VIA Rail

[Admiral Beez]

Looking at the other end of the country. How does VIA from Toronto to Halifax compare to driving? My kid is thinking of taking their graduate studies at Dalhousie and after years living in Fredericton I don’t relish the drive.

 

[micheal_can]

Looking at the other end of the country. How does VIA from Toronto to Halifax compare to driving? My kid is thinking of taking their graduate studies at Dalhousie and after years living in Fredericton I don’t relish the drive.

I could drive between Halifax and Toronto in 20 hours. Just the section from Montreal to Halifax will take a full day. https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan/train-schedules/montreal-halifax

 

[Admiral Beez]

I could drive between Halifax and Toronto in 20 hours. Just the section from Montreal to Halifax will take a full day. https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan/train-schedules/montreal-halifax

I’d still do it once with a sleeper car, but will fly on future runs.

 

[micheal_can]

I’d still do it once with a sleeper car, but will fly on future runs.

Outside of the Corridor, Via cannot compete with other modes of transportation. Along the Corridor, the time difference isn't that bad.

 

[cplchanb]

Outside of the Corridor, Via cannot compete with other modes of transportation. Along the Corridor, the time difference isn't that bad.

via needs to significantly improve their travel times if they are to be able to take any share off of cars and planes.

 

[micheal_can]

via needs to significantly improve their travel times if they are to be able to take any share off of cars and planes.

The problem is not Via.The problem is CN and the way they fit them in their system. A simple fine system that would cost CN more to let Via run late would be a good start. Reality is, outside of the Corridor, Via has no desire to take any share of cars or planes.

 

[Urban Sky]

In order to be competitive against the car or the airplane, you need an infrastructure which is maintained for Track Class 5 (or more). However, given that the freight railroads are content with the 60 mph (96 km/h) limit of Track Class 4 (or even less than that) for their own freight trains, they have no interest in upgrading their tracks (and alignments!) to allow passengers to exceed 80 mph (129 km/h), unless they get fully reimbursed for that expense.

Unfortunately, even if trains operated three times per day (rather than: per week) outside the Q-W Corridor, this would still be a massive waste of taxpayer money. Once you acknowledge the Economics of operating passenger trains, it becomes much easier to understand why VIA invests its limited resources where most Canadians actually live…

 

[cplchanb]

The problem is not Via.The problem is CN and the way they fit them in their system. A simple fine system that would cost CN more to let Via run late would be a good start. Reality is, outside of the Corridor, Via has no desire to take any share of cars or planes.

Well the Corridor will soon be removed from VIA and reformed into its own operation along with HxR. If they are to survive that in the long term via must vouch for the govt to do something or build their own rail where they can. Piggybacking onto freight lines has run its course with usefulness

 

[Urban Sky]

A simple fine system that would cost CN more to let Via run late would be a good start.

How often do we have to debunk this BS? The only way by which CN would possibly accept any financial penalties is by setting their rates so high that they are guaranteed their desired revenues even if the penalties accumulate to the contractually agreed cap. VIA‘s TSA payments are simply too microscopic compared to CN‘s other sources of revenues as that they could possibly incentivize CN‘s behaviour…

Reality is, outside of the Corridor, Via has no desire to take any share of cars or planes.

The main difference between VIA and yourself is that VIA desires to transport passengers and provide a useful service to this country, whereas you seem to hate nothing more than the idea of running passenger trains where they would actually serve anyone beyond foamers…

 

[micheal_can]

In order to be competitive against the car or the airplane, you need an infrastructure which is maintained for Track Class 5 (or more). However, given that the freight railroads are content with the 60 mph (96 km/h) limit of Track Class 4 (or even less than that) for their own freight trains, they have no interest in upgrading their tracks (and alignments!) to allow passengers to exceed 80 mph (129 km/h), unless they get fully reimbursed for that expense.

Unfortunately, even if trains operated three times per day (rather than: per week) outside the Q-W Corridor, this would still be a massive waste of taxpayer money. Once you acknowledge the Economics of operating passenger trains, it becomes much easier to understand why VIA invests its limited resources where most Canadians actually live…

Considering that highway posted speed limits are no faster than 120 km/hr or 75 mph, if the trains could maintain 60 mph once it leave the station and only stop to pick up or drop off passengers, it would greatly improve the competitiveness of Via. Even if they did that to the existing number of trains outside the Corridor that would be a good improvement to build the needed usage to push for more frequency.

Well the Corridor will soon be removed from VIA and reformed into its own operation along with HxR. If they are to survive that in the long term via must vouch for the govt to do something or build their own rail where they can. Piggybacking onto freight lines has run its course with usefulness

The Corridor is competitive with driving.

 

[micheal_can]

How often do we have to debunk this BS? The only way by which CN would possibly accept any financial penalties is by setting their rates so high that they are guaranteed their desired revenues even if the penalties accumulate to the contractually agreed cap. VIA‘s TSA payments are simply too microscopic compared to CN‘s other sources of revenues as that they could possibly incentivize CN‘s behaviour…

Which is why nothing will change. The government and Via cannot push for that, and, like you say, even if they did, CN would make it even worse financially. Reality is, not much will change until the government is willing to go head to head with the 2 rail giants. And that is even more of a fantasy that much of what I have ever posted.

So, what would you suggest be done to fix it, besides shutting it down?

 

[micheal_can]

The main difference between VIA and yourself is that VIA desires to transport passengers and provide a useful service to this country, whereas you are care about nothing else than running empty trains…

I want all trains to be full. Hard to do that if it cannot stay on time or be fast enough to use. Imagine if all Corridor trains were at least an hour late and took twice as long as they currently do to do a run. That is the reality that outside of the Corridor can be.