Passenger rail:
killitnow,
revive it later

If the passenger trains quit running through Terrace this week,
would anyone care two years from now? re
That is probably the question the federal government is asking

itself about the continued existence of VIA Rail’s Skeena run and .

many of the other passenger rail services in the country that sur-
vived this week’s hatcheting. It would be more appropriate for
them to be asking, If fast, comfortable, daily train service were

instituted on all the major rail sections in the country, how much =:

of the passenger market could VIA Rail capture and how would
the return on investment stand? a

The Northwest breathed a collective sigh of relief when the
Prince Rupert-to-Edmonton train service somehow — apparently
through a technicality in the Minister of Transport’s mandate —
was allowed to keep running while passenger train schedules
throughout Canada were being junked. But our route’s continued
survival is certainly still in question, and there is hardly any

‘doubt that the Tories will exterminate it as soon as they have the
statutory opportunity to do so. Travelling this region by train
could be a major tourism draw if the service was more frequent,
more modern and more oriented toward travellers. With

" passenger rail being treated like a poor and distant relative by the
people who hold the purse strings, however, no tour operator
with a trace of brains would build a business around the service.

The government’s approach to VIA, which amounts to
management by neglect, has set the service up for failure. Despite
all this, during the summer it is difficult to get a seat during the
summer on any of the three slow, rather run-down trains per
week that run through Terrace. Passengers are discouraged at

every turn, particularly in the absurd scheduling that effectively
requires three days to go from here to Vancouver, but even in the
face of that demand is still high.

We all know that at some point not too far in the future en-
vironmental concerns and fuel efficiency will completely.
dominate every aspect of transportation. The truly tragic aspect
of this situation is that the rail service being dismantled now will
be the transportation method of choice within 10 years because it
is unequalled in terms of fuel consumption (and consequently
hydrocarbon emissions) per passenger, comfort and safety. The
cost of restarting VIA, or some equivalent of it, will be stagger-
ing if it sits dormant for that long.

We are, incredibly, being asked by this government to believe
that after mismanagement and neglect by successive administra-
tions there is something wrong with the overall concept of
passenger rail travel itself.

That line is being proven false in every industrialized nation in
the world — except Canada. -

neal ae VRS EERE

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hohe.num

VICTORIA — Tonight’s the
night. ;

After five tedious weeks of -
‘will he, won’t he?’’, Premier
Bill Vander Zalm will tell the
people this eve whether or not
he is going to resign for the
sake of his party and the prov-
ince.

| have a copy of a letter,
dated Dec. 29, 1989, written by
the premier of British Colum-
bia, which apparently was sent

MME out to about 50 family friends

during the festive season.

It provides some insight into
any agonizing which Mr.
Vander Zalm may have under-
gone for the last five weeks as
he contemplated his future.

He believes that io resign will
mean “‘that the media has won,
as have the dissidents’’, and
warns that future Socred
leaders could end up in the
same mess he is wading
through now. _

Unless you have been living
in a cave since Dec. 13, when
the Social Credit Party lost its
sixth straight by-election, you
will know that tonight is Deci-
sion Day for the beleaguered
premier.

Every known theory or op-
tion one could imagine — and
even‘a few one couldn’t! — has
been trotted out by politicians,
pundits, strategists and
strangers, trying to guess cor-
rectly what Wild Bill will do.

He will step down. He will
not step down. He will calla
snap election. He will call a

-teadership contest and be one

of the candidates. He never. in-.
tended to quil, but has done all

The view from —
| Victoria —

_.by John Pifer

thy

this just to keep his opponents
silent. He will banish from the
party the four defectors from
caucus. He will berate Grace
McCarthy for undermining his

‘leadership. He will weep openly

and beg forgiveness for his

unwise pontifications on abor-
tion, moral issues and his ten-
dency to preach. He will do all
of the above. He will do none
of the above. -

Surely, no egomaniac could
imagine a better situation than
being the focus of undivided
public attention for five full
weeks, in which everything else
grinds to a halt awaiting The
Word?

Anyway, to the letter. It is in
response to Christmas greetings
from old friends, and thanks
them for their good advice. But
the premier is quick to point
out (on government stationery,
of course) that ‘‘the problem is
always more complex than
what it appears to be on the
surface.”

Then come some trademark
Vander Zalm non-sentences
which may be interpreted as a
determination to stay on, re-
gardless.

“While it may be tempting
to take an easier route out, and
forget about fighting the
media, the dissidents within
caucus or party, and added to
this the NDP which is seldom
heard from bul is granted the
platform too often.

“The difficulty, of course, is
that giving in means that the

be, is faced with a similar
situation. It will be the beginn-
ing of an idle or some other.
such government which changes
constantly because of similar
dissidents.

“This province is in too
good of shape (sic), things are
going too well, and we are get-
ting too much accomplished to
throw it all-in without, at least,
thinking it through very, very
carefully, which I intend to do
over the next number of
weeks,’’ writes Vander Zalm.

So, there you have it — the
private musings of a man most
of his own party and caucus
want to see gone, so they can
get on with business, and away
from the Bill and Lillian Show,
which has become B.C.’s own
Dallas/ Dynasty.

So, will he resign? I still
think he will, but chances are
this enigmatic man probably
won't decide either way until
five minutes before he goes
before the cameras.

Perhaps the best evidence
that the premier had not made
up his mind even late last week
was the fact that $30,000 or so
has been spent on pro-Zalm
newspaper ads, labelled Truth
or Consequences, which have
been appearing around the
province.

Whichever rich fat cat friend
of Bill Vander Zalm is footing
the bill, it is unlikely that they
would do so without Bill’s
knowledge (and encourage-

media has won, as have the dis- ment?). And he certainly

‘ sidents, and from then on

whomever (sic) the leader will

continued on page A7

5:

Sei ore

ST, ee ene Sr MERE Te :

TRE ee, ne ee ae TE TE ts Z gt

Sie eae eT ek tae

PERE