VANCOUVER – Western Forest Products is shutting down its Englewood logging train on Vancouver Island and transitioning to truck transport of logs. The move is part of the company’s efforts to reduce costs. The company says the costs will be lower to transport logs from northern Vancouver Island forestry operations to its mills by truck.

At peak operations, the train employed 34 people. As a result of the closure of the train, these positions will be eliminated. The company assist the affected employees to transition to other positions within its operations, and the overall reduction in jobs is expected to be fewer than 15.

Western employs more than 3,500 employees and contractors on the B.C. coast, of which 600 are directly employed on northern Vancouver Island.

Western is an integrated Canadian forest products company and is the largest coastal British Columbia woodland operator and lumber producer. It has a lumber capacity in excess of 1.1 billion board feet from seven sawmills and one remanufacturing plant.