To the editor,
Re: Having both rail and trail would be best, Letters, June 23.
There is nothing wrong about having a dream, but folks who have ideas about replacing rails with trails need a dose of reality and some basic facts. The E&N railway corridor is not public land but owned by the Island Corridor Foundation. Once you pull the rails or pave over them, the land is no longer a transportation corridor and the various regional districts and First Nations that make up the ICF will divide the land each for their own purpose. Trails are not on their top-10 lists of land-use possibilities.
Furthermore, since 2007, all partners including the four regional districts have signed an MOU to build a trail along the railway from Victoria to Courtenay. For that purpose a design guide was developed and that has been used on the various sections that have been built over the past 14 years, such as the seven-kilometre multi-use trail from Parksville to Coombs and the 4.3km Saltair Rail With Trail project.Of the 17km E&N Rail Trail-Humpback Connector, 13km is finished and open to the public. Shawnigan Lake E&N rail trail connector to the Galloping Goose and Shawnigan Lake Village rail trail projects are on the go. And the list goes on.
Can we have news articles based on facts and steeped in reality? Knowledge of the long-term plans for transportation and recreation by government is a must. Don’t stop dreaming.
Leo Boon, Nanaimo
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