Nova Scotia Comes Alive in 2011!

VIA Rail – Canada’s Transportation Alternative

As I have put in other posts Canada has a deficit in rail travel compared to countries in Europe, Asia and much of the rest of the world. Only North America is rail-deprived when it comes to passenger transportation.

Via Rail Canada is Canada’s national passenger-carrying is an independent Crown corporation. The company operates 480 trains in eight Canadian provinces. Only Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island do not have the service. In all, over 8,700 miles of track criss-cross the country from east to west and from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay.

In all Via Rail carries approximately four million passengers annually but the majority of its routes are between Windsor, Ontario and Quebec City, Quebec on the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor commonly known as “The Corridor.”

Canadian National Railway began VIA service in 1978 replacing its old lines of passenger service.  Ridership increased an it became a profitable line. However, increased passengers would not be help VIA in the eyes of the government at the time. In 1981, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s government went along with Minister of Transport Jean-Luc Pépin’s plan to cut Via Rail’s budget 40%. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater were frequently sold-out trains such as the Super Continental and this reduced Via to operating only one transcontinental train. This included the The Canadian and the popular Atlantic, among others.

Besides the military and other great traditions Trudeau’s regime wiped out the last gasp of a great supercontinental rail line.