The Thornton Tunnel is a freight railway tunnel in Burnaby, British Columbia, running under the Willingdon Heights and Vancouver Heights neighbourhoods. The tunnel is named after Sir Henry Worth Thornton, who was an early president of Canadian National Railway (CN). CN built the tunnel in 1969 to connect the rail-only version of the Second Narrows Bridge, which was built one year earlier, to the main line in Willingdon. The tunnel is 3.4 kilometres (2.1 mi) long, and it is a single-track railway.
In the middle of the tunnel there is a fake house to cover up a ventilation shaft and fan systems to blend in a residential neighbourhood. It is located on the northeast corner of Frances Street and Ingleton Avenue, in Burnaby. The ventilation system previously cleared the exhaust from a passing train after 20 minutes so that the next train would have enough oxygen to safely enter the tunnel. An upgrade project, which would reduce the ventilation delay from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes, was completed in May 2022.
The maximum speed limit in the tunnel is 16 kilometres per hour (10 mph).
References
- "Geocaching - the Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site".
- ^ Lawrence, Anne-Marie (24 November 2023). "Bridge over Burrard's Water". North Shore Heritage. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
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- Naylor, Cornelia (September 18, 2024). "Train exiting hidden tunnel belches black smoke in North Burnaby". Burnaby Now. ISSN 0841-8462. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
- "Google Maps".
- Lee-Young, Joanne (December 8, 2017). "Building access over railroad crossings to ease traffic congestion". Vancouver Sun. ISSN 0832-1299. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
- Balzer, Jess (May 30, 2022). "Access upgrades complete from Burnaby rail corridor to North Shore port terminals: CN". Burnaby Now. ISSN 0841-8462. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
- Chan, Kenneth (July 9, 2024). "From Brentwood to Burrard Inlet: All about the 3.2-km-long railway tunnel deep under Burnaby and its fake house". Daily Hive. Retrieved January 19, 2025.
49°16′46″N 123°01′06″W / 49.27952°N 123.01843°W / 49.27952; -123.01843
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