The train was formerly operated with one or two Budd Rail Diesel Cars. Via Rail began operating the passenger train in 1979.
Service suspension
Although the service had been threatened with discontinuation several times, it was suspended indefinitely on March 19, 2011, due to track replacement work. Prior to further inspection of the track, service along the segment between Nanaimo and Victoria was originally planned to resume on April 8, 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. 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. On November 5, they were taken off the island to be returned to central Canada; they will be replaced by a new three-car train stock if service resumes. However, in February 2012, the very short stretch of track from Harbour Road to downtown Victoria was taken out of service due to 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 that sits on the site of the former railway bridge, and there are no current plans to replace the railway bridge. In July 2014, following 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. But, as of 2015 repairs to the track had not commenced, and there will be no resumption of passenger service on the line before 2016/2017 at the earliest.
Route
When VIA Rail took over the service from Canadian Pacific Railway, the line served only Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo and Parksville daily except Sundays. In 1979, many intermediate stops that existed until the line's closure were added to the schedule and the train began operating daily. The train operated one daily round trip, departing Victoria in the morning, and returning from Courtenay in the evening. The trip took 4 hours and 45 minutes each way. Proposals of operating a commuter service as far as Nanaimo, or Cowichan have now shifted to focus on running a Westshore commuter service along the first 15 kilometres of track between Victoria and Langford.
