Over the past weekend, torrential rainstorms, rockslides, and mudslides in Vancouver and parts of the interior of British Columbia have disrupted rail access to and from the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest port.  Rail routes operated by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway, the two biggest rail companies in Canada, are being affected.

“All rail service coming to and from the Port of Vancouver is halted because of flooding in the British Columbia interior,” port spokesperson Matti Polychronis said.

Canadian Pacific Railway is experiencing a track outage on the Cascade subdivision, north of Hope, B.C., affecting service to that region.  Canadian National Railway has been dealing with mudslides and washouts on its network and is experiencing an outage on the Yale subdivision near Chilliwack, B.C.

Numerous highways have also been shut down due to flooding, which is severely impacting all main routes in and out of Vancouver.

Shippers utilizing the Port of Vancouver can expect to see delays in the coming days.  The Railways do not have an estimate for when service may be restored.  Some sources say that rail service could be up and running by the weekend, while others indicate the shutdown could last weeks.