MP/MLA being addressed

SUBJECT:  Restore Vancouver Island Rail

As you are likely aware, the transportation of goods, services, and people is what makes up the economy, and it also touches every aspect of our lives.

I am .........

I would ask that you take some time to consider restoring the Vancouver Island Railway in consideration of the broad spectrum of uses that this essential corridor would bring to Islanders, and in fact, many other British Columbians, Canadian’s and foreign visitors. This is not your run of the mill railroad, it has ties to confederation, the creation of BC, and the island joining Canada, it is of great historical significance.

Our population, now over 900,000 and on track for 1 million by 2030, is greater than PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick. The population growth rate of many island communities is greater than most of the province’s cities, and in many cases, it’s greater than cities across the country as Vancouver Island is a highly desirable place to live, work, play, and retire considering its mild climate. Vancouver Island also receives over 5 million overnight visitors per year with an average stay of three days, 41% of which come from BC’s Mainland cities and towns according to Tourism BC and the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA). 

The island, however, is plagued with the problem of having only 1 set of inter-regional highways and those highways are already maxing out their capacity. They have become prone to disruptions from collisions and other issues like the Malahat washout from the atmospheric river and the fires along highway 4 to Port Alberni that cut it off for weeks at great cost to the communities there. This railway runs loosely parallel to Highway 1 and 19 to Courtenay from Victoria, and Highway 4 from Parksville to Port Alberni, providing an alternate route to decongest highways and to move supplies and people in the case of emergencies.

The incredibly challenging mountainous landscape along these highways makes widening extremely expensive and highly disruptive to the flow of traffic during the years of construction it would take to build them. Furthermore, there is a broad push to create bus and bike lanes instead of standard vehicle lanes, so those improvements wouldn’t actually yield an increase in vehicle capacity at all.

The Island Railway is already there, and there has been movement to restore it across the island by the Island Corridor Foundation, the non-profit that has owned it for over 18 years, by individuals, by Transport Action Canada, the AVICC, VIEA, VITCC, and even the UCBM. 

The best time to restore a railway is when it’s not in use, and the best time to encourage people to use it is when there is an expectation of roadworks in the hopper to widen and/or improve the island highways. 

The Island corridor can move freight as shown in the BC Government’s very own freight assessment, it can move people on passenger trains commensurate with the travel demands of the island’s population, and it can set the stage for tourism services like the recently reopened Steam Train service in Port Alberni.

With 80% of the population living less than 6km from the corridor, and buses, bikes, ride-shares, and other micro-mobility options reaching the remainder, it would be a massive dis-service to the people of Vancouver Island to let this corridor go and potentially a huge expense to clean up as well. Stantec has estimated environmental remediation costs at $75.6 to $187.2 million just for the piece going through the CVRD (72km), and that’s just ¼ of the corridor.

Every survey and poll on the island to date has yielded at least 75%, and as high as 86%, in support of restoring the railway.

I hope you will give this some real thought and be the change agent that Vancouver Island needs to get this railway back up and operational. We hope to see it continue to serve the island for another 138 years.

Signed

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