A
Antiloop33rpm
Guest
What is the future of VIA Rail? While this thought has crossed my mind largely because of a small pit of despair I have slipped into because of the recent election, this is by no means a partisan attack on what one party might have in mind, and in fact, I hope we can leave politics out of this discussion.
Many of us on this forum are transit and train fans. We take the train whenever we can and in some cases are advocates for its growth. VIA Rail itself does have a lot of positive aspects to it in its current form it. In the Quebec-Windsor corridor it does provide decent coverage, and overall I would consider it to be a rather cost effective of way of travelling, especially if you are going from city center to city center. The trains themselves are comfortable, and for the most part I have found the staff at VIA to be friendly and helpful. Also I do appreciate the fact that when a train is delayed for more than an hour they usually offer a 50% refund on your next ticket purchase which I think is quite fair. On a national scale we do have rather unique transcontinental train service. While I havent taken the train all the way to Vancouver I know people who have and they have said it is really a fantastic trip. And quite often the Toronto-Vancouver train comes up in travel magazines as one of the top train rides in the world for train enthusiasts. Likewise, the train to Gaspe and Halifax also have seem to be quite enjoyable trips to take.
That being said, there are also a lot of challenges facing VIA Rail in the present time and in the immediate future.
- Privitization. There are many Canadians who want to see this crown corporation out of the taxpayers hands and sold off. In the west there is quite a bit of movement for this to happen. I remember reading an editorial a year ago when a VIA train in Alberta had derailed. The writer, from Edmonton so elequantly pointed out the Canadian flag on the side of car and reminded people that this was 'our tax dollars at work'. This issue last came up in parliment in 2001 and is likely to come up once again in the near future.
- Quebec-Windsor corridor. This is were 85% of all VIA's passenger travel and is the most profitable section of the system. Given this region is also the most populated in Canada, it is one where rail travel actually functions not just as a pleasure trip, but as an important part of the transportation network. And since this region is also growing it means that demand is likely going to increase and despite budget restriction VIA is making attempts to restart service from Toronto to Barrie and Peterborough in the very near future.
- Shared track. VIA largely runs on track owned by CN or CP. On some trains, such as the trains to Halifax or Vancouver, this isnt as important since they are more pleasure trips than anything. But in areas such as the Quebec-Windsor corridor, this becomes a big issue when trying to create schedules and make attempts at expanding and adding routes. It also creates delays when VIA trains are forced to wait and simply for passing freight trains. This often can result in delays of over an hour (on a 2 1/2 hour trip).
- Electrification. I know many probably dont see this as an immediate problem, but I think it is one that is still rather important. Running a system with electric train sets has a lot of benefits. The pollute less. They will become less succeptable to rising gas prices. They are also quieter and have better performance. The noise issue is one that could become a problem if VIA (or commuter rails) want to greatly increase service. One of the arguments that the Weston Community group had with increased train traffic was the noise. With electric train sets, this reduces a lot of those problems and would make it much easier for communities to accept increased, or new traffic.
So what are your thoughts on VIA? What challenges do you see it facing? What solutions do you think are best? Is it simply in need of a slight overhaul, or, something more radical?
Ill offer my take. As much as I like VIA and with the benefits it does have, I find it harder and harder to justify it in its current form. While some might say the root cause is just lack of funding and if we gave it more money it would be better, I really dont believe that too be the case. As far as privitization goes, Im not closed to the idea. Maybe some of the long haul routes would be better run by a private company (with responsibilities to maintain a certain level of service). I think in any case that allowing private companies to operate some routes would not be a bad idea, but Ill get into that more later.
I think the biggest change that needs to happen is that the Quebec-Windsor corridor needs to be operated in an entirely different manner. The first issue is track sharing. So long as VIA has to share tracks and be at the whim of CN or CP, it will never be able to very efficient. The biggest change I would make is that all current routes in this corridor would be operated on newly constructed, passenger only tracks.
This has two benefits. The first is it would allow VIA to operate a much more efficient service. The second would come to cities such as Toronto and Montreal where track upgrades would also greatly benefit commuter rail services, who too also are at the whim of CN and CP in many cases.
What would make the system different is that anyone who wanted to operate a passenger rail service would be allowed to use the tracks. If a Peterborough company decided it wanted to operate a few trains to and from Toronto, it would allowed too, whether it was a private company, or whether it was a local/regional transit company such as GO. The system itself and train management would be operated by a government agency to ensure that safety standards where met for all trains. In this case, VIA could still operate its usual set of trains, but if a private company wanted to operate a luxury class train for business travellers, than it would be allowed too also. The idea is based on the same notion as our road system. The government(s) are responsible for construction and up keep, but any person or business has access too them.
Im really not so much concerned about what happens to VIA, whether it is privatized or ends up split up with an Ontario-Quebec interprovincial system taking over the Quebec-Windsor corridor. Its that whatever system takes its place has a proper passenger rail infrastructure to run on. And while it will be an expensive project, it would have many economic offsets such as construction jobs, new development around new train stations, less congestion in cities as commuter rail will be able to operate on a much more efficient network. It wont happen tommorow, or a few years from now. But maybe in a decade when there has been a shift in public opinion on highways and car usage and more demand is there, I could see this option being one that would be well greeted by the public, and would also provide a better solution to improving rail transit than just throwing government dollars at the current, inefficient system.
Many of us on this forum are transit and train fans. We take the train whenever we can and in some cases are advocates for its growth. VIA Rail itself does have a lot of positive aspects to it in its current form it. In the Quebec-Windsor corridor it does provide decent coverage, and overall I would consider it to be a rather cost effective of way of travelling, especially if you are going from city center to city center. The trains themselves are comfortable, and for the most part I have found the staff at VIA to be friendly and helpful. Also I do appreciate the fact that when a train is delayed for more than an hour they usually offer a 50% refund on your next ticket purchase which I think is quite fair. On a national scale we do have rather unique transcontinental train service. While I havent taken the train all the way to Vancouver I know people who have and they have said it is really a fantastic trip. And quite often the Toronto-Vancouver train comes up in travel magazines as one of the top train rides in the world for train enthusiasts. Likewise, the train to Gaspe and Halifax also have seem to be quite enjoyable trips to take.
That being said, there are also a lot of challenges facing VIA Rail in the present time and in the immediate future.
- Privitization. There are many Canadians who want to see this crown corporation out of the taxpayers hands and sold off. In the west there is quite a bit of movement for this to happen. I remember reading an editorial a year ago when a VIA train in Alberta had derailed. The writer, from Edmonton so elequantly pointed out the Canadian flag on the side of car and reminded people that this was 'our tax dollars at work'. This issue last came up in parliment in 2001 and is likely to come up once again in the near future.
- Quebec-Windsor corridor. This is were 85% of all VIA's passenger travel and is the most profitable section of the system. Given this region is also the most populated in Canada, it is one where rail travel actually functions not just as a pleasure trip, but as an important part of the transportation network. And since this region is also growing it means that demand is likely going to increase and despite budget restriction VIA is making attempts to restart service from Toronto to Barrie and Peterborough in the very near future.
- Shared track. VIA largely runs on track owned by CN or CP. On some trains, such as the trains to Halifax or Vancouver, this isnt as important since they are more pleasure trips than anything. But in areas such as the Quebec-Windsor corridor, this becomes a big issue when trying to create schedules and make attempts at expanding and adding routes. It also creates delays when VIA trains are forced to wait and simply for passing freight trains. This often can result in delays of over an hour (on a 2 1/2 hour trip).
- Electrification. I know many probably dont see this as an immediate problem, but I think it is one that is still rather important. Running a system with electric train sets has a lot of benefits. The pollute less. They will become less succeptable to rising gas prices. They are also quieter and have better performance. The noise issue is one that could become a problem if VIA (or commuter rails) want to greatly increase service. One of the arguments that the Weston Community group had with increased train traffic was the noise. With electric train sets, this reduces a lot of those problems and would make it much easier for communities to accept increased, or new traffic.
So what are your thoughts on VIA? What challenges do you see it facing? What solutions do you think are best? Is it simply in need of a slight overhaul, or, something more radical?
Ill offer my take. As much as I like VIA and with the benefits it does have, I find it harder and harder to justify it in its current form. While some might say the root cause is just lack of funding and if we gave it more money it would be better, I really dont believe that too be the case. As far as privitization goes, Im not closed to the idea. Maybe some of the long haul routes would be better run by a private company (with responsibilities to maintain a certain level of service). I think in any case that allowing private companies to operate some routes would not be a bad idea, but Ill get into that more later.
I think the biggest change that needs to happen is that the Quebec-Windsor corridor needs to be operated in an entirely different manner. The first issue is track sharing. So long as VIA has to share tracks and be at the whim of CN or CP, it will never be able to very efficient. The biggest change I would make is that all current routes in this corridor would be operated on newly constructed, passenger only tracks.
This has two benefits. The first is it would allow VIA to operate a much more efficient service. The second would come to cities such as Toronto and Montreal where track upgrades would also greatly benefit commuter rail services, who too also are at the whim of CN and CP in many cases.
What would make the system different is that anyone who wanted to operate a passenger rail service would be allowed to use the tracks. If a Peterborough company decided it wanted to operate a few trains to and from Toronto, it would allowed too, whether it was a private company, or whether it was a local/regional transit company such as GO. The system itself and train management would be operated by a government agency to ensure that safety standards where met for all trains. In this case, VIA could still operate its usual set of trains, but if a private company wanted to operate a luxury class train for business travellers, than it would be allowed too also. The idea is based on the same notion as our road system. The government(s) are responsible for construction and up keep, but any person or business has access too them.
Im really not so much concerned about what happens to VIA, whether it is privatized or ends up split up with an Ontario-Quebec interprovincial system taking over the Quebec-Windsor corridor. Its that whatever system takes its place has a proper passenger rail infrastructure to run on. And while it will be an expensive project, it would have many economic offsets such as construction jobs, new development around new train stations, less congestion in cities as commuter rail will be able to operate on a much more efficient network. It wont happen tommorow, or a few years from now. But maybe in a decade when there has been a shift in public opinion on highways and car usage and more demand is there, I could see this option being one that would be well greeted by the public, and would also provide a better solution to improving rail transit than just throwing government dollars at the current, inefficient system.
