At a time when Nanaimo is preparing to celebrate the 130th birthday of Island Rail with heritage rail tours, the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) has sent a strong message that it’s fed up with delays in infrastructure restoration by pulling its funding previously promised to the Island Corridor Foundation.
We applaud the RDN for taking this step, and we would urge the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District to look at doing the same.
We feel it’s time for drastic action to send a message that we’re either serious about re-starting rail service on Vancouver Island, or we’re ready to let it die.
Rail is an integral part of transportation links in many foreign countries, and we can’t understand why the powers that be don’t see it as vital to transportation on Vancouver Island. We do understand why Via Rail halted its passenger service: the rail system needs to be upgraded.
But in the years since that happened, nothing seems to have been done to improve the infrastructure.
We believe and support the idea of passenger rail service returning to Vancouver Island. But we firmly believe everyone needs to be on the same page. At this point, it doesn’t seem like everyone is reading the same book.
It’s time for everyone to work together and get this train moving again—pun intended.