If the Roundhouse in Vic West is to become a heritage site, it should become a historic railway attraction site with whatever available historic railroad rolling stock can be put on the tracks in the rail yard on the site adjacent to the Roundhouse.
There are two cars there now: One CPR boxcar and one baggage wagon that looks to be CNR green, so the place needs to show a couple of locomotives, like a steam engine and a diesel, and maybe one of the old VIA Budcars that used to run up the Island.
This could be the start of a railroad museum which would attract railway fans. Later on, the operators can look for more cars and locomotives to fill up the yard.
The property beside the railyard that has been sitting empty and turns into a lake during the rainy season should not be developed into more expensive apartments for rich folks to scoop up. There are too many of those already, so that the average wage earner can't afford to rent a place in this city.
The railyard was there long before Victoria started to be a tourist city. When I came here in 1980, there were boxcars sitting on tracks on Store Street waiting for goods to be taken up-Island or unloaded from there. That was quickly torn down for one reason or another by people who wanted to move stuff by trucks on a very difficult and dangerous road called the Malahat highway, so somebody wasn't thinking.
In any case, keep the railyard as is and don't bury it between a bunch of high-rise towers. Keep developers out of it.
Bill Kral
Victoria
