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VIA Rail

It was posted a few years ago - but worth reposting, as many have not seen it. Fascinating and excellent work!

There's a sequel that compared 1980 to 2024, that includes the USA.

seanmarshall.ca

Changing tracks: passenger rail in 1980 and 2024

A new interactive map shows the changes in passenger rail in Canada and the United States in the last 45 years. While intercity rail declined, especially in Canada, there’s been impressive gr…
seanmarshall.ca seanmarshall.ca

https://walkitect.maps.arcgis.com/a...x.html?appid=49cce9647b164c43aa5c373f05290c78
 
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nfitz said:
There's a sequel that compared 1980 to 2024, that includes the USA.
Click to expand...
Ah, the 1980s. I miss this Canada and am glad I got to experience it.


My first VIA trip was Toronto to Calgary in 1988. I remember thinking the dining service was pretty glam... for a 16 year old otherwise roughing it.
 
Makes me wonder with what the next government most likely will be, what will be left of Via in 10 years. My guess is the existing Corridor is safe. Anything else is gone.
 
micheal_can said:
Makes me wonder with what the next government most likely will be, what will be left of Via in 10 years. My guess is the existing Corridor is safe. Anything else is gone.
Click to expand...
a tremendous shame if that were to happen. how are we going to be a "developed" country when our infrastructure is stuck in the 60s and only contracting...
 
cplchanb said:
a tremendous shame if that were to happen. how are we going to be a "developed" country when our infrastructure is stuck in the 60s and only contracting...
Click to expand...
In the 1960s, some of the timetables were faster than today.The problem is, equating passenger rail to developed is not that accurate. Transportation is not as simple as that. However, when the free market fails, and governments reduce services, we get what we have in Canada.
 
micheal_can said:
Makes me wonder with what the next government most likely will be, what will be left of Via in 10 years. My guess is the existing Corridor is safe. Anything else is gone.
Click to expand...
Indeed. From 2023. https://www.acta.ca/news-releases/via0623

MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.), Conservative Treasury Board critic, questioned ongoing subsidies for the Crown railway as unfair competition to private airlines. “The airline system is not subsidized,” Poilievre said; “In fact it is a net contributor to the Government of Canada. Airlines pay corporate taxes, fuel taxes, airport rents; the passenger pays for the cost of security.” Why should taxpayers be subsidizing a money-losing mode of transportation at the expense of a money-generating mode of transportation?” he said; “That’s just the reality. The Winnipeg to Churchill per passenger subsidy is $1,000 – what is a plane ticket from Winnipeg to Churchill?” “There are no planes on the 42 stops between Winnipeg and Churchill,” replied Desjardins-Siciliano. “That is why the Government of Canada provides the service.”

Subsidies per passenger on the VIA system range from $37 on the Toronto-Ottawa-Montréal run to $317 at Toronto-Niagara; $461 on Ocean service from Montréal to Halifax; $528 per passenger on transcontinental service from Toronto to Vancouver; and $779 per passenger from Winnipeg to Churchill, Man., the highest subsidy in the network.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Indeed. From 2023. https://www.acta.ca/news-releases/via0623

MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.), Conservative Treasury Board critic, questioned ongoing subsidies for the Crown railway as unfair competition to private airlines. “The airline system is not subsidized,” Poilievre said; “In fact it is a net contributor to the Government of Canada. Airlines pay corporate taxes, fuel taxes, airport rents; the passenger pays for the cost of security.” Why should taxpayers be subsidizing a money-losing mode of transportation at the expense of a money-generating mode of transportation?” he said; “That’s just the reality. The Winnipeg to Churchill per passenger subsidy is $1,000 – what is a plane ticket from Winnipeg to Churchill?” “There are no planes on the 42 stops between Winnipeg and Churchill,” replied Desjardins-Siciliano. “That is why the Government of Canada provides the service.”

Subsidies per passenger on the VIA system range from $37 on the Toronto-Ottawa-Montréal run to $317 at Toronto-Niagara; $461 on Ocean service from Montréal to Halifax; $528 per passenger on transcontinental service from Toronto to Vancouver; and $779 per passenger from Winnipeg to Churchill, Man., the highest subsidy in the network.
Click to expand...
This is something that I was trying to highlight on the non-corridor thread. It really feels like the idea that VIA will survive the Pollievre super-majority outside of the corridor is either naive or a coping mechanism.

I think the only comforting thought is that services like the Ocean, and the Quebec regional services are much better served by motor coaches and Lillooet-style rail busses where absolutely necessary. The only problem is that the CPC would sooner buy everyone a Hummer H1 and the cancelations of these services would not in fact be a catalyst for better busses and would infact be the permanent end to intercity public transport in most of Canada.
 
C_Johnson_1995 said:
This is something that I was trying to highlight on the non-corridor thread. It really feels like the idea that VIA will survive the Pollievre super-majority outside of the corridor is either naive or a coping mechanism.
Click to expand...
Indeed. And, Mark Strahl (CPC Shadow Minister for Transport), son of PM Harper's Minister of Transport Chuck Strahl, shown ripping on VIA below in 2012, does not appear likely to push back on any deep cuts demanded by Pollievre.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Romanticism shields 'outrageous' Via Rail subsidies: ex-Tory minister

'The well-to-do business traveller is being heavily subsidized by the waitress working two shifts at McDonald's,' Chuck Strahl says
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
 
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micheal_can said:
we also must come to the conclusion we may be in the final chapters of the Via story.
Click to expand...
Maybe. And maybe the future of intercity and same day distant rail in Canada is provincial. Here in Ontario we have Queen’s Park overseeing the operation and funding for both the Ontario Northland Railway and GO Train networks, and in Quebec there’s the Exo passenger rail service. The Corridor could go to a QC/ON consortium. The Canadian and Ocean tourist trains could be privatized and made high end, like the Rocky Mountaineer, Australia’s India-Pacific or the Orient Express. The Winnipeg-Churchill route could be turned over to the Manitoba government to run, at least until a highway was constructed. And perhaps a private Edmonton to Calgary route could be funded by private oil money?
 
Admiral Beez said:
Maybe. And maybe the future of intercity and same day distant rail in Canada is provincial. Here in Ontario we have Queen’s Park overseeing the operation and funding for both the Ontario Northland Railway and GO Train networks, and in Quebec there’s the Exo passenger rail service. The Corridor could go to a QC/ON consortium. The Canadian and Ocean tourist trains could be privatized and made high end, like the Rocky Mountaineer, Australia’s India-Pacific or the Orient Express. The Winnipeg-Churchill route could be turned over to the Manitoba government to run, at least until a highway was constructed
Click to expand...
None of that would make cross Canada travel better by rail.
 
micheal_can said:
The path may be that of Air Canada and Greyhound.
Click to expand...
Not sure what point you are trying to make, given that Greyhound has abandoned all domestic routes and Air Canada does not operate in any markets where subsidized VIA services would be any significant form of competition…
 
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