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VIA Rail

reaperexpress said:
According to Global News, the federal government is slashing Via Rail's budget by 50% ($1 Billion) this coming year:
spendinghit.jpg


At the same time, the budget for the department of Finance is being increased by $8.5 Billion and the budget for National Defense is being increased by $5.3 Billion, and Via HFR is being increased by $0.1 Billion. Not sure why HFR is still a department, unless Alto is still operating under that name.
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Looks like Canada Post is going to need to find either a new dance partner or new business model.
 
lenaitch said:
As mentioned often by others, starting/restoring a passenger train, like anything else a government does, is as much a political decision as it is anything else. The highway is only "an expressway" south of North Bay and there is no direct Cochrane/Timmins to Toronto bus.
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Yes, highway is to the south. In my mind North Bay to Timmins was the need; Toronto to North Bay is the luxury - and I don't know how that would be any more beneficial to revenue than a reliable daily Toronto to Sudbury train. Does anyone have the current ridership of those who get off northbound at Sudbury?

lenaitch said:
Looks like Canada Post is going to need to find either a new dance partner or new business model.
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Will it though? Funding is normally zero, and it's self-sustaining. Though since Covid it's been getting loans to function. They had a one-time cash infusion to stabilize it, and deal with past debt. I'm not sure what has changed.
 
nfitz said:
Yes, highway is to the south. In my mind North Bay to Timmins was the need; Toronto to North Bay is the luxury - and I don't know how that would be any more beneficial to revenue than a reliable daily Toronto to Sudbury train. Does anyone have the current ridership of those who get off northbound at Sudbury?

Will it though? Funding is normally zero, and it's self-sustaining. Though since Covid it's been getting loans to function. They had a one-time cash infusion to stabilize it, and deal with past debt. I'm not sure what has changed.
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Really. For some reason this table only shows 1982-1986, but it seems taxpayer support is a little more enduring. Certainly not the $1Bn+ of late, but not nothing.
 
nfitz said:
Yes, highway is to the south. In my mind North Bay to Timmins was the need; Toronto to North Bay is the luxury - and I don't know how that would be any more beneficial to revenue than a reliable daily Toronto to Sudbury train. Does anyone have the current ridership of those who get off northbound at Sudbury?
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Again, I'm sure the ONR would gladly provide some kind of Sudbury-Toronto service if the government was willing to fund it. I thing the kind of federal-state partnership similar to what Amtrak has would be a good model, but we currently don't have that.
 
nfitz said:
They had a one-time cash infusion to stabilize it, and deal with past debt. I'm not sure what has changed.
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The explanation I saw for these eye-popping percentages is exactly that, there was a one-time loan last budget for Canada Post, and the drop for VIA is because they have completed purchasing the Ventures.
 
legoswmonkey said:
The explanation I saw for these eye-popping percentages is exactly that, there was a one-time loan last budget for Canada Post, and the drop for VIA is because they have completed purchasing the Ventures.
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capital and operating were combined. bit weird. if thats the case
 
lenaitch said:
Looks like Canada Post is going to need to find either a new dance partner or new business model.
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generalcanada said:
capital and operating were combined. bit weird. if thats the case
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Well, it is Global News ... :). I'm not sure the government would release it that way.

Gosh, the government is still considering Canada Post as "loans"? Though I guess that table assume no payback! :)
 
smallspy said:
Is this a recent development? The RDCs have wyed there many, many times over the years.

Dan
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Realistically, nothing concrete from VIA and probably just railfan scuttlebutt. Then there's this: If they used F40PHs on that line, they'd regularly have to deadhead down to Toronto for maintenance, which is a pretty expensive operation because it means running over CP tracks on which VIA doesn't have any running rights.
 
lenaitch said:
Looks like Canada Post is going to need to find either a new dance partner or new business model.
Click to expand...
generalcanada said:
capital and operating were combined. bit weird. if thats the case
Click to expand...
Well, it is Global News ... :). I'm not sure the government would release it that way.

Gosh, the government is still considering Canada Post as "loans"? Though I guess that table assume no payback! :)
 
It seems to me simpler to discontinue White River than go looking to CP for hundreds of more route miles of Canadian ops and relocate Capreol operations to somewhere on the CP route

@lenaitch re your comment about GO north. Before reinstatement of Northlander I would have gone along with that but now that it is returning along with a significant ROW acquisition it’s not unfair to ask what Ontario’s policy is for rail is, and therefore why we would spend there and not in Sudbury, other than some form of electoral arithmetic
 
Trackside_Treasure said:
Breaking...Buffer cars to be required coming Monday on LRC consists...structural integrity issues discovered last September. I've seen this movie before....
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Why now?

I believe there are some cars at CAD being repaired as we speak.

VIA should bill Siemens for the extra axle costs and fuel as well as the cost of the repairs for the LRC'S.
 
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