Via should be a travel gem in Canada. Why isn’t it?
Recently I booked my trip of a lifetime on a national air carrier from Hamilton to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It was a moment of excitement and anticipation tempered with not just a bit of anxiety.
You see, I watch a lot of news, and if the news over the holidays has been any indication, there is a pretty good chance that my flight from here to there could go badly enough that it may ruin the whole experience.
For the past three weeks we’ve been inundated with stories of people being stranded, people searching desperately for their possessions in an endless sea of unclaimed luggage, and computer failures grounding hundreds of flights, even entire airlines.
Air travel is a mess. And likely will be for some time to come.
The problem is, that in North America, (compared to Europe or the Far East), we don’t really have a good alternative for long-distance travel. It’s a frustrating, delay prone flight, or a long, somewhat uncomfortable drive.
Why not take the train? Why not indeed.
Canada has arguably the worst long-distance rail service of any G8 country. Since Via’s privatization in 1977, virtually every government that has followed has cut service or funding. And the one or two that didn’t, bungled the job.
Via has, by any mass transportation standard, appallingly low ridership outside of the Windsor to Quebec City corridor, and there are some very simple reasons why.
Via travel is exceptionally comfortable. The food is better than most airline food, and if you travel business class (at a fraction of the cost of a flight the same distance) the alcohol, for those who enjoy it, is good and plentiful.
Customer service in my experience has been top notch, the washrooms are clean and seating room is generous.
So where is the problem? Delays. Via trains are rarely if ever on time, and the longer the trip, the greater the delay. This can get to the point where the Canadian often rolls into Vancouver from its weeklong voyage from Toronto a full day late.
The cause of the delays is simple. In Canada, Via was a product of CN, which spun the division off as the car became king and ridership dropped. In that process, however, rules were established that freight trains take precedence for track space over passenger trains. To make matters worse, many tracks through remote locations in Canada are single tracks. Double or triple tracks within the same right of way are basically unheard of outside of major centres.
The result of this is that when a Via and a CN train are competing for the same track, the Via train needs to pull into a siding to wait for the freight train to pass. Sometimes this involves the Via pulling off well before the freight train arrives, because sidings are few and far between. I’ve even been on trains that had to back up to go to the nearest siding to get out of the way of an oncoming freight train.
This is a rule that the federal government could remove with the stroke of a pen, and in so doing create the circumstances for a vibrant, well used long distance rail industry in Canada. Sure, it would require some further investment from CN and CP, and they and their investors would no doubt have some things to say about that, but if Canada wants to move people long distances without airplanes or roads, it’s basically our only option.
As our planet warms and air travel is more and more of a chaotic and environmentally destructive option, it’s time for the federal government to view long-distance rail as a practical, environmentally friendly and comfortable way of moving a large numbers of people around our country. Along with their luggage.