High time Ottawa solved this problem

Re: Via Rail critically endangered — Oct. 10

I read with interest Paul Langan’s letter about the state of Via Rail. My daughter and her family live in the community of Hornepayne in northern Ontario. The Via train from Toronto to Vancouver, the Canadian, stops in Hornepayne so my wife and I have taken it from Toronto on a few occasions. And as Paul indicated in his letter, the Canadian certainly does run late. We were in Hornepayne recently and the train ran eight-and-a-half hours behind. We boarded at 12:30 a.m. instead of 4:10 p.m. Having taken this method of transportation up north before, we knew that late trains were quite possible and even likely, but eight-and-a-half hours?

This lateness is not the train’s fault, but since CN owns the track and the freight trains pay the bills, Via is a poor cousin, pulling over on to sidings frequently to allow the 100-plus car freight trains to roll past. At one point, north of Sudbury, we waited an hour on a siding for no less than three freight trains.

I’ve heard rumours of Via perhaps shifting their service to CP Rail tracks which run farther south. But would the trains be on time under that scenario? It’s high time that the federal government, which owns Via, works out a better solution with CN or CP. My wife and I have found plenty of tourists from many countries on the Canadian and such lateness does not inspire confidence among them for Canadian rail service. In fact, it’s embarrassing. Dave Brown Waterloo