[TRAIN] VIA Rail Looking to Improve Quebec City-Windsor Track
VIA Rail is looking to build a dedicated passenger rail network in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor to improve its on-time performance and boost rider-ship. VIA Rail’s on-time performance fell to only 77% in 2014 from 83% in 2013.
VIA Rail has been sharing its railways with CN and CP, which really slows down its service, so from my perspective, there’s no question that VIA Rail should have its own dedicated lines. The issue really comes down to money.
If they built more dedicated rails for VIA Rail, would it really attract more passengers to make up the costs? I also understand that VIA Rail believes that a high speed rail train would not be necessary. But is it really unnecessary?
For example, there’s no question that there is a lot of traffic between Montreal and Toronto, whether it’s by car, plane, bus or train. The question is who is going to take up the market share? Is it going to be the airlines? The gas stations?
If you could travel between Toronto and Montreal in less than 2 hours, for less money than flying, would you give it more consideration?