ROBERT BARRON CITIZEN
Local politicians are wondering what’s taking so long for the re-establishment of train service to the area.
Councillors in the Municipality of North Cowichan have invited officials from the Island Corridor Foundation and Southern Railway Vancouver Island to provide them an update on when, or if, the resumption of both freight and passenger rail service on Vancouver Island can be expected.
Regional districts on the Island have committed approximately $7 million to the project, with $486,000 from the Cowichan Valley Regional District.
But the funding will not be released until the ICF and SVI have all their ducks in a row, including having the funding promised from other levels of government in hand.
“Council wants an update,” said North Cowichan mayor Jon Lefebure.
“The indications I have is that rail service in the Cowichan Valley will begin again, but I won’t prejudge on if that will actually happen until we hear from the delegations that we have asked for.”
Passenger train service on the E&N Railway line on Vancouver Island was stopped in 2011 due to track safety concerns, and freight service has also been discontinued between Duncan and Parksville.
The federal and provincial governments have committed $7.5 million each, on top of the funding from local governments, to fix the railway line.
But the ICF, which owns the rail line, and SVI, which runs the rail operations, have been facing delays from the senior levels of government as to when they plan to release the funding they’ve promised.
J. Singh Biln, director of community relations at SVI, said before Christmas that he expects passenger train service to return to the Island by the end of 2016 or early 2017.
He said at the time that SVI has a “sign-off” on all the funding, except the $7.5 million from the federal government, which was held up because of November’s federal election.
Biln said the company expects an agreement in principle will be signed by early 2016, after which it can go to tender and rehabilitate the track.
“I think improvements to the track and the return of rail service will have some significant impacts in this region,” Lefebure said.