Election 2026 - Island Rail Corridor Champions

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"The Island Corridor (E&N Railway) is an amazing asset on Vancouver Island. We should all be grateful for the foresight of First Nation leaders and Regional Districts 20 years ago to take ownership of the corridor before it fell into abandonment. Since then, limited rail operations have continued, and I hope we will see increased rail use on the south Island. At the same time, more than 100 km of pedestrian and cycling trails have been built along the corridor, and regional land-use planning is increasingly recognizing the corridor’s long-term potential.

In the Comox Valley, with few signals of near-term large investments by the Provincial or Federal governments to return rail service to our segment of the corridor, I believe we need to be pragmatic and focus on growing the benefits it can provide to residents today.

In Union Bay, we recently completed a small piece of trail work that improves connectivity between “downtown” and the senior housing complex. In Royston, this fall and winter we will put shovels in the ground to create a safe cycling and walking route along the corridor to Royston School. There is also a new collaboration, “Rotary to Royston,” to connect Royston and Courtenay by trail. I am very excited about this initiative and intend to work on it. If completed, it would create close to 5 km of new trail linking the two communities.

I am heartened to see the corridor increasingly being put to use. While efforts to restore and expand rail service may find more fertile ground further south in the coming years, there is still a great deal we can do here in the Comox Valley to make the corridor increasingly valuable to our communities.

That means working in partnership with K’omoks First Nation and the Island Corridor Foundation, making practical investments where we can, and continuing to build on the tremendous potential of this shared asset." 

Would you like to be listed?

Download the Questionnaire and send the response to info@restoreislandrail.com