It will be a shame when the rail line between Victoria and Courtenay finally is torn up for trails or other uses.
Not only will some of the Island’s history be lost, but a way to help reduce our environmental impact will be gone as well.
The Island Corridor Foundation needs $15 million to get the tracks up to snuff to allow the resumption of passenger rail service on the Island. Even if the various levels of government step up, it’s only a bandage on a much larger wound.
While the benefits of rail do exist — they get people out of their cars, for example — there is simply not enough modern infrastructure to make commuter rail possible on the Island. It barely exists in the major cities of North America. Yes, there are rail services, but to the extent of Europe or Japan.
While public transit options — that include rail — are beneficial and should not be given up on for the impact they do have, they face years of conditioning towards just the opposite in North America.
That conditioning is: the freedom we get when we drive a car. Auto makers push independence, open air and freedom in their vehicle sales pitches — and we bought into it decades ago. So much so that most of our infrastructure is designed around the car — highways, roads, suburbs and even house architecture (garages the main street-side feature, instead of porches).
Add in the sheer size of the country and rail could only go so far.
Rail in some small forms, will continue to exist for decades to come, but in the long run, all that will soon remain are tourist trains with sporadic schedules that rely on our sense of nostalgia.
