Let’s look further for ‘generational opportunity’
Each week in the Citizen I am entertained by the E&N railway debate. Should we invest taxpayer money to revitalize the rail lines or convert them to trails, bus lanes, etc.? There is no shortage of opinion on the subject, but enthusiasts on all sides seem to have little beyond zeal and tired ideas to share with those of us who would pay the bill.
If this is truly a “generational opportunity,” then we need to explore it more rigorously.
Anyone who believes a viable rail system could be brought to life for $42.7 million dollars has not been paying attention. A glance to the south at the Johnson Street Bridge, (forecast $30M vs. current spend of $105M plus), or Biketoria, (forecast $7.75M vs. current estimate of $14.2M plus,) demonstrates that government is virtually incapable of executing these type of projects on time and on budget. Even if by a small miracle the ICF proposal was adopted and implemented under budget it would only offer a middling solution to our related transportation and environmental concerns.
If we’re going to invest in an island rail corridor, and I’m not sure we should, then let’s do it right.
London, Oslo and Madrid all have plans to ban vehicles from their urban centres by 2020. If we’re going to spend what would undoubtedly be hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars on an island railway system then let us at least be as ambitious as those other jurisdictions. Let’s establish sunset dates for the use of single passenger vehicles in our communities and through public/private partnerships develop world-class transportation alternatives. Electric powered “Uber-like” services or driverless cars could fill in the gaps of a shuttle and rail system that would be by design and yes legislation, universally used. Our carbon footprint would plunge, passenger volumes would permit the system to be economically viable. Why, we might even be more aspirational than the Europeans; roads and parking lots could be repurposed as parks and affordable housing, insurance and highway policing costs could be reallocated. A fantasy? Perhaps, but what kind of cell-phone were you carrying 25 years ago?
I would not typically advocate for another government-funded study, but if our current best options are “building bus lanes or borrowing a few coaches from West Coast Express” then we need to do more research. The NDP’s Minister of Transportation calls this a “generational opportunity,” let’s not squander it by spending millions of taxpayer dollars on 20th-century solutions. Better to let the grass grow along the rail line until we have a solution worthy of being called generational.
Jim Shaw
Mill Bay
