Public transit between Vancouver Island communities remains fragmented. A modest pilot focused on coordination could deliver cohesion.
According to provincial population estimates, there were roughly 750,000 people living on Vancouver Island in 2011 – when passenger service on the E&N ended because of the poor condition of the rails. That number has since grown to about 893,000 people today and is projected to approach one million people in the next 15 years.
Since 2011, there has been a consistent reduction in interregional connectivity. Greyhound Canada ended its two Island routes in 2018, along with the rest of Western Canada. Other services like the Vancouver Island Connector filled that gap, but only Island Link is running at present, leaving Islanders with few options. Interregional public transit does exist, but it functions as a set of disconnected systems. While it’s technically feasible to take the bus from Victoria to Courtenay, the connections between systems are fragile enough that it cannot be done in a single day, let alone a roundtrip.
Over the past decade, the E&N rail corridor has been studied repeatedly, with projected rehabilitation costs in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars. Since those studies, changes in corridor stewardship, legal and environmental risks, and wildfire damage have only added to the complexity and cost of restoring passenger rail service.
To be clear, none of these mean rail lacks value. But it does make clear that restoring interregional mobility via rail is not a near‑term solution. If rail is to return in any form, it will require significant investment as well as strong, demonstrated interregional ridership from the outset.
We can begin to rebuild that ridership now—at a fraction of the cost—if we do so in a way which keeps future rail options viable. This requires modest, iterative coordination of existing public transit. The Union of BC Municipalities endorsed interregional transit in principle years ago and recently a resolution supporting interregional coordination was brought forward and endorsed by the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities.
So it’s no longer a question of whether interregional transit matters, but rather why a modest, pilot‑scale version hasn’t been tried. Linking Vancouver Island’s population centres doesn’t require a train. Nor does it require high-frequency service, new depots or fleets of new buses. But it does require coordination and modest investment.
The reliability that comes along with even a small number of guaranteed, same‑day connections could greatly improve the quality of life for Vancouver Islanders. Folks can plan medical appointments without overnight stays. Employment opportunities expand once workers can accept jobs without needing a car. Families can depend on transit for custody and care responsibilities. At this scale, reliability matters much more than speed or frequency.
And we don’t need to break the bank to do it. We already have the roads, the buses and the trained operators needed to pull it off. What we need is agreement about when, where and how often buses should meet. Operating costs are comparable to a single new urban bus route. The return on investment becomes island‑wide access, rather than benefits limited to a single corridor.
A small, time‑limited pilot would be enough to test demand for such a service. Four predictable daily trips, northbound and southbound, would be transformational for many riders. And it can be done without permanent changes. If it does not work, it can be adjusted or stopped altogether.
This can work to complement private intercity bus services rather than compete with them. Private services offer direct, comfort‑focused travel while public transit provides baseline mobility and equitable access. Improving public mobility does not remove private choice.
We have become accustomed to thinking municipally and regionally. But people don’t live that way. Interregional coordination is mostly about choosing to act. Other regions have already shown this can be done incrementally.
So, if the principle of interregional transit is generally accepted, and the infrastructure already exists, and if the first step is modest and reversible, in an era where we are increasingly asking how we can do more with less, the question really becomes: why haven’t we tried this already?