Via Rail has shot back at Vancouver Island rail proponents, insisting it verbally responded to the last offer to restart passenger train service and isn’t negotiating in bad faith.
“We are acting in good faith,” said Montreal-based Via spokesman Jacques Gagnon.
Via has been under fire for not answering an April proposal by the Island Corridor Foundation’s private operator, Southern Railway of B.C., to restart passenger train service on the Island’s E&N line from Victoria to Courtenay.
Gagnon said Via “has responded verbally” to the proposal but won’t divulge what was actually said.
“It’s incumbent on the foundation to divulge what we’ve discussed,” Gagnon said.
Island Corridor Foundation executive director Graham Bruce said the discussion with the Crown corporation was brief and centered around Via’s unwillingness to respond in writing to the proposal.
“What they said, I was told, was that they weren’t going to respond,” Bruce said.
The two sides are locked in a war of words in advance of an end-of-August deadline, which Bruce said could mean the end of more than $18 million in regional, provincial and federal funding commitments to upgrade the E&N track. That money is contingent on Via signing a new train service contract.
Via brushed aside that deadline in an interview on Thursday. “We’ve had previous deadlines before,” Gagnon said.
Via said it is unwilling to enter into any agreement that costs the Crown corporation any more money.
“We’d consider a new service strategy as long as it does not increase our operating budget,” Gagnon said.
Bruce said the proposal would actually limit Via’s previous annual losses on the Island run, which have ranged from $950,000 to $1.95 million annually.
But Via suggested that was untrue. “I ask them to show the documents,” Gagnon said.
Via also questioned the $18 million available to fix track safety. It stopped operating trains in 2011 due to deteriorating track conditions. “Talk to third-party track experts to see if that money is enough,” Gagnon said.
Another drawback is the lack of a train station in downtown Victoria, he said. The station was demolished as part of the Johnson Street Bridge project.
However, Bruce said the Island Corridor Foundation has land in Vic West and could build a new station.
Via said there are “liability” issues with some Island railway crossings, and cited a lack of a train maintenance centre. Trains used to be maintained at a property in Vic West, now slated for private development.
The Island Corridor Foundation has a solution for that, too, Bruce said, though he did not elaborate.
Via would, “with the right parameters,” consider restarting the old train service agreement on the Island, Gagnon said.
But many have criticized that service because it ran trains north from Victoria in the mornings, rather than with the flow of commuter traffic toward Greater Victoria.
