago.
The stoppage resulted in the CN mainline being shut down for more than four hours.
As a result of this and other incidents, CN gated the Mud Lake Forest Service Road railroad crossing, which is within a few hundred meters of where the stoppage had occurred.
On Friday, March 21, a variety of stakeholders met in person or by teleconference to try to resolve the issue.
According to Ron Storie, manager of community services with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, the snowmobiler apparently was unable to leave the tracks when a train approached because of the high snowbanks.
The rider stayed with his sled, forcing the train to stop.
Transport Canada was informed and the rail line was shut down entirely for more than four hours.
According to Storie, the train crew was unable to identify or detain the snowmobiler.
“I'd like to think it wasn't someone local,” said the TNRD official.
The incident occurred near the Mud Lake Forest Service Road crossing, which is located immediately north of the Blue River airstrip.
“This has not been the only incident of misuse at the tracks,” Storie said. Apparently, VIA has lodged numerous complaints about the crossing over the years.
CN then proceeded to gate the crossing. Mud Lake Forest Service Road has been in existence for more than 50 years but apparently the railroad has the license to gate it.
Although the road has been used primarily for logging, a long list of stakeholders soon became involved.
The list includes BC Parks, which much use the crossing to access the nearby Blue River Black Spruce Provincial Park; BC Hydro, which needs the crossing to reach infrastructure; Blue River Power Packers, which has a park use permit for Black Spruce Park plus a parking lot across the tracks; River Safari, which needs the crossing to reach its tenured dock area and private lands, and Mike Wiegele Heli-skiing, which owns private lands east of the crossing.
Kinder Morgan needs access to the North Thompson River for emergency response, for example, to a pipeline spill.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) has a multitude of interests. It has a formal agreement in place with CN, but for industrial traffic only.
BC Timber Sales has logging areas in place through a longterm resource extraction plan, and wants to maintain access.
There are recreation sites and trails on the east side of the crossing.
The Ministry also administers trappers with registered traplines on the other side of the crossing.
These individuals need to use the crossing to get to their traplines.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is the provincial road regulator, but does not want to inherit the forest service road for a public crossing.
Willow MacDonald, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District director for Thompson Headwaters (Area B), has concerns about how the closure might affect the economic development of Blue River.
Storie, as a TNRD staff member and therefore neutral in the question, facilitated the March 21 meeting.
The consensus of most, but not all, of those at the meeting was that the crossing should stay open and become a public crossing, Storie said.
Over the next few weeks he intends to work with CN and FLNRO to obtain temporary access. A high priority would be for River Safari, which operates jet-boat tours on Mud Lake and needs to be able to use the crossing before the start of the season.
The important message for residents of the area is that a solution is being worked on, Storie said.
“Continued negative actions on the rail will be viewed adversely,” the TNRD staff member added.