A provincial report showed it would cost nearly $100 million to establish minimum rail service between Duncan and Parksville. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

2020 in review

Top Stories of 2020: High cost of long-promised E&N rail line revealed

Dec 29, 2020 | 12:34 PM

NANAIMO — There’s now a price tag attached to the dream of having rail service restored on Vancouver Island.

In late April, the ministry of transportation and infrastructure released its long awaited assessment of the E&N Rail Line. It showed the cost of bringing the line between Duncan and Parksville up to a minimum level of service would cost roughly $96 million. This level of service would be between two and four passenger trains riding the rails.

Bringing the line up to full capacity with eight trains a day would cost nearly $234 million.

Having rail cars back on the entire E&N Rail Line, from Victoria to Langford and north to Courtenay with a second track running from Parksville to Port Alberni, would cost $326 million for a minimum level of service.

Passenger service stopped on the E&N Rail Line in 2011 due to safety concerns. Limited freight service still runs at the Nanaimo Port but only in a 16 kilometre radius of the rail yard.

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The dream of having trains actually using the railway again is one which seemingly will never die.

It’s addressed in virtually every election in municipalities along the line, with representatives and candidates signalling their support for rail service resuming. The Board of Directors features five directors from Island regional districts and five Indigenous governments.

The non-profit Island Corridor Foundation, which owns the land the rails are on, said they remain “100 per cent committed to the restoration of full rail service on Vancouver Island.”

The Foundation in their own report disputed the cost and said it projected a better than minimum level of service could be installed for roughly $304 million, compared to the $552 million projected by the province.

“The work on this corridor can begin immediately,” Foundation board co-chair Phil Kent said in a letter. “We have an opportunity to stimulate our local economy while building a better BC and better Vancouver Island for the future.”

No money for the project was included in B.C.’s 2021 budget.

Since releasing the assessment in April, the province and BC NDP MLA’s have remained quiet about the prospect of rail returning to Vancouver Island.

In the 2020 provincial election, only the BC Green Party discussed funding for the project.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt