page_title: Southern Railway of Vancouver Island
section_title: Vancouver Island joining Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Southern Railway of Vancouver Island / History / Vancouver Island joining Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: Port Alberni Station on the Southern Railway of Vancouver Island in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada. The station is part of the heritage Alberni Pacific Railway.
context_page_description: The Southern Railway of Vancouver Island is 234 kilometres in length, and is the only remaining railway on Vancouver Island, after the formal closure of the Englewood Railway in November 2017. The Southern Railway's line runs from Victoria to Courtenay, with a branch line from Parksville to Port Alberni. In 2006, the Island Corridor Foundation acquired the railway's ownership from the Canadian Pacific Railway and RailAmerica.
  Both freight service and the crown corporation Via Rail passenger service have been suspended indefinitely due to deferred maintenance on the rail line.
context_section_description: The history of an island railway and a functioning island railway in perpetuity, started with the colony of Vancouver Island joining British Columbia in 1866, and the Canadian Confederation of 1867, and the incorporation of British Columbia into Canada in 1871.  The terms of union required that within two years, the federal government was to start the construction of a railway from the "seaboard of British Columbia" joining the new province and Victoria with the railway system of Canada.  On its part, British Columbia was to grant a band of public land of up to 32 kilometres (20 mi) in width along either side of the railway line to the federal government for it to use in furtherance of the construction of the railway.  The Pacific terminus of the railway was not specific but the proposed plan would have the railway cross the Rockies by the Yellowhead Pass and reach the BC coast at Bute Inlet.  It would cross Sonora Island and Quadra Island and reach Vancouver Island by a bridge across Seymour Narrows.  Through the influence of then BC Premier Amor de Cosmos, this plan was adopted by Order in Council by the federal government on 7 June 1873.  Two shipments of rail were even delivered to Victoria from the United Kingdom.  In 1873, Prime Minister of Canada Sir John A. Macdonald had stated that Esquimalt, British Columbia, the site of a naval base, would be the terminus of the "Pacific Railway".  However, both the federal government and the Canadian Pacific Railway placed a low priority on construction of an island railway, as it had low traffic potential and would duplicate an existing steamer service.
  In 1874 British Columbia threatened to withdraw from Confederation and Premier Walkem petitioned the Queen for relief from these delays. Then Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie
  and Walkem agreed to accept arbitration of the dispute by the Earl of Carnarvon, the Colonial Secretary. His award, given 17 November 1874 gave an extension of time for the construction and required that a railway be built from Esquimalt to Nanaimo. Despite the promises of both parties to be bound by his ruling, the federal government bill approving the award failed in the Senate of Canada. British Columbians were indignant and withdrawal from Confederation was raised again.
  In 1879 Lord Dufferin was sent to BC to assess the situation.  His efforts produced no resolution.  Governor General Dufferin arriving in Victoria had to take an alternate route rather than pass below an arch across the main street that bore a banner reading "Carnarvon Terms or Separation."  Walkem, although no longer premier, was sent to Ottawa to press for the Esquimalt to Nanaimo section. This issue was pressed again in 1880 by Amor de Cosmos and when that failed another petition to London was presented in 1881.
  The father of Canadian Confederation Sir John A. Macdonald in the House of Commons in 1881 gave a speech on the CPR and criticized Alexander Mackenzie for tinkering with the preconditions of British Columbia and Vancouver Island uniting with Canada.  The old chieftain said, "Both the Government of which I was the head and the Government of which he was the head were bound by the original resolutions."  Macdonald said,"It was admitted that it was a sacred obligation; it was admitted that there was a treaty made with British Columbia, with the people and the Government of British Columbia, and not only was it an agreement and a solemn bargain made between Canada and British Columbia, but it was formally sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government. It was a matter of Colonial policy and Imperial policy in England that the road should be constructed."
caption: Port Alberni Station is today only used by the heritage Alberni Pacific Railway
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.2.00", "Image DateTime": "2009:07:24 19:46:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "28976", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "29104", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9671", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:07:24 19:46:01", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:07:24 19:46:01", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "1", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "73", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "73", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "73", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "28946", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}