The Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) was expected to route through the Pine Pass, and the Pine Pass Railway might have been a section of this proposal, or a Canadian Northern Railway one. A movement lobbying for a Wapiti Pass route gained no traction. When the company surveyed the Peace and Pine passes during 1920, the former's circuitous route through Finlay Forks was a recognized deterrent. When the PGE advance stalled, CPR engineers surveyed the Peace Pass/Finlay Forks route in 1923. Rumours of a possible CPR takeover of the PGE prompted speculation regarding this route being built to handle ore from the Ferguson group of mines, coal from the Peace River canyon, and Peace Country wheat.