Ocean – Page 16 – Transport Action Atlantic

A train curves from the lower left of the photo to the upper right. — An all-Budd stainless steel extra holiday Ocean rolls east across the Tantramar Marsh near Sackville NB on December 30.
PHOTO: Tim Hayman

The new management team at VIA Rail is evaluating the results of initiatives taken for the 2014-2015 Christmas and New Year season. In November the company announced three additional departures in each direction over the three-week peak travel period, to augment the usual tri-weekly schedule that has been in place since October 2012. And, for the first time in many years, VIA launched a newspaper and radio advertising campaign to promote the additional service.

The extra trains operated eastbound on December 18^th, 22^nd, and 29^th, and westbound on December 20^th and 27^th, as well as January 3^rd. The additional consists were all Budd stainless steel cars, which offered the lowest cost per passenger mile and flexibility to add extra coaches or sleepers if needed.

Martin Landry, VIA’s chief commercial officer, was cautiously optimistic about the outcome, acknowledging that the decision to add the extra holiday trains wasn’t made until November, and – despite the advertising campaign – really came too late for maximum impact. Nevertheless, total traffic over the holiday period was up 6 percent from the previous year.

“We knew we were late to the game, but we wanted to do it anyway,” he said, viewing the experience as a learning opportunity in finding solutions to dealing with what he calls the “super peaks” in traffic. “I’m not going to commit to anything right now, but I don’t think this is a one-off. It wasn’t a home run, but I’m not disappointed by the outcome…not as strong as I might have liked, but there were lessons learned.” Points to consider in retrospect include timing as well as the type of accommodation offered, given that the demand for economy seats was stronger than for sleeper space – which could be explained in part by the fact that only “sleeper-plus” class was offered on the extra trains. He also acknowledges that the student market segment is very important to VIA.

Woman with dark hair, in a winter dress coat, standing next to a VIA Rail traincar. — Susan Williams is VIA’s new GM for eastern Canada. She will be the featured guest speaker at TAA’s annual general meeting in Moncton on April 25.

Mr. Landry is also very enthusiastic about the recent decision to appoint a senior executive with responsibility for Atlantic Canada. Susan Williams, originally from Nova Scotia, will be based in Halifax and will be paying very close attention to the market in this region. Her mandate, he says, is “don’t assume anything,” and includes examining all possible options, such as how best to provide inter-city service within the Maritimes, and through service to Toronto.

In a February 3 news release, VIA said “Ms. Williams will be working to bring VIA Rail’s service offering in line with this part of the country’s needs and demands. This is one of the first steps of a larger strategy to better serve Eastern Canada.”

Finally, some good news!

On May 12, 2014, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt made a surprising announcement that departed from previous statements about the intentions of the federal government: the government will, through VIA Rail, provide the remaining $10.4million required to repair the CN Newcastle Subdivision between Miramichi and Bathurst, NB. This ensures that The Ocean (VIA Rail Trains 14 and 15) will be able to continue running on its current route, providing passenger rail service to communities along the line from Montreal to Halifax.

This marks the successful culmination of a long and hard-fought campaign by advocacy groups (including TAA), citizens, and politicians at all levels of government. Thanks to the hardworking campaigners, volunteers, and concerned individuals who petitioned the federal government to take action, we’re able to celebrate a small victory in the fight to maintain and improve our passenger rail system in Atlantic Canada.

TAA would like to thank everyone who participated in our campaigns over the last number of months. We couldn’t have done this without the collective effort of all of you. It’s often easy to feel like we spend a lot of time working towards things that never really come to fruition, so every success like this is worth taking a few minutes to celebrate.

Of course the fight doesn’t end here. The Ocean is still under threat, as the 3 departures per week schedule has created an inefficient and unsustainable model that isn’t working well, either for passengers or for VIA’s bottom line. We need to continue the push to bring the train back to at least 6/week service, and ideally to daily service. It doesn’t have to stop there either: we will continue to push for VIA and the federal and provincial governments to examine other options for passenger rail services in Atlantic Canada. We will also continue the fight to restore service to Gaspé.

So let’s stay positive, and allow this success to encourage us in our continued efforts to restore safe, efficient, responsible, and effective passenger rail services to Atlantic Canada.

[For more information: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/via-rail-agrees-to-102-million-upgrade-in-new-brunswick/article18630782/]