What about our little E&N???

[ssiguy2]

Does anyone know the status of the E&N Railway on Vancouver Island?
I know its still running once a day {in the wrong direction} but its clear VIA Rail wants the thing to die a slow death by making the service as poor and unreliable as possible.
Has it been given a life-long repreive or is it a year to year thing.
I find it infuriating that VIA gets tons of money but the E&N is left to rot and Calgary has no rail service at all.

[Koz]

Yeah, it's rotting away, dieing a slow death like you say. It's going to run for the foreseeable future, however.

It'd make a great link between the mid-to-southern island if the schedule had any merit, but as things stand, nobody even cares it exists.

[Joev]

It's harder to justify having a railway on an island, just like Newfoundland's, which was shut down years ago. Maybe Van Isle could get money for highways, or other transit in return for closing the railway, as happened in NL.

[Koz]

VIA specifically has a bad schedule to deter ridership. If they wanted to promote ridership, they'd have a schedule that made sense. As things stand now, nobody wants to use the train because it doesn't run when anyone wants to use it. It's that simple.

[officedweller]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquimalt_and_Nanaimo_Railway

[Dylan Leblanc]

There was a tourist train running north from Victoria in 2000 called the Pacific Wilderness Railway. It didn't last very long, I assume because of low ridership. I think the problem was that it was exclusively for tourists. If the ride had been designed for commuters and real people who live on the Island, it could have also served tourists, and maybe worked better.

[ssiguy2]

I think proper VIA service on the Island could make a go of it if they changed the schedule, updated the tracks to make the route faster and morecomfortable and got new cars. I think it could do well as a commuter train from Duncan with some other stops and a regular once an hour service from Parks/QB to Nanaimo. As not only does the train go to all the outer malls but near the nice Historic District downtown and close to the university that the city buses could be timed to meet it to go to the university.

[Tri-City Guy]

I've been on it and it was great! Shame about the state of the train station in the Harbour City though.

[VicHockeyFan]

I think proper VIA service on the Island could make a go of it if they changed the schedule, updated the tracks to make the route faster and morecomfortable and got new cars. I think it could do well as a commuter train from Duncan with some other stops and a regular once an hour service from Parks/QB to Nanaimo. As not only does the train go to all the outer malls but near the nice Historic District downtown and close to the university that the city buses could be timed to meet it to go to the university.

That's way too expensive. You know how much a powered passenger car costs? A good-shape budd-car, the type that runs now, built around 1950, still costs $2M. A new model has to be in the $4M range. You can buy a lot of busses for that price, and they run on roads, no track upgrade or maintenance required, and a lot more flexible (ie. it can go wherever it wants)

The thing ought to be scrapped, but the right-of-way kept.

[ssiguy2]

Well, maybe with the near half a billion dollars VIA gets from Ottawa everyyear maybe a little could actually make its way out here to say nothing of restoring service to Calgary our 5th largest metropolitan centre.

[Koz]

The thing ought to be scrapped, but the right-of-way kept.

I believe there's an initiative currently underway to make sure that happens.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ Good.

[Guerrero]

Here's An idea for the train.

If LRT is ever built to Langford Town Centre. The Train could start there and then go up the island from there. LRT could move people into the downtown faster. Train storage could be done in Langford where the land is cheaper, then the Roundhouse in Songhees could be converted to some other use with the land around it sold for development. The right of way could be turned over for that new trail.

A train starting in Langford would get to Nanaimo in no time and also traffic through the rest of the city would not be tied up. What does everyone think?

[ssiguy2]

Its a great option for LRT for greater Victoria and could be extended during rushours to Duncan for a commuter rail type service. This however will cost money and the reality is that VIA want the old E&N to die. Upgrading it is the last thing they will do.

[Guerrero]

I say tear up the old line from Langford to Downtown and use the LRT right of way that was put forward a couple of years back, that would go down the highway. I tell ya the money from selling the land around the Songhees would be a good start for funding LRT. I bet you could get some of the NIMBYs in Songhees to put up some money to as they wouldn't have the train whistle right outside their windows.

[worldwide]

so when does it run? why is it so usless, does it run at 5 am or something?

[ssiguy2]

This all depends on whether VIA allows them to use their ROW.

[renthefinn]

^VIA doesn't own the right of way, most of the E&N is owned by CN(or maybe CP, but I'm pretty sure it's CN), and there's a small part owned by RailAmerica. There is a campaign to purchase the ROW and return it to local public hands by a group known as the Island Corridor Foundation.

[Guerrero]

It leaves downtown at about 8am and takes about four hours to get to Courtney it then turns around and comes back getting back to Victoria about 9pm.

That is why if the originating station was Langford you would shave about 1/2 an hour each way. Maybe if the proposed express bus system to Langford gets put into place soon this could be implemented. This would really save VIA a lot of money and the service would be much faster. Also I am sure Langford would love to steal the station from Victoria as the Mayor there likes to show that he can do things better then some of the other mayors around here.

[Koz]

There's a new subdivision currently being built in northern langford (in the Maw Millers Pub area near Goldstream Park) that will have its own E&N station. Maybe the developer knows something the rest of us don't or he likes to gamble. In any case there'll be a station out there but whether it will serve a major purpose is anyones guess.

[Guerrero]

All day workshop on the future of the E&N today at Victoria City Hall. I would have gone but apparently it costs 95 bucks. Anyways there is a picture of a rail tram running on the E&N tracks with a bicycle path next to it in the Victoria News today. I will try and find out what went down at the meeting.

Some people just don't get that the path the E&N follows from View Royal into the city just is not viable for commuter rail. Let alone the fact that they would still have to lay down a second line next to it so that trains could go both ways at decent intervals. That would mean laying down a second heavy rail line which would be very expensive.

I still like my idea the best but of course I would :)

[ssiguy2]

One of the important thins about the E&N thru Vic is that it is a ROW. Sure, they would have to build another track but nothing compared to the price of land aquisition or the expense of riping up roads for a streetcar down the middle. Those are also not much faster than a bus. An LRT down the rail line would be far cheaper and faster.