The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) has committed $488,000 for its share of the cost of upgrades to Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway infrastructure, Ladysmith Mayor and CVRD chair Rob Hutchins said.
Rail renovations are the responsibility of the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF), Hutchins said, a coalition that includes five regional districts, 14 First Nations and 13 municipalities.
“[ICF members] actually own the corridor and the amenities,” Hutchins added. “The goal is to maintain the rail corridor and establish both viable passenger and freight service. Fifteen million dollars was obtained from the federal and provincial governments — $ 7.5 million each — to upgrade the track and replace over 100,000 ties.”
Additional funds were required to service the rail corridor’s 48 bridges and trestles, Hutchins added, and engineering assessments determined they were in need of $5.4 million worth of upgrades before passenger rail service can resume.
“The ICF approached the regional districts,” Hutchins said, “and in a very rare move, all five regional districts agreed to help fund this capital upgrade.”
The five participating regional districts will contribute $3.2 million, Hutchins said, while the ICF will raise the remainder from “additional revenue sources.”
Regional districts will contribute funds to ICF renovations as follows:
• Capital (Greater Victoria): $1,200,000
• Nanaimo: $941,081
• Cowichan Valley: $488,000
• Comox Valley: $391,811
• Alberni-Clayoquot: $179,007
“It is my understanding that most regional districts are making their contribution over two years,” Hutchins added. “For the CVRD, we will requisition $244,000 in 2013 — about $4.50 per average home in Ladysmith — and again in 2014.”
Graham Bruce, chief operating officer with the ICF, confirmed they now “have the commitment for federal, provincial and regional district funding for the infrastructure work that needs to be undertaken.”
Funding for infrastructure improvements is conditional on the forging of a new train service agreement between rail operator Southern Rail and VIA Rail, Canada’s crown corporation responsible for passenger rail service, Bruce said, and negotiations are currently underway between VIA and Southern.
Bruce could not offer a tentative completion date for the new service agreement, but he said they’re hopeful it can be completed “in the next while” so that construction on the rail corridor can begin “in the fall.”
Bruce anticipates passenger service commencing “in the late spring of 2014.”
