The state-owned company Via Rail is demanding billions of dollars from Ottawa to replace end-of-life train cars that make long-distance journeys across the country, with the exception of the Quebec-Windsor corridor, which is protected. Otherwise, the quality of service could suffer in the coming years, warns the organization.
It was during a rare media incursion into the Via Rail maintenance center in Montreal that the organization expressed its demands to the federal government, whose 2024-2025 budget is expected in the coming weeks. While showing us the process of maintaining train cars from the last century during an hour-long tour, representatives of the Crown corporation said they needed to quickly obtain thousands of dollars from the leaves Ottawa to launch a call for tenders to replace the train cars which serve many routes between Halifax and Quebec, as well as between Toronto and Vancouver.
Because, if nothing is done, the quality of passenger train service offered over a distance of 10,000 kilometers in Canada could deteriorate “exponentially” in the coming years, fears Jean-Vincent Lacroix, who is director of communications for Via Rail. He did not want to detail the financial requests that were made to the federal government to replace part of the organization’s train cars, so as not to influence the call for tenders that will be launched. He nevertheless specifies that once this call for tenders is launched, it will be necessary to wait 10 years before all the cars requested are delivered. However, the organization estimates that it will only be able to maintain its existing cars until 2035, as their viability cannot be extended beyond this date.
Moreover, the effects of the aging of Via Rail’s train fleet are already being felt: the number of train cars serving the entire country on long-distance journeys — with the exception of the corridor between Quebec and Windsor, which benefited from significant financial support from the federal government in 2018 to replace the train fleet — went from 200 to 175 in recent years. The result is that shorter trains are already serving some destinations, thereby reducing the number of passengers on board. The frequency of trains has also been reduced for certain journeys, explained André Bouchard, vice-president of mechanical services for Via Rail, on Thursday.
More details will follow.
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