Stanley Park Train to remain off the rails for Easter and spring

The popular Stanley Park Train ride will remain off the rails through the Easter and spring seasons in Vancouver's biggest park, as officials say the long-term future of the attraction is up in the air.

A well-liked attraction, the train has seen very high demand in the past, after it returned in 2023 following a two-year hiatus. Around 23,000 tickets were snapped up within 90 minutes of sale for the Bright Nights event that year.

However, on Dec. 13 last year, the attraction was derailed indefinitely after one of the train's drivers needed medical attention, having fallen ill due to exhaust from one of the train's locomotives.

A park board official says that emission levels on the train were still higher than they wanted them to be after staff made modifications to the aging locomotives over the last two months.

"The hope there was that [modifications] would reduce emissions exposure to our staff as well as the public," said Steve Jackson, general manager of the city's park board. "Unfortunately, due to our most recent testing, it isn't showing that that modification was successful."

The park board says that the combustion engines on the locomotives are more than 50 years old, and the latest closure puts the long-term viability of the attraction into question.

"Our best course of action in operating a train on this site would be to electrify," Jackson said.

"Our assets are old; our attempts to repair, modify, have proven to not be successful, and so we'll have to explore these longer-term decisions with our board."

Park board staff is expected to report back to the elected board in June after a comprehensive analysis of the paths forward.

$3M lost over five years

The Stanley Park train ride has taken a winding track to its latest indefinite closure after the December shutdown due to staff illness.

It was first cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing restrictions being implemented.

Then, in 2021, a rash of coyote attacks in Stanley Park prompted the train's cancellation in October due to safety concerns, but it ran later in December.

In 2022, the attraction was called off after the train failed a safety inspection, with the city saying that mechanical issues were affecting the antique engines and passenger cars, and supply chain issues meant new parts were difficult to procure.

"Over the last five years, we've lost approximately $3 million trying to operate this train," Jackson said. "That does include one-time expenditures to repair the train."

The official says that the biggest problem with the current set of four locomotives is that the gauge of the track is narrower than modern track gauges.

"The manufacturer that produced these engines actually does produce an electric locomotive. It's on a 24-inch gauge," he said. "We are running a 20-inch gauge.

"So in order to use their assets, we would actually have to wholesale replace the entire asset here, track and engines."

Jackson said that staff would eventually look to the public to weigh in on the future of the ride, and praised the overwhelming response it had gotten in previous years.