Surrey’s heritage railway is off to a busy start, says Allen Aubert.
The historic rail line in the heart of Cloverdale has enjoyed sold-out events every weekend so far in 2025. Now the Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society (FVHRS) will kick off its summer music fest.
“We are ready to launch our popular two-month Cloverdale Station Summer Music Festival starting June 28 with different performances every Saturday and Sunday until the end of the season,” explained Aubert, FVHRS secretary. “This is our second year of offering the music festival at no cost thanks to a cultural grant from the City of Surrey.”
Information on the various performances with times and days can be found on the FVHRS website. The festival is free and visitors do not need a ticket to come hang out on the platform and listen to the artists play and sing.
Heritage rail opened to the public May 3 and Aubert said the first seven weekends have seen the railway at full capacity.
“We are delighted to report that both the Saturday Heritage Railway Adventure—our on site, ride-everything experience, along with a tour of the Discovery Centre—and the Sunday Sullivan Excursion have had sold-out events each weekend,” he noted. “As we say, ‘we have your weekend covered.’”
Aubert added the recently commissioned BCER 1231 car is running on Saturdays as part of the heritage railway adventure. He noted their BCER 1225 car is running on Sundays on the 55-minute ride up to Sullivan—the so-called Sullivan Excursion—on the mainline.
“This season we are not crossing 156 and going right to the Sullivan Station,” he explained. “Pending the construction of a new rail spur there that we are working on, that when completed will take the interurban right up to the Sullivan Station platform, this project along with renovations to the Sullivan Station are planned as part of our 25th anniversary celebration taking place during 2026.”
Aubert said the goal of the volunteers at FVHRS is to have Sullivan Station ready to go for mid-2026 so passengers can both board for travel to Cloverdale and disembark at Sullivan.
“Our next destination will be Newton town centre in a few years.”
He said FVHRS now has three restored operational interurban passenger cars with a last one awaiting restoration work.
“The Surrey heritage railway's future expansion is very exciting,” added Aubert. “It’s an important part of creating tourism destinations, which is becoming increasingly important to the economy.”
Another initiative FVHRS has taken up for their 2025 summer season has been the rejuvenation of the wildflower pollinator meadow at Cloverdale Station. In a partnership with Cloverdale’s Honeybee Centre, several months of work were put in to restore the meadow.
“We have our two beehives and soon the new wildflower seeds will begin producing flowers and nectar for the bees,” explained Aubert. “Honey from the Honeybee Centre is available at Cloverdale Station and is proving extremely popular with our visitors.”
Aubert said, along with honey sales, their custom-designed, railway-themed socks have also been big sellers at the gift shop. He said the “totally unique” socks are made in Victoria. He added their custom-designed railway T-shirts and railway hats are popular sales items as well.
“It’s encouraging to see many visitors from various parts of the world interested in checking out our heritage railway and enjoying the authentic experience of riding on an historic B.C. Electric interurban.”
Aubert also said the all-volunteer run FVHRS is always looking for new volunteers.
“Being a totally volunteer organization since inception, our volunteers are our lifeblood,” he added. “Over 100 volunteers participate with our heritage railway. Many are seasonal. Others, year-round, work on maintenance and restoration projects.”
The Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society operates the railway out of Cloverdale Station and the Restoration Car Barn at Hwy 10 and 176A Street, in Surrey—which they now call the Cloverdale Heritage Railway Campus.
For more information, or to get tickets for 2025, visit fvhrs.org.
