The E & N railway should have been given to the Island Corridor Foundation (and us) in excellent condition by the CPR.
They had the material and equipment here to do that.
The CPR still owns property on the Island and has mineral rights on all of the property owners on the east side.
I have been trying to find out who is responsible for the demise of the E & N and it appears to be the federal government. They own and stopped VIA Rail running and even took the Budd cars back East, supposedly for refurbishing and never returned them. They then put a bunch of stipulations on restoring the railroad back to service.
Many problems have been arising since service has been disrupted.
• Needed overall maintenance is not being done.
• Bus service has become almost non-existent.
• Qualicum Beach is preparing to use the right of way for trails.
• Seniors need this railroad running for transportation to medical services, because the price of owning and running your own vehicle is getting out of reach for many.
If we lose this heritage railway we will never get it back.
Al Nichol
Qualicum Beach