While the dreams of a passenger rail service once again being alive along the E&N corridor, some believe an active transportation route is more realistic. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

rail or trail?

Active transportation back on the table for E&N Rail line

Mar 18, 2023 | 6:17 AM

NANAIMO — The head of Friends of Rails to Trails Vancouver Island (FORT-VI) thinks the chances of a full-service rail line coming back to the E&N corridor are getting slimmer.

Alastair Craighead said the decision this week to return almost 11 acres of land to the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation is a strong indicator passenger rail isn’t coming back, making their vision of an active transportation corridor more attractive.

“I think government can see the writing on the wall with respect to the costs of that and the public subsidies that would be required for very little result. The thing we’re really encouraged about is the First Nations have made it very clear they want to see alternative uses for the corridor considered.”

In the weeks leading up to a March 14 deadline set out by the B.C. Court of Appeals, some members representing First Nations withdrew from an Island Corridor Foundation board.

It was the precursor to $18 million provided by the provincial government for further consultation, which satisfied the court’s ruling, and according to Craighead shows the government is paying more attention now.

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“They set aside money for more consultation, and perhaps rectifying some of the past wrongs that the rail through the First Nation reserves caused, apparently flooding and all sorts of things. Hopefully, they’re going to get the attention they deserve now.”

FORT-VI want to see the land used as a multi-use trail, instead of rail.

The group is working on their own report on an active transportation route for the corridor, and they plan on submitting it to the provincial and federal government in a few weeks before making it public.

He said an estimated price tag for building an active transportation route between Courtenay and Victoria is somewhere between $600,000 to 700,000 per kilometre, according to Craighead, while the cost to build a trail beside the rail line is anywhere between roughly three or four times.

The trails being built along rails in Victoria are closer to $2.1 million dollars per kilometre, according to Craighead.

“The cost of doing the same thing in the Nanaimo area came in at about half a million dollars a kilometre, so it’s much cheaper to build the trial on the rail bed than it is trying to build beside it. There are 40 bridges on the route, so that presents a whole different set of problems.”

Using existing infrastructure will help keep costs down.

A cost of at least $150 million to construct an active transportation route on the rail lines, including a link to Port Alberni, while he said the estimated cost for a full-service rail line has been forecast for anywhere between $400 million and $700 million.

There’s also a “magnitude” of more people who would use the trail compared to the rail, according to Craighead, who said the last estimate for rail use was about 40,000 people per year.

“If you look at the Galloping Goose Trail (Victoria to north of Sooke), that’s up to 2,000 people a day now, that’s the average. It can be as high as 4,000 people a day on that trail. So the numbers a trail will attract is way, way higher than rail would ever do.”

While they are still figuring out the estimated number of people who would use the proposed E&N trail, Craighead said they are comparing it with the number of people who use the Gap Trail, which is a 241-kilometre trail between Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland.

It’s approximately the same length as the E&N trial would be, with about the same population distribution.

“They don’t build a trail all at once, that’s why it’s difficult to give an overall cost, it would be built in sections just like the Gap Trail. But the overall impact economically is about $160 million a year off that trail, so it’s a big money spender too for tourism.”

He said they also have support from 4VI, formerly Vancouver Island Tourism, as active transportation falls into their category of promoting sustainable tourism.

— with files from Jon de Roo, 97.3 The Eagle.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordandHeyNow