How much longer are we going to see these articles about the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF) and the VIA train for the Island?
It’s broke and you can’t fix it, however much money we throw at it. Anyone who has walked any length of the track around here can tell you it is in appalling condition and would need hundreds of millions of dollars to get it into a safe condition, and even then it will never pay for itself with two passenger cars running up and down once a day and the odd bit of freight.
Even the thought of annual maintenance costs are frightening.
The ICF would be knocking on taxpayers’ doors every six months for ever-increasing subsidies. Use all the money so far pledged and pull up the track and pave a proper transportation corridor that would get used i.e. walking/biking/rollerblading, etc.
While we are on transportation, when are we going to get realistic on the bus service in this district?
Why do we continue to fund these big, smelly, diesel buses running around empty all day?
Get an independent survey done on ridership and let’s get some smaller, eco-friendly, 12-16-seat buses and do a better job on routes and schedules.
Mike Battams
Parksville