Via Rail's performance has gone from bad to worse — and it's costing the company millions | CBC News LoadedVia Rail's service standards have eroded substantially over the last decade, with many more trains arriving late.New passenger trains sit on the tracks at the Via Rail Canada Maintenance Centre in Montreal on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. Cédryk Coderre was one of dozens of travellers left stranded on a Via Rail train for 10 hours earlier this year.
The Aug. 31 delay was a particularly egregious incident and the company's CEO has said it doesn't happen all that often — although passengers on one Via train famously facedJust 59 per cent of Via trains arrived on time last year, according to figures published in the company's annual report. People wait in the Union Station bus terminal in Toronto during a national rail shutdown on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024.
On the small section of track that Via actually owns between Ottawa and Montreal, the on-time performance was closer to 90 per cent last year, the Via spokesperson said. Miasek said there's a reason why Via's American counterpart performs better: the U.S. government passed legislation decades ago that requires railways to prioritize Amtrak passengers over freight. There's no such law in Canada.
Miasek said it's "a big concern" that Via is doing so poorly and the government needs to move ahead with legislation or regulations to give passenger rail priority status.