Project Partners
Island Corridor Foundation (ICF)
About
The Island Corridor Foundation (ICF) is a collaboration between First Nations and Regional Districts to protect the Island rail corridor. Without this intervention rail service on the Island would have been abandoned and the continuous corridor lost forever.
Vision
To preserve and use the E&N Corridor in perpetuity, as one continuous corridor to connect and benefit all Island communities and First Nations along the corridor.
Goal/Mission
Expand multi-purpose use within the corridor, connect to services beyond, and enhance freight and commuter rail service.
Owned by the Island for the Island
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and RailAmerica have donated their portions of the corridor to ICF. ICF is now the title-holder to all the land within the existing corridor, giving local First Nations and communities jurisdiction over this historic property for the first time since the land was granted to the Dunsmuirs for the E&N Railway in 1883.
Local governments and First Nations will then be able to capitalize on the certainty of long-term tenure, enabling long-range planning and the more efficient integration of services. There will be more autonomy over decisions affecting Island communities, and as corridor activities become more linked with local economies, opportunities will only increase.
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoT)
In January 2008, the Provincial Transit Plan (PTP) was announced as a major part of the broader $14 billion provincial transportation strategy. The aim of the PTP is to develop more effective transit services in BC and envisages an interconnected transit grid made up of a range of green travel options aimed a getting people out of their cars and into public transit. Through this ambitious plan, transit ridership will double in BC by 2020.
More specific goals highlighted in the PTP are focused regionally at increasing transit market share in every regional centre in British Columbia to meet the objectives set at the benchmark years of 2020 and 2030. The plan will see further improvements to transit security including measures to ensure passenger safety on all modes of transit. Further investments will be made into customized solutions to meet the varying needs of BC’s diverse communities, including, for example, expanding the rapid transit concept along key corridors throughout the province.
Investment in improved and expanded transit services will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The transportation sector is a major contributor to GHG emissions, the majority of which comes from cars and trucks. Increasing transit ridership coupled with increasing urban densities will go a long way to combating GHG emissions and by achieving the goals contained in the PTP, we can avoid over 4.7 million tonnes of GHG emissions by 2020. To achieve this mark would further support the province’s wider climate action plan to reduce GHG emissions by 33 percent of current levels by 2020. |
