Looks like the Southern Railway of Vancouver Island's Port Alberni Sub, which was closed down by RailAmerica's E&N Railway in 2002 may be set to be reopened soon. Brush and vegitation on most of the sub and the rock slide along Cameron Lake have been cleared, and several bridges have been inspected. There are also 5 or 6 boxcars sitting in the Wellcox yard in Nanaimo destined for Port Alberni, they will be stored temporarily in Nanaimo until the line is reopened.
Aside from being overgown, the tracks aren't too bad. I was over the three trestles on foot four summers ago, and the roadbed was good, and most ties were okay. It isn't a high speed line by any means, probably limited to 20 km/hr or so. -Crandell
The line was in fairly good condition when it was shut down, much better condition than the Victoria Sub. CP Rail heavily upgraded this line in the mid 90's. There was a rock slide that had to be cleared along Cameron Lake, which was done by the Alberni Pacific Railway and volunteers. Vegitation has been cleared along most of the sub as well, again by the Alberni Pacific and volunteers. The bridges were given a quick preliminary inspection and some rotten ties were found, nothing too serious. The E&N actually had plans to start removing the rails from Parksville to just short of Port Alberni and use them on the Victoria Sub to replace worn rails between Victoria and Courtenay in 2006. RailAmerica had cut their maintenance budget and Transport Canada had ordered them to replace the worst of the old rail on the Vic sub. In mid-2006 the Island Corridor Foundation took over ownership of the railway with the SRY taking over operations. SRY brought in new rail for the Victoria Sub and the Port Alberni Sub was spared.
Well, it looks like I jumped the gun. Heard today that the boxcars will most likely be trucked to Port Alberni.
Trucked... Hmmm. I wonder what the costs of that will be, versus rail? Is this a one time exercise? Or? Boxcab E50
Well something is going on with the Port Alberni Sub. Southern Railway of Vancouver Island has, along with volunteers from the Alberni Pacific Railway been clearing vegitation from Parksville to Port Alberni and getting the line ready for use. Plan is for Alberni Pacific to run excursions along Cameron Lake to Parksville and possibly Nanaimo and possible freight traffic for SVI.
Heard uncomfirmed rumours today that the 5 boxcars for BC Institute of Technologies' Railway Conductor Program will be hauled to Port Alberni by rail, and the SVI is gearing up to reopen the Port Alberni Sub for regular freight traffic to Port Alberni by early 2011.
I doubt they'll hire anyone from the BCIT class, they want locomotive engineer qualified people only. BCIT is actually Vancouver-based but uses the Alberni Pacific Railway for live equipment training. Which sure beats the 2 days live equipment training we got when I was in the BCIT Railway Conductor class.
