19 June 2008
Steam Train Idea Chugs Ahead
Port Alberni Vancouver Island British Columbia - The
proposal to run an excursion rail service between Oceanside and Port Alberni is moving ahead like a runaway train.
That message was hammered home like a last spike when proponents Douglas Backhouse and Neil Malbon spoke as a delegation at a Qualicum
Beach council meeting.
Malbon said the plan for the excursion train has been approved to the point where organizers are preparing a business plan and economic
impact study.
He said the proposal, if given the final go-ahead, would see a five-hour steam engine-powered
trip that would operate between Port Alberni to Coombs and then Qualicum Beach.
"What we want to do is arrive in Qualicum Beach and provide passengers with two hours to spend money in the community and then
bring them back to Port Alberni by bus," he said.
"The locomotive would stay overnight and then go in reverse."
In the first year of operation, he said, the service would operate four round trips.
Afterward, they would gradually increase in number until the train would run as many as 28 trips by the sixth year of operation.
The train, to be named the Arrowsmith Explorer, would generate a small profit in the first year of operation, he said.
By the fifth year the profit could be substantial. This profit, he added, would be re-invested in infrastructure and
upgrades to the operation.
"We believe we can be a destination attraction," he said.
"There's a lot of natural beauty as you descend the Beauforts. There's Mount Arrowsmith and the French Creek trestle."
Malbon said the service will likely receive a boost from cruise ship traffic in Nanaimo.
The added service could also tie in with various arts events in hte Qualicum Beach area.
Noting work on the track could start as early as this year, Malbon urged Qualicum's council to write a letter of support for the
project, as well as provide planning and engineering support for the railway.
Councillors discussed the matter, and agreed to consider his request.
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