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Surely we can upgrade exisiting Vancouver Island railway

I enjoyed the letter from Jim Bennett ( PQB News , Sept. 3).
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I enjoyed the letter from Jim Bennett (PQB News, Sept. 3).

There is no alternative aside from the railway, up and down the Island, when one of several blockages occur.

And please do not use the argument that it was not used earlier.

First, the population has greatly increased, the highway traffic has hugely increased and why would a once-per-day trip up Island be used?

I no longer use the 1927 Chev I drove to school in high school, so why would we use a 1952 grain hauler from Saskatchewan to chug up the Island?

How about a lighter, faster unit from Victoria to Nanaimo and another from Nanaimo to Courtenay making two or three trips per day?

It will be used, just as the Canada Line was very quickly up to full ridership within a few months after start up, in spite of all the nay sayers saying it would not be used.

It will be expensive, but if Europeans can tunnel through a mountain and build a new railway from scratch, I would think we can upgrade an existing railway.

How many people were against building Highway 19?

It sure cost a great deal of money; would you rather we did not have it in place?

Ed Fergusson

Parksville