VIA Rail eyes new train services for the Maritimes

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A VIA Rail train waits at a snow platform on a bright sunny day outside the train station in Halifax
The Maritimes could soon have increased VIA Rail train services in the form of new regional trains (Photo by Tim Hayman)

VIA Rail is talking about making changes to its Atlantic Canadian passenger services, and for the first time in many years, they’re not talking about cuts. VIA president Yves Desjardins-Siciliano was in the Maritimes this week and took part in a call-in show on CBC Radio’s Maritime Noon program on Monday. During that program he mentioned that VIA is seriously looking at adding new regional train services in the Maritimes, potentially as early as next year.

The proposed services would include a Campbellton-Moncton train and a Moncton-Halifax train, both of which would make eastbound trips in the morning and return trips west in the evening. These trains would operate in addition to the thrice weekly Ocean and would be focused on providing a regular, useful service to local travellers within the region. Details about the days of operation and the type of equipment that may be used for the service are unknown, but it seems clear that these trains would run a more frequent schedule than the Ocean, and would offer more basic coach accommodations.

The potential for regional train services in the Maritimes has been on the radar since Susan Williams was appointed as General Manager for VIA’s eastern region earlier this year. At Transport Action Atlantic’s Annual General Meeting in Moncton this past spring, Ms. Williams mentioned that developing a business case for regional services was part of the mandate of her new position, along with exploring ways to increase ridership on the Ocean. A press release at the time of her appointment stated that “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”.

The comments this week from Desjardins-Siciliano provide the first real look at what sort of a strategy VIA has been working on behind the scenes, and also offer a potential timeline – in an interview with CTV news, Desjardins-Siciliano said that VIA is “hoping to have the service in place no later than the school year start which is August and September of next year for university students and maybe as early as next summer”.

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Blueprint unveiled for passenger rail in Canada

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Cover page of the VIA 1-4-10 plan, prepared by Greg Gormick for Transport Action Canada, showing a VIA Rail train waiting at a set of signal lights in the dark.

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been urged to undertake a sweeping review of passenger rail from coast to coast, and to initiate action to bring this country in step with the other nations in the G7 community.  The challenge was unveiled two days after the new Liberal administration took office, at an event commemorating National Railway Day.  It coincides with the 130th anniversary of the last spike ceremony that marked completion of a continuous rail link from across the country on November 7, 1885.

Transport Action Canada and its regional affiliates have just completed a comprehensive document entitled The VIA 1-4-10 Plan.  Prepared by eminent transportation consultant and writer Greg Gormick, it explores the past, present and future of passenger rail, tracing its decline since the flawed creation of VIA Rail Canada by order-in-council in 1978, and offering practical and achievable suggestions for its reconstruction.  A copy of the report has been delivered to Transport Minister Marc Garneau, with public release taking place during a Railway Day event at the VIA station in St. Mary’s, Ontario.

“The timing is doubly appropriate,” says Transport Action Atlantic president Ted Bartlett, “because a government that has embraced ‘real change’ is taking office so close to the anniversary of an event so significant to Canada’s very existence.  We’re asking Minister Garneau to include this issue among his priorities.”

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Will the Orangedale whistle blow again?

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By Ted Bartlett

Overgrown by weeds, railway tracks pass the old fashioned red train station at Orangedale Nova Scotia
Weeds cover the rails at Orangedale station on August 28, 2015

“The stationmaster is long since gone,” lamented the Rankin Family.  Sadly, the last revenue train crawled past the legendary station at Orangedale some ten months ago.  And if the American owners of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway have their way, the next activity at Orangedale – and indeed along the entire 98 miles of track between St. Peter’s Junction and Sydney – would be the scrappers removing the rails.  But that must not be allowed to happen.

The original construction of this rail line was a public undertaking, and it operated for many years as part of the Intercolonial Railway, subsequently absorbed by the Crown corporation Canadian National.  CN sold the entire route from Truro to Sydney to a shortline operator in 1993, and there have been several changes of ownership since – during which time there has been considerable physical deterioration of the property as traffic volumes continued to fall for a variety of reasons.  In 2014 the current owner, Genesee and Wyoming, announced its intent to abandon the Sydney Subdivision, declaring the operation uneconomic.  The company declined to accept renewal of a subsidy offered by the Nova Scotia government.

Last month the Province’s transportation department released a summary of three studies commissioned to investigate various aspects of the issue for the Minister’s Rail Advisory Committee.  These included an engineering assessment of the condition of the line and what investment might be required to return it to an acceptable standard; an examination of economic opportunities in Cape Breton, and how they relate to continued availability of rail service; and an analysis of commodities that had until recently been moving by rail and the implications of requiring them to move to highway transport.

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