# Victoria Terminal Railway and Ferry Company

The Victoria Terminal Railway and Ferry Company (VTRF) was a standard gauge shortline railway company operating two railway lines and a connecting ferry that linked Vancouver Island and the south arm of the Fraser River in Metro Vancouver.

## Construction and interchange

In March 1901, the Great Northern Railway (GN) acquired a controlling interest in the VV&E, owner of the VTRF, which in October commenced work on a railway line in Victoria. In 1902, the VTRF acquired the Victoria and Sidney Railway (V&S). In May 1903, the VTRF opened the short Cloverdale–Port Guichon railway link and commenced the Port Guichon–Sidney train ferry that connected with the V&S. This daily ferry service carried passengers and up to eight railway freight cars. The wharf largely parallelled the dyke.
Cloverdale was an interchange on the New Westminster Southern Railway Company (NWSR), a GN subsidiary, which at the time connected today's Pacific Highway Border Crossing with Brownsville (Surrey docks). In 1904, the New Westminster Bridge replaced the Fraser River ferry crossing to New Westminster, from which point the Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway charter predicated access to Downtown Vancouver, where the GN station stood immediately to the north of the existing Pacific Central Station.

## Operation and demise

The wye was initially used for turning locomotives and accessing the Grant and Kerr sawmill. Following stiff competition from Canadian Pacific Railway steamers from Vancouver and New Westminster (the latter calling at Port Guichon) and the withdrawal of an expected subsidy from the City of Victoria, the GN passenger ferry discontinued in December 1904. At that time, a rail barge commenced operating either from Port Guichon or upriver. The six-car capacity service stopped in 1919 when the V&S closed. A 2.4-by-3.7-metre (8 by 12 ft) passenger shelter shed stood at the original Ladner station site, which was later renamed Challucthan. An 89-metre (293 ft) bridge spanned the then much wider Challucthan slough. When the sawmill was rebuilt in 1914, a siding was installed.
In 1924, the depot building, initially on the wharf, was loaded onto a flatcar and carried to a new location on Savoy St. Freight from the sawmill and milk condensing plant at Port Guichon and crops from East Delta became the major source of revenue. The Pacific milk condensing plant, which opened in 1914, relocated to the Abbotsford area in 1928. The facility became a pea cannery, which closed about 1933. The final scheduled monthly freight train ran in August 1935. The Ladner Lumber Company declared bankruptcy in 1938. That year, the line was abandoned and the remaining track soon lifted back to Cloverdale.
In 1943, the Ladner Fisherman's Co-operative Association purchased the Savoy St station for a meeting hall. In the 1960s, the building, which holds a historic places designation, was substantially enlarged. Apart from the most westerly portion, the Cloverdale–Ladner right-of-way became the east–west section of the BC Rail track to Roberts Bank Superport, which opened in 1970.

## Ladner passenger rail

Passenger Service :
| Type | Period | Period | Frequency | Terminal | Via | Terminal |
| | 1903 | 1905 | Daily | Port Guichon | Cloverdale, New Westminster | Downtown Vancouver |
| | 1905 | 1905 | Tue, Thu, Sat. | Port Guichon | Cloverdale, New Westminster | Downtown Vancouver |
| | 1905 | 1905 | Mon, Wed, Fri. | Port Guichon | | Cloverdale |
| | 1905 | 1905 | Mon, Fri. | Port Guichon | | Cloverdale |
| | 1905 | 1907 | Mon. | Port Guichon | | Cloverdale |
| mixed | 1907 | 1908 | Mon, Wed, Fri. | Port Guichon | Cloverdale, New Westminster | Downtown Vancouver |
| mixed | 1908 | 1909 | Tue, Fri. | Port Guichon | Cloverdale, New Westminster | Downtown Vancouver |
| mixed | 1909 | 1909 | Fri. | Port Guichon | Cloverdale | New Westminster |
| mixed | 1909 | 1916 | Daily | Port Guichon | Cloverdale | New Westminster |
| mixed | 1918 | 1918 | Daily | Port Guichon | | Cloverdale |
| mixed | 1919 | 1925 | Daily | Port Guichon | Cloverdale, Abbotsford | Sumas |
| | | | Stations renamed: Guichon became Ladner; Ladner became Challucthan | Stations renamed: Guichon became Ladner; Ladner became Challucthan | Stations renamed: Guichon became Ladner; Ladner became Challucthan | Stations renamed: Guichon became Ladner; Ladner became Challucthan |
| mixed | 1926 | 1926 | Daily | Ladner | Cloverdale, Abbotsford | Sumas |
| mixed | 1927 | 1929 | Mon, Wed, Fri. | Ladner | Cloverdale, Abbotsford | Sumas |
| mixed | 1929 | 1929 | Mon, Wed, Fri. | Ladner | | Cloverdale |
| mixed | 1930 | 1930 | Tue, Fri. | Ladner | | Colebrook |
| mixed | 1930 | 1931 | Sat. | Ladner | | Colebrook |