Why isn’t Greater Victoria using the Island Rail Corridor for higher capacity transit?

The Island Rail Corridor crosses Colville and Admirals roads in Esquimalt. While trains no longer operate through Greater Victoria, debate continues over how the corridor should be used as the region plans for future transportation needs. (Photo: Josh Hylden/CFAX 1070)

Greater Victoria is planning for a future when buses may no longer be enough.

So why isn’t the region turning to the rail corridor it already has?

It is a straightforward question with a complicated answer.

The 234 kilometre Island Rail Corridor stretches from Victoria to Courtenay and Port Alberni, passing through some of Vancouver Island’s fastest growing communities. To many residents, it can look like an obvious piece of transportation infrastructure waiting to be put back to work.

The corridor has carried passengers for more than a century, but much of the route has been largely idle for more than 15 years.

Today, its future is tied to a much bigger conversation about transportation, reconciliation and how the corridor should serve the communities around it.

Some want passenger rail to return. Others see greater potential in a continuous walking and cycling route. There are also those who believe the corridor should preserve options for both.

As Greater Victoria prepares for higher capacity transit, the question is no longer simply whether the corridor should be used.

It is what role it should play in the decades ahead.

What problem is Greater Victoria trying to solve?

The starting point is the region’s growing demand for transit.

In its draft Victoria Regional Transit Plan, BC Transit says some of Greater Victoria’s busiest corridors will eventually require something beyond conventional bus service.

Population growth and congestion are putting increasing pressure on the system, particularly between downtown Victoria and the West Shore.

That is where the idea of higher order transit comes in.

It does not automatically mean trains. It means considering transportation options that can move more people efficiently and reliably along the region’s busiest routes.

BC Transit identifies the Island Rail Corridor as an important transportation asset that could help connect the West Shore, Esquimalt, CFB Esquimalt and Victoria, while also supporting connections elsewhere on Vancouver Island.

But the agency’s plan does not envision the corridor replacing higher order transit along Douglas Street and Highway 1.

Instead, it sees the two as complementary.

For Restore Island Rail founder Warren Skaalrud, the corridor could play a much larger role.

“The E&N Rail Corridor is the quickest way,” Skaalrud told CFAX 1070, pointing to its direct connection between growing communities and destinations including CFB Esquimalt and downtown Victoria.

His vision differs from BC Transit’s.

Rather than serving as a secondary transportation asset, Skaalrud believes the corridor could become a primary higher capacity route for the region.

Rail or trail?

There is another vision for the corridor.

Friends of Rails to Trails Vancouver Island chair Alastair Craighead says preserving the corridor’s continuity is the priority, but that does not necessarily require restoring rail service.

In a written response to CFAX 1070, Craighead said the organization’s first priority is preserving the Island Corridor as an “irreplaceable existing and future transportation corridor.”

He supports a continuous walking and cycling trail, arguing it could provide transportation, recreation and economic benefits while keeping the corridor intact.

“A trail will not stop rail coming back,” he wrote.

That disagreement illustrates why the debate is about more than choosing between buses and trains.

It is about deciding what kind of transportation corridor Vancouver Island wants to preserve for the future.

If the corridor is so valuable, why hasn’t it happened already?

The obvious question remains: If the corridor is already there, why hasn’t someone simply put it back into service?

Part of the answer is its history.

The corridor was constructed through land grants involving unceded First Nations territory. Its legacy includes questions about land, community impacts, stewardship and reconciliation.

In some communities, the railway continues to divide neighbourhoods and reserve lands much as it did when it was first constructed.

“We need to reposition the corridor for the future,” Island Corridor Foundation chief executive officer Thomas Bevan told CFAX 1070.

That means decisions about its future cannot be reduced to repairing tracks and putting trains back on them.

There are also significant governance and infrastructure questions.

The Island Corridor Foundation was created in 2004 to own and manage the corridor on behalf of local governments and First Nations along the route. Any major change involves multiple governments, rights holders and communities.

Years of limited use have also left sections of the corridor requiring assessment, maintenance and rehabilitation.

Parts of the line have been affected by fires, natural disasters and deferred infrastructure work. The future of some sections has also been shaped by legal and ownership issues.

In 2023, a segment crossing the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation reserve was returned as part of a broader reconciliation process.

Then there is the cost.

Restoring passenger rail would require investment in tracks, bridges, stations, safety infrastructure, operations and long term maintenance.

In other words, the corridor may already exist, but a functioning passenger railway does not.

A different approach to the future

Those challenges are part of why the Reconciliation Corridor Initiative is now examining what comes next.

Led by Songhees Nation and Esquimalt Nation, the initiative brings together First Nations, the Capital Regional District, the Island Corridor Foundation, local governments and other partners.

The goal is not to start with a predetermined transportation solution.

Instead, the initiative is looking at how the corridor could address historical harms while supporting economic opportunity and regional mobility.

“This could provide reconciliation for us and a way forward in terms of transportation in the South Island for the good of the whole region,” Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said when the initiative was announced.

Studies and consultations are examining transportation possibilities, economic development opportunities and ways the corridor could better serve communities affected by its original construction.

That approach changes the question.

Instead of asking whether the region should simply bring the railway back, the process is asking what the corridor could become and who should help decide.

The corridor’s future is still open

The appeal of the Island Rail Corridor is easy to understand.

The route already exists. It runs through communities that are growing. And Greater Victoria is beginning to confront the limits of a transit system that relies heavily on conventional buses.

But the corridor is not a ready made transit line waiting for trains.

Its physical condition, cost, governance and history all matter. So do the competing visions for how it should serve the people and communities along its route.

Rail advocates see an opportunity to create a high capacity transportation link.

Trail advocates see a chance to establish a continuous active transportation route while preserving the corridor for future possibilities.

First Nations are also seeking a greater role in determining what the corridor means for their communities and how its history is addressed.

For Greater Victoria, that may ultimately make the Island Rail Corridor about more than trains.

It is a question about what kind of region is being built, how people will move through it and how a piece of Vancouver Island’s history can be reshaped for generations to come.