BC Rail , known as the
British Columbia Railway between 1972 and 1984 and as the
Pacific Great Eastern Railway (
PGE) before 1972, was a
railway that operated in the
Canadian province of
British Columbia between 1912 and 2004. It was a
class II regional railway and the third-largest in Canada, operating of mainline
track. Its operations were owned by the public as a
crown corporation from 1918 until 2004, when the provincial government leased operations for 99 years to
CN. The track and other assets, including a marine division and stevedoring subsidiary as well as large tracts of real estate, remain under public ownership. 40 km of track serving the
Roberts Bank Superport that were scheduled to be sold to
OmniTRAX remain under BC Rail management due to that sale being cancelled because of the transaction being tainted by an influence-peddling and bribery scandal resulting in convictions in 2010. The provincial government, which promised when originally elected to never sell the railway, has announced that the crown corporation and its remaining operations and assets would be "wound down" and taken over by various departments of the Ministry of Transportation The details of the sale/lease to CN, which are related to the OmniTRAX affair, have become the subject of protracted public inquiry as part of the proceedings of the trial surrounding a scandal known as the
British Columbia Legislature Raids Affair, or "Railgate". Government leaders and civil servants involved with the arrangements to CN have refused to comment on the deal because the matter "is before the courts".