The Island Rail Corridor, previously the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway (E&N Railway), is a dormant railway operation on Vancouver Island and is the only remaining railway there after the closure of the Englewood Railway in November 2017. The Island Corridor Foundation owns the former Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway corridor. The railway line is in length from Victoria to Courtenay, known as the Victoria Subdivision, with a branch line from Parksville to Port Alberni known as the Port Alberni Subdivision at in length, for a total of mainline track. In 2006, the Island Corridor Foundation acquired the railway's ownership from the Canadian Pacific Railway. Both freight service (since 2014) and passenger service (since 2011) have been suspended due to deferred maintenance on the rail line. History Vancouver Island joining Canada 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, 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 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, 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,