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CN makes a few hundred thousand $$ for each monster-train they dispatch on their mainline. VIA, they pay what, I hear its $25k or so, give or take, for each Toronto-Vancouver trip. Not even covering the cost of the infrastructure. And even with 200 people on The Canadian (probably average load year...

Why couldn't VIA Rail not pick up where Greyhound is abandoning its operations west of Sudbury ON? I know I'll get the usual reasons of CN and CP not wanting to cooperate for profit's sake. However, something needs to happen with Greyhound leaving and a reluctance of bus companies wanting to enter t...

What ever happened to the efforts to restore passenger service on Vancouver Island?

How and why was it left to disrepair?

M.

Why does CN want this line back? In the early 1990s they made every effort to shed it even trying to abandon it outright. Why do they want to now operate on a line that is now owned by Metrolinx, a passenger carrier, when they have the southern route on the Halton Sub from Silver ( Georgetown ) thro...

I heard from a GEXR employee that CN was taking back over the freight operations on the Kitchener line that's now owned by Metrolinx.

Any truth to this?

Thanks in advance,

M.

It's about time they started doing this. The populations of these towns isn't shrinking and driving is becoming too costly these days.

Just my thoughts,

M.

Whatever happened to the refurbished RDCs they were testing out by Chatham?

Thanks in advance,

M.

Folks I know I am preaching to a few " members of the choir " when I post this, It's time that we, as Canadians, got our heads-out-of the sand, and started viewing VIA ( among other services ) as a public service. Not a for profit service. View it as infrastructure. This means, investing i...

Wonderfully put dowlingm. Thank you for that insightful piece. Paul Martin has vested interests in the bus lines and his armada of ships. One key thing we, as Canadians, have to think about is what do we get the most for our money. Millions spent on track maintenance or billions spent on road repair...

Good point about restoring VIA FAST.

Now what about the International? Did anyone here ride that route? I did on the Canadian side and know towards the end the border crossing was a nightmare.

What would need to happen to ease things at the border?

Trudeau should, at the very least try to make VIA rerun trains to Gaspé, and restore the original 6-days-a-week frequency of the Ocean. And I think the Montreal-Senneterre and Montreal-Jonquiere would need a higher frequency during peak season (summer ans holidays). Not sure about the Montreal-Jonq...

I agree with more International cooperation. It'd be very useful to be able to have Detroit and Chicago as destinations within the corridor. Why fly when you can get there as fast on a train? What about Calgary as a destination? Where was the VIA station in that city when it existed? How viable woul...

What is the current state of the passenger service on the ACR?

I've heard conflicting stories that it's on hiatus or that it's gone fog good now.

Thanks in advance,

M.

I'm hoping that the new prime minister is more transit friendly. VIA Rail could easily become a better public service with more trains for commuting, better routes ( using CP in Northern Ontario ) and returning service to communities that once had VIA but lost it in the early 1990s. What specific ro...

Why hasn't VIA taken any interest in this route? It's federal money and VIA is a federally owned crown corporation. Furthermore, they're in the business of passenger rail. M. With what money? VIA are concentrating on SW Ontario service in near term expansion. There's probably a dozen routes they wo...