It's a regional railway with a $503 million debt and freight service to tiny logging towns with names such as Chipmunk and Carp, but the proposed sale of BC Rail has launched a continental bidding war.
 
Some of the biggest names in the business are lining up to purchase the B.C. government-owned freight operation, including Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway.
 
A host of large U.S.-based companies are also submitting formal bids, including Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. and OmniTrax.
 
Though BC Rail is Canada's third-largest railway, behind Montreal-based CN and CPR of Calgary, it has just 2,315 kilometres of track running through the province's interior.
 
The outpouring of interest in BC Rail, which made $77 million last year, but has also amassed a massive debt, has baffled industry onlookers.
 
"It's been very surprising," said Bill Waters, a rail expert with the Centre for Transportation Studies at the University of British Columbia.
 
"It's not like it has gold mines connected to it... most of the traffic on those lines comes from forest products, which is a pretty marginal business."
 
Each of the railroads bidding for BC Rail are anxious to see the operation feed logging shipments into their own larger networks.
 
In an era when railways have sold off small regional networks of track, both CP and CN are looking to grow their forest products business by acquiring BC Rail.

"There is an abundance of natural resources in the territory served by BC Rail, so certainly that's an attraction," said CP spokesman Len Cocolicchio.
 
In fact, roughly 75 percent of the forest products, lumber, fibre, paper, and wood panel, produced in the province originate within 300 kilometres of Prince George, a key stop on the BC Rail network.
 
CP is looking to add BC Rail to its roster of rail alliances and track sharing agreements which stretch throughout the United States and into Mexico.
 
CN, which moves about $1.3 billion worth of forest products a year, also wants to grow its network, which connects to BC Rail at Vancouver and Prince George.
 
"We're definitely interested and we intend to be an active player," in the bidding, CN spokesman Mark Hallman said.
 
The B.C. government decided to seek a buyer for the line in an effort to halt the growing debts at the company.
 
Under a partnership agreement, the province will retain ownership of the rails and track bed, while the buyer operates the line.
 
The bidding, however, will come down to more than just price. Each potential suitor must submit a detailed description of its operating capabilities, experience with similar transactions and evidence of their business case.
 
"It's a pretty hefty list," said Shawn Robins, spokesman for the B.C. ministry of Transportation.
 
"There is no set price."
 
The B.C. government will select one bid, which could be approved by the end of the year. The province has not decided how the railway's debt will be factored into the deal, Robins said.
 
Only CN has links to the BC Rail network. CP and BNSF both have nearby tracks and access the lines through CN's rails.
 
Hallman said CN's connections to the network, as well as its history of acquiring other regional freight lines, will form the basis of the company's bid.
 
CP intends to focus on its history of building rail alliances and track-sharing agreements, a strategy the company has pioneered, Cocolicchio said.
 
Rob Ritchie, chief executive of CP, said in December he was interested in buying a stake in BC Rail, but the province wasn't ready to sell.
 
BC Rail was once a key to the province's coal industry, however shipments have dwindled in recent years with the shutdown of mines.
 
The province has looked at selling the regional railway several times in the past.
 
Eventually, BC Rail's mounting debt led the government to put the operation on the block.
 
"That's really what prompted this," said Waters.
 
"They've looked at selling it before, but politically there were fears there would be too much resentment of an outright sale, so the government decided to go with a partnership."
 
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