West Vancouver Freight Access Project

West Vancouver Freight Access (WVFA) project

Art by Deborah Bartley

The West Vancouver Freight Access project will create a state-of-the-art unit train facility at the Port of Vancouver USA and increase capacity for rail freight flowing through the port and along the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific mainlines that connect the Pacific Northwest to major rail hubs in Chicago and Houston and from Canada to Mexico. (art by Deborah Bartley)

The WVFA project includes construction of a new dual carrier rail access into port property and enhancement of the port’s internal rail system to serve growth for existing operations and future development.

The Port of Vancouver currently operates over 30 miles of rail track. With the completion of the WVFA project, the port will operate on more than 44 miles of rail to serve its present and future customers and tenants.

WVFA Project Continues Forward

Terminal 5 rendering Terminal 5 is the site of significant rail work, as construction on the western-most end of the port’s West Vancouver Freight Access project continues.  Recent completion of the Terminal 5 Unit Train Improvements project added 35,000 feet of new rail capacity to the port’s internal system.  The new track, constructed in a loop with associated yard tracks is providing rail service for a variety of cargoes, including wind energy components.  BNSF Railway began using the new loop track at the end of June 2010. 

The new loop track allows unit trains, which can be up to 7,500 feet in length, to be handled within the port’s internal rail complex, reducing congestion in BNSF’s Vancouver rail yard and on the region’s main rail lines.  It is estimated that completion of the Terminal 5 Unit Train Improvements project decreases congestion by 25 percent. Even greater congestion relief, estimated at 40 percent, will be realized when the WVFA project is complete.

Designated officially complete by BNSF Railway on June 29, the loop track was finished ahead of schedule and on budget.  Construction of the loop track began in November 2009 and cost approximately $14.6 million.  To date, the port has invested in excess of $66 million in the Terminal 5 Unit Train Improvements project, which includes acquisition of right-of-way, permitting, engineering, and construction. 

Delivery of the project marks the first major milestone under the West Vancouver Freight Access and Industrial Track Agreement, an agreement reached between the port and BNSF Railway in 2008 that provides the overall blueprint and timeline for the WVFA project.  One of 20 phases of the overall project, the loop track serves as the western terminus and the already completed rail improvements near the City of Vancouver’s waterfront redevelopment of the former Boise Cascade site bookends the project on the east. 

With emphasis on how critical the WVFA project is to attracting future private investment, the port is aggressively continuing its efforts to fund the remaining phases of the project.  Estimated cost of the West Vancouver Freight Access project is $137 million, with targeted completion in 2017.

Project Updates & Bulletins

 

 

 

 

 



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