SaveRail Vancouver Island - 114th Anniversary of the E&N!

Good Friday, March 29, marked the 114th Anniversary of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway's entrance into downtown Victoria.To ensure the E&N will have many more such anniversaries, SaveRail Coalition, formed of businesses and community groups, celebrated the anniversary and the new drive at VIA's Victoria station. The celebration was timed for the morning departure at 8:15 AM. The petition is aimed at the British Columbia Legislature to prompt the provincial government to take firm steps to save and revitalize the railway.

SaveRail is also encouraging residents to contact their MLAs and Transportation Minister Judith Reid. SaveRail vice chair Brendan Read, was among the estimated 2,500 people who witnessed the E&N's return to downtown Victoria Nov.10, 1985. Rail supporters campaigned hard to restore passenger service downtown after it was pushed out to Catherine Street in 1972.

Read says the provincial government has many options, including swapping Crown property as it did when it acquired the lands occupied by BC Place from the CPR.

"The federal government is the key player in obtaining a deal with the CPR and RailAmerica to keep and improve the E&N, but we have been told that it wants guidance from the province," says Read. "We want the provincial government, in partnership with federal government and with other stakeholders, to put forward concrete proposals. The new petition and letters from voters will show that there is support for provincial action."

SaveRail is delivering its petition this week to the federal Parliament. Keith Martin, MP for Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca, will be presenting it to the House of Commons after the Easter recess.

"This petition represents only a small sampling of the public support for the railway," said SaveRail Coalition chair Gerry Howell Jones. "At the Moka House Coffee Shop in Langford, 1,071 people signed the petition, and volunteers at a table in the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria gathered 1,000 signatures in three days. That we achieved that many signatures in the face of so many other issues shows the depth of concern the public has over the missed opportunities which abandoning the E&N would represent."

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