Who would leave you stranded on a passenger train.
Blacklock’s- MPs Probe VIA Service Again
Passengers aboard VIA Rail Train 622 on a Labour Day weekend trip from Montréal to Québec City were stranded within sight of the Trans-Canada Highway near Drummondville, Que. due to engine trouble. Travelers were told to stay put for hours without food or washroom facilities as a stench akin to burning rubber filled the cars.
Parliament created VIA Rail in 1978 as a passenger service formerly run by Canadian National Railway, then a Crown corporation. Operating losses in recent years totaled $415.7 million in 2020, $370.5 million in 2021, $354.3 million in 2022 and $381.8 million in 2023.
In 2020 Via burned $668 million from the government to haul a million passengers. Each ticket they sell costs taxpayers $668. Passenger trains in Canada are pure horse crap. It would be way cheaper to build roads to the few isolated communities that actually rely on rail.
Canada. Need I say more.
Atlas Shrugged…maybe next time they’ll be in the Taggart tunnel with the burning smell…
Was Tim Walz’s wife nearby enjoying the aroma?
How many billions of dollars will the government waste in an attempt to fix this non-problem?
And has anyone explained why the solutions to current problems, is the technologies of the 19th century (solar, wind, rail, electric cars)?
Was someone on the train having their head cut off? There’s no mention of RCMP standing by in awe so it’s impossible to tell if a beheading is occurring.
The probe will likely conclude that the losses are not nearly high enough.
I recall being in the station in Geneva, Switzerland once and they came on the PA system to announce that the train from Frankfurt would be two minutes late.
Two minutes late?!? Teh HORROR!!
L – Why isn’t coast to coast rail transportation treated as an essential service for Canada
to continue, to function nation-state? Just as it was recognized essential to secure Western Canada, whose early settlers the Métis farmers demanded a connection to the nearest
available rail line (Bill of Rights, Dec. 1, 1869 Provisional Government of Manitoba). At that
time would have been located in North Dakota.
This is why the CPR railroad west to British Columbia was labeled The National Dream.
Allowing rail service to be foreigner owned and controlled was a mistake. That the
fig leaf of Via Rail is itself, is a proverbial train wreck, even in Quebec. Does it portend the
same fate for the Liberal Party of Canada? To be continued…
Well certainly coast to coast (you forgot the third “coast”) freight rail service should be considered essential because it is. Passenger service? Nope. Maybe in some small areas, but not coast to coast.
Only freight is a priority. Pax service is a lower priority than freight. You can tell, when Via trains are shunted to sidings to make way for freights.
Via Rail is 3rd world level. I visited recently Japan, took many trips with Shinkansen: a beauty – fast, on time, excellent service. Same with their subway systems Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. Japan is a G7 country. Not Canada.
While Via Rail cannot provide basic service, Japan Rail is close to roll out MAGLEV, which will increase bullet trains speed from ~300km/h to 500. We are a sad joke.
Indeed. But Via is one of many examples of how third world Canada has become.
Yet mention that to many Canadians and they’ll think you’re being ridiculous. The only things I can think of that would separate us from a third world country are that we obediently observe traffic signs/lights, and our towns don’t reek of sewage and diesel and 4 stroke engine exhaust.
Everything else, the essentials, match that of most decrepit countries: political graft and corruption; favoritism; meddling in military contracts; ruling party cult of leadership; indoctrination and programming of Marxist dogma through state run and funded educational institutions; crushing of political dissent; a malleable constitution and rights that are derived from the state; a sizeable part of the population relying on handouts and food banks; collassal mismanagement of resources that would otherwise enrich the entire population; despite its inherent riches and punitive taxation, in the name of fairness, the government still manages to show nothing for all its excessive spending except ruinous debt and inflation; a state funded media that pushes ruling party propaganda; infrastructure falling apart or, again, mismanaged by mediocre apparatchiks appointed as favors for serving the party; police and judiciary that serves at the behest of the ruling party, while ignoring government/party malfeasance; etc.
I’m probably missing other obvious associations but all of the ones I mentioned easily have multiple examples that I could cite as proof. But the Via train story here nicely encapsulates a few them rolled into one.
Well said. Except I would replace ‘ruling party’ with liberal party, whether they’re in power or not.
The trans-continental ( the Canadian) rolling stock was built in the 50’s. When the temperature gets to the +30c range the train has to roll on at half speed – I’m not making this up.
This is one time where a company could switch its entire fleet to electric cars and save money.
Has Via Rail done anything different in the past few decades?
new rolling stock?
new attitudes for employees?
new management?
new gov’t?
You know what they haven’t done?
They haven’t decertified the union representing the workers yet?
Why isn’t that on the table?
Teamsters.
Today – no trains, next week – no planes, next year – no automobiles.
🙁
Not to mention the CN conductor up on charges in the Woodstock, Ontario area. Tampering with the switches on the tracks. 3 guesses his background information.
If it was anything but the Montreal to Quebec City run I’d be outraged. The stench of burning rubber was a nice touch. Go Via!
Passenger rail service basically only for central and eastern Canada. So much for equality in this Country. Equity is necessary: paddle wheel service on the Yukon river must be revived!!
Heh, all those that work for VIA Rail are of course government employees.
Could it be that they want to follow the low life bureaucrats and work from home?