Victoria–Courtenay train

The train was formerly operated with one or two Budd Rail Diesel Cars.[1] Via Rail began operating the passenger train in 1979.[3] During a period of low ridership, all trains terminated at Parksville and a bus continued to Courtenay. Service to Courtenay resumed in 1977.

Although the service had been threatened with discontinuation several times, it was suspended indefinitely on March 19, 2011, due to track replacement work.[4][5] Prior to further inspection of the track, service along the segment between Nanaimo and Victoria was originally planned to resume on April 8,[6] but lack of funding prevented any of the work from taking place leaving the service out of operation for three years. A temporary bus replacement was brought in for the service after the closure, but dropping passenger numbers of less than ten per day caused the service to be discontinued on August 7.[7] On May 10, nearly two months after suspension, the old Budd cars were moved from the roundhouse in Victoria to a secure yard in Nanaimo, in future hopes of starting commuter service from there.[8] On November 5, they were taken off the island to be returned to central Canada and will be replaced by a new three-car train stock if service resumes.[9] However, in February 2012, the very short stretch of track from Harbour Road to downtown Victoria was taken out of service because of the pending removal of the railway bridge as the start of the Johnson Street Bridge replacement project. The Johnson Street Bridge has been replaced with a new bridge, which sits on the site of the former railway bridge, and there are no current plans to replace the railway bridge.

In July 2014, following the successful securing of funds from the local, federal, and provincial governments to replace trackage and repair bridges along the line, Via Rail reached an agreement with Southern Railway of Vancouver Island and the Island Corridor Foundation to resume island passenger rail operations. Service between Victoria and Nanaimo was expected to resume in May 2015, with service between Nanaimo and Courtenay beginning later in summer 2015.[10] However, as of April 2015 repairs to the track had not commenced,[2] and there would be no resumption of passenger (or freight) service on the line before 2016 or 2017 at the earliest.[11]