Railway ballads by two Nanaimo-area singer-songwriters are giving a musical kick to the struggle to save and revitalize the E&N Railway as rail campaigners mark Earth Day with a salute to the railway as an efficient Green mode of transport.

The official launch of "Dayliner," a new three-song CD by Banjo Jim Erkiletian and Janette Briere, scheduled for 5.30 p.m. on Monday, April 22, at Victoria's VIA Rail station at the foot of Pandora Avenue, has set an upbeat tone for the campaign to protect the threatened Island line.

"We Work to Save the E&N Railway" sung to the tune of "I've been Working on the Railroad" is one of the numbers with which Banjo Jim and Janette are serenading the train while an Island-based committee works out a business plan to sustain the line linking Victoria, Courtenay and the Albernis - currently reprieved from shutdown until May 15.

During Earth Week, members of SaveRail, a citizen alliance, will take part in Victoria's Walk for Global Justice on Saturday, April 27, and on Sunday April 28 they will rally between 11 a.m. and noon at Victoria station to celebrate the 118th anniversary of the founding of the E&N.

"Rail is the Green way to travel - that's our guiding principle" said SaveRail chair Gerry Howell Jones. "And because rail is so efficient, it provides the best value for the investment of the transportation dollar, when operations and schedules are tuned to the Island's needs."

Business journalist Brendan Read, vice-chair of SaveRail, said a provincial government land-swap could be one of the practical strategies for transferring control of the E&N to Island management. "To secure the future of the E&N we must secure the land in public hands, in a fair deal with the railways," says Read. "Only then will the abandonment danger recede, costs drop and will the conditions be right for for the railway to regrow environment-friendly freight and passenger traffic."

Multi-talented singers, writers and social activists Banjo Jim and Janette are playing a bluegrass and rail-ballad musical score for the Island's rail revival with such songs as "E&N Dayliner", and Jim's rewrite of the Indiana national anthem, "Wabash Cannonball". Their CD is scheduled for release April 22 under their own label, Dugout Design.

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