What a waste of taxpayers' money. It is already known that the cost of rehabilitating the E&N railbeds would be a billion dollars or more, above what it would cost to bring the tracks into the 21st century and place trails beside the tracks not already twinned with them. Providing safe, reliable, convenient, less costly and a valued means of travelling up and down this Island could also remove some of the tankers off of our coast (providing a more direct means of shipping overseas than the clogged Port of Vancouver), provide backup when highways are (increasingly) closed, provide for both tourists and dangerous cargo, reduce pollution, and more. Consider this: had the rails been upgraded to Port Alberni our railroad operator could have contributed to fighting the fire above Cameron Lake using tanker cars.

Evidently an operator is ready to resume service and the federal government is serious about investing in our railway, but the provincial government continues to do nothing more than to pay for yet one more study.

Yes, First Nations need to be meaningfully engaged. Nothing will make up for the past, of course, but they could stand to benefit from a revived railroad far more than they do from highways that were also rammed through their territories.

I estimate that we collectively spend $5 billion a year on our motor vehicles on Vancouver Island. The vast majority of these monies leave B.C. It's past time that V.I. embraced a modern railway.

The views and opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the writer and do not reflect the views of Black Press Media or the Nanaimo News Bulletin.