Victoria – Courtenay train suspended until further notice

VIA press release

An inspection of the tracks and structures between Victoria and Nanaimo was conducted jointly over the last two days by Southern Railway of Vancouver Island (SRVI), the BC Safety Authority, the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, and VIA. Following that inspection, SRVI informed VIA of its decision that significant infrastructure improvement will be required before passenger rail service can resume on this route.

VIA will continue to offer a replacement chartered motorcoach service between Victoria and Courtenay. This service has been place since March 21, when SRVI track maintenance work on the rail line first began. VIA had been planning to reinstate partial service on April 8.

Times Colonist news article

The iconic Esquimalt & Nanaimo Dayliner is parked indefinitely.

Service was suspended on March 19 while crews inspected and replaced 1,500 railway ties.

A limited passenger service between Victoria and Nanaimo, shortening the long-standing Victoria-Courtenay run, was planned for this Saturday.

But Graham Bruce, executive director of the Island Corridor Foundation, said Wednesday that the plan has been shelved. The move followed an inspection Tuesday that deemed the track to be in worse shape than expected.

The article goes on to say that another 104,000 ties need to be replaced and a $15 million grant is necessary to pay for that. Also, neither of these articles mention the closure of the Johnson Street Bridge to rail traffic, another problem that must be dealt with if and when service resumes.

My family had the intent of riding the Malahat train after we rode the Canadian to Vancouver, 3 weeks ago, however we found out that the Malahat was not running due to track maintainance, and would not resume until after we would have to fly home. There were buses available, but we opted to refund our tickets and drive to Courtenay in our Lincoln Town Car rental car.

I hope the malahat will continue to run after the tracks are repaired, so we can have another chance to ride it.

This past Tuesday, May 10, VIA moved their Budd RDCs from Victoria BC to storage in Nanaimo for "safekeeping". Based on this, the future of the Malahat train looks bleak but there are lots of folks on Vancouver Island, and elsewhere, who are optimistic the service will return. I'm not so sure.

News story in the Victoria Times-Colonist and local TV newscast from "A Channel" - Victoria

The substitute bus service, which is carrying <10 passengers per day, will end Aug 7.

http://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail ... p-august-7

The train has not resumed and passengers are being directed to intercity buses.

It should be noted that late in June, the government of BC committed $7.5 million to fix up the line and restore service, assuming the federal government (or some other party) steps up to match that with another $7.5 million. While it is obviously a conditional commitment, it is (hopefully) likely that we will see a similar announcement from the feds soon. The provinces rarely announce such funding if they are not rather certain that the feds will match it.

So there is a bright light in the future, and we can hope it will come to be.

Below are a couple of relevant articles:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... ilway.html

http://www.canada.com/Premier+hopes+tra ... story.html

Everyone: I noticed the track conditions on the E&N and I feel that this could be a candidate for composite ties should the BC and Canadian federal governments fund track rehabilitation...The A Channel news report was quite interesting...

I think that the rainy wet climate on Vancouver Island makes wood ties deteriorate faster...am I right?

www.tietek.com is one company that offers composite ties...I think that-along with better ballast-could go a long way to rehabilitate the E&N line...

MACTRAXX

Victoria's Times-Colonist has an article today about the demolition of the rail portion of the bridge that carries the tracks into downtown. The city council had not approved the funding for the rail link as part of the replacement bridge. So if passenger service is ever restored, it will not be to downtown Victoria. Many years ago in the pre-VIA era of the 1970s, the CPR abandoned their downtown station, but not the tracks which of course remained as they are now, nd forced passengers to go out to Esquimalt to catch the Budd car.

http://www.timescolonist.com/Removal+Jo ... story.html

I'm amazed after looking at some of the E&N track in person a few years back, that trains actually move...

And yeah, Composite ties would be PERFECT for the E&N.

Does any know the current status of this rail line as of Jan 2012 and whether it will resume?

/Dave

The BC government has pledged to cover half the cost of repairs. As for the other half, this video should explain why there is no track work going on right now.

I'm unable to view the article, but apparently on Wikipedia, it appears that the 198/199 trains will depart & terminate 6 km outside of Victoria now (in Esquimalt).

http://trn.trains.com/Railroad%20News/N ... %20BC.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_ ... enay_train

The federal government announced today (April 10) that they will be allocating the $7.5 million requested as their share of funding for the rehabilitation of the Vancouver Island rail line. The money will be made available from the Building Canada Fund subject to certain conditions. The details are contained in this press release. Local observers are hopeful that VIA service can return early next year using fully rebuilt Budd RDCs.

Ken V wrote:The federal government announced today (April 10) that they will be allocating the $7.5 million requested as their share of funding for the rehabilitation of the Vancouver Island rail line. The money will be made available from the Building Canada Fund subject to certain conditions. The details are contained in this press release. Local observers are hopeful that VIA service can return early next year using fully rebuilt Budd RDCs.

This might be of interest: http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruis ... rsion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; -- it seems to be rather too ambitious, however.

Lemme guess, the private sector pays for the study and the federal taxpayer everything else?

My thinking is that the sums being talked about being invested so far aren't enough to bring the line to a state where it is attractive - instead it will be "cleared for service" but it will be a slow infrequent service at inconvenient times that won't pull anyone off the highway. I think another zero (if not more) will be required.

That is still better news than nothing.