To the editor,
The population of Vancouver Island will soon be one million. Why are we hesitating about keeping the railway corridor? We need another route for the residents to move up and down the Island. What house builder builds a house with only one door? This opportunity will soon slip through our hands. An irrevocable decision will be made in March. It may not be the little Dayliner putting up and down the tracks but we need something. If we lose that route it is gone forever. In 25 years our descendants will look back and say ‘What foolish people who wanted to save a few million and now we are strangled with this bottleneck on the Malahat.’
I remember well when the Nanaimo bypass was built in the 1990s and short-sighted planners saved a bit of money by not putting a cloverleaf or overpass at Northfield and also at Jingle Pot Roads. It was possible then when there was more room and less build up but nearly impossible today. Roads clog from the top of the hill by the college all the way to Woodgrove.
The planners and politicians who make these decisions should be eager to save this route to Victoria. A trail or bike path is not an alternative. The whole thing will be gone if the mayors on this Island do not eagerly lobby for this route. The population of Vancouver Island is growing rapidly. We must look to the future.
Stephanie Williams, Nanaimo
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