The longtime family attraction had been hounded by operational issues in recent years, from extreme ticket demand causing many fans to miss out, to the midseason suspension of the Bright Nights Christmas Train.
Vancouver’s popular but beleaguered Stanley Park train won’t be returning for Easter this year — or for the foreseeable future.
“Our staff have been working tirelessly to get the train back on track for Easter and we recognize how disappointing this news is for so many people and their families,” said park board general manager Steve Jackson in a statement Monday.
As recently as late January, the Stanley Park Easter Train was still listed in a park board report of 104 major special events set to take place in 2025. The report noted the attraction was scheduled for the Easter Train (April 18 to 21); the Ghost Train (Oct. 10 to 31; and Bright Nights (Nov. 28 to Jan. 3).
The longtime family attraction had been hounded by operational issues in recent years, from extreme ticket demand causing many fans to miss out, to the midseason suspension of the Bright Nights Christmas Train.
The most recent cancellation in December 2024 was due to emissions issues, causing at least one operator to fall ill. The train had also been suspended previously during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later due to mechanical woes and coyote attacks.
According to Monday’s statement by the park board, testing had shown that the train’s engines — all of which are more than 50 years old — are “showing signs of age” and recent attempts to fix the emissions issue were unsuccessful. Lon LaClaire, Vancouver’s general manager of engineering, said the city’s mechanics had teamed with an external third-party train engineer to explore fixes for the exhaust issues.
“Unfortunately, through this work, it’s become clear that refurbishing the aged engines to meet the regulatory requirements and return them to service does not have a clear solution,” he said.
