12 Gro. 5 ENGINEERING AND Economic FEATURES. R 15

The salvage should amount to:—
66 miles at $20,000 ........ SaCOSE Hos eb incaies Sos Ont Cor ree $1,320,000 00
Salvage on balance, 100 miles, say ........ eateistate Siaeradcos ae ic 500,000 00

$1,820,000 00
Or about half the cost of the Clinton cut-off.
The saving in operating expenses and the saving in renewals on the abandoned line would
show a substantial saving over the interest on half the cost of the Clinton—Ashcroft Line.

L.—SHOULD THE LINE BE EXTENDED FROM PRINCE GEORGE TO PEACE RIVER
COUNTRY; AND, IF SO, BY WHAT ROUTE?
a

The surveyed line extends north from Prince George, reaching the eastern boundary of the
Province via Parsnip River and Pine River Pass in a distance of about 31S miles; to reach
present railway connections in Grande Prairie country would require extension of 63 miles.
Grande Prairie is south of the Peace River and with Spirit River country, which is also south
of Peace River, contains about one-half of the dey eloped area which is generally known as the
Peace River country. The Peace River District proper is north of Peace River, and products
from this district to reach the proposed extension of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway at the
eastern boundary of the Province would require a rail-haul of nearly 300 miles, via Peace River
Crossing, McLennan, and Grande Prairie, on the Edmonton & Dunyegan Railway. The alter-
native of this long haul is for a second line to be constructed west from the end of the Peace
River extension of the Edmonton & Dunvegan Railway, west of Peace River Crossing to a point
where a feasible crossing of the Peace River could be obtained. ‘This involves the construction
of 100 or more miles of extra new line. There is no feasible crossing of the Peace River north
of Spirit River or for a long distance west.

The second route mentioned was to leave the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway at Vanderhoof,
some miles west of Prince George, and go north via east end of Stewart Lake and finally reach
the eastern boundary of the Proyince on the surveyed route. The advantage claimed for this
route is that it traverses a much better country than that through which the survey was made.
I did not have data sufficient to warrant an opinion as to which of the two would be the more
desirable. I did not deem it advisable to spend time in collecting data or making a trip over
these routes, as the traffic offered at present in the Peace River country will not justify con-
struction of a line on either route.

The present freight rate on export grains from Grande Prairie to Vancouver by the longer
routes is less than 1 cent per ton-mile, and these rates are very apt to be lowered, so that to
get any business the Pacific Great Bastern Railway could not expect to get a revenue of over
1 cent per ton-mile, and making the favourable assumption that they could handle this business
at an operating ratio of 75 per cent. that would give them 4 cent per ton-mile profit. From
Vancouver to Grande Prairie via Pacific Great Eastern would be about S50 miles. Two million
bushels of grain per year is more than this country (Grande Prairie and Spirit River country)
will produce annually as at present developed. If this were all wheat it would only amount
to 60,000 tons; 60,000 tons * 850 miles X .0025 = $127,500, or a sum much less than one-tenth
of the interest charges on the probable cost of the line from Grande Prairie to Prince George.

A second and more conclusive reason why it was unnecessary to study routes to Peace River
country is that after making a. very exhaustive study of routes from Prince George to Prince
Rupert, to Squamish and to Vancouver, via Ashcroft, shows conclusively that if there is traffic
enough offered in the Peace River country to warrant the construction of a line from the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway, either from Prince George or Vanderhoof to the Peace River District,
such traffic will not reach tide-water either at Vancouver or Squamish, but at Prince Rupert.
The reason for this is that taking the operating expense of hauling traffic from Prince George
to Prince Rupert, a distance of 467 miles, at 100 per cent., then the operating expense for the
same traflic over the Pacific Great Dastern Railway and Canadian National Railways via Ash-
croft to Vancouver, a distance of 517 miles, would be 132 per cent.; to haul the same traffic over
the Pacific Great Eastern Railway to Squamish, a distance of 429 miles, the expense would be
137 per cent. If the junction with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was made at Vanderhoof,
taking the expense from Vanderhoof to Prince Rupert, a distance of 398 miles, at 100 per cent.,
then the expense over the other routes added to the expense of the portion between Vanderhoof