Nanaimo Airport CEO wants rail
NANAIMO AIRPORT ON VANCOUVER ISLAND IS SERVICEABLE BY RAIL!
Imagine getting to the airport by train and leaving all the car-worries behind when you travel. I just came back from Toronto by air and had the pleasure of using the UP Express Train that brings you from Union Station to the Toronto International Airport. It was bliss! But we on Vancouver Island are missing this experience.
In a council meeting 8th Oct 2024, Dave Devana, President and CEO of the Nanaimo Airport, presented to the RDN the very real fact that the Airport could reduce parking and better enable access to the airport should rail return to Vancouver Island.
The business case just keeps getting better and better with time. It's also the least expensive time to restore and improve it.
Vancouver Island has the population for it
80% of Vancouver Island's population, now over 900,000 people, live within 5km of the railway.
Using ARCGIS's Ocean basemap I added Vancouver Island's census population overlay and the overlay for Canada's railways. I then used the measuring tool to see how far 5km is from the centre of the tracks.
I have always talked about our population being laid out on "thick shoestrings" so I expanded the thickness of the path the railway follows to line up with that measurement.
Hopefully you can see that if everyone in the Vancouver Island region used it just once, we would have a ridership of over 900,000. That's just once!
Sign the petition to support Restoring Island Rail, because once it's gone it's gone for good, and so is our chance of having intercity rail on the island in the future.
The potential for revenue is real
Dec 2022 Freight Assessment
The B.C. Government released a Freight assessment conducted with Vancouver Island and Vancouver businesses. Benefits for both Vancouver Island and Vancouver were found!
Read the Freight report here:
Key points are:
Primary Study Findings
• There are many opportunities for freight rail traffic on Vancouver Island that could be realized with significantly less investment than previous studies have identified.
• These opportunities would shift many truck trips to rail, both on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland, providing a range of benefits. • Developing a rail connection to Duke Point would provide synergetic benefits for the area and the Island Rail Corridor.
• Stakeholders agreed that maintaining the Island Rail Corridor is important to the overall resiliency of the Island, given its limited highway network
A simple solution for Vancouver Island
The Railway is there and already touches most cities and towns
It is as simple as it gets! This mockup of stops was created with the help of hundreds of people talking to me about their experiences on the Dayliner, a 56 year old Budd Car Train that used to run a tourist attraction running opposite to commuting needs until 2011 when it was shut down due to track conditions.
There are over 180,000 more people living on Vancouver Island since the passenger services shut down, they could hold hands along the entire 289km of rail.
Invest for tomorrow and today
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
Imagine an intercity
right of passage train that
gets you to work, school, or appointments on time, and
home for dinner!
Could it get your kids and you
to sports and leisure facilities
up and down the island
Safely!
inexpensively!
independently?
only $200 per month
fully integrated with
other transit systems!
Family passes
check
Seniors passes
check
Disabled passes
Check
It's like another road,
but called rail!
Climate Action
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
We can't keep procrastinating on Climate action.
Establishing Rapid Transit is
Climate Action!
by getting
older polluting cars off the road
and creates the opportunity for
High Impact Electrification
for even
More Climate Action!
To make the BEST use of this
Vancouver Island Treasure
and take some real climate action!
Connect Communities
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
Inflation is out of control!
Protect the 289km, pre-graded,
Vancouver Island Rail Corridor!
Create inexpensive access to cheaper living areas for struggling Vancouver Islander's, create the potential for high-impact electrification and the prevention of environmental damage in the future by preventing the need to create new or expanded highways due to population growth.
Inflation is out of control!
Investing in our kid's tomorrow, but today!
Inflation is out of control!
And everyone has felt it!
Your paycheck doesn't go as far
so you take fewer Sunday Drives,
buy less food,
forgo the car repairs,
socialize less!
buy less
Business costs are rising
sales are slow
so retail prices get raised
Life costs more...
Your paycheck doesn't go as far
And round and round we go!
I have no team, it's just me.
but lots of other
dedicated Vancouver Islanders
that saw the site started sharing information with me, that I would have never known otherwise!
I've been on the receiving end of all my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, text's, and polls.
If I round the ratio of
Happy to Angry
to the nearest whole Person,
Happy sentiment
wins by a landslide
Everyone easily sees what the Vancouver Island Rail Corridor Represents
I think our leaders do too
History that needs preserving
Built by our Ancestors
Incorporated on September 27, 1883, the construction of the Vancouver Island Rail Corridor is not without controversy, but the one thing we can all agree on is that Vancouver Island ancestors, from many many cultural backgrounds shed blood, sweat and tears to build it! Laying 289km of level track up and down a rocky island during that time is no feat that should go unrecognized for the amazing achievement that it is!
It should not be left to languish when it is needed more and more every passing year.
Honour their sacrifices! Update the history books, and provide access for prosperity along the route.
Once it's gone, it's gone!
