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Four decades of turning points continue to shape Canada's passenger system
Wave a magic wand and create the perfect intercity passenger rail system - one that pleases politicians, taxpayers, and host railroads while meeting the traveling public's needs. If only it were so simple.
As it celebrates its 40th year as Canada's passenger railroad, VIA Rail Canadas history is one of challenges inflicted by the whims of changing governments in a country that, like the United States, lacks a cohesive surface transportation policy. Politically driven retrenchment and expansion of the past shapes VIA's options for the future. Early missteps have implications for some of the corridor-only thinking of current Amtrak management.
*1978: hopeful launch
Canadas 1970s leaders under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau hoped a sensible, government-sponsored consolidation of trains would begin to reverse declining ridership and increasing costs. Since 1971, the Canadian Transport Commission had been paying 80 percent of incremental passenger losses of the country's two major passenger railroads, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. But these payments soared through the decade with wage increases, waning ticket revenue, and higher maintenance costs on aging steam-heated equipment.
As the government would not consider terminating the trains, Transport Canada (similar to the U.S. Department of Transportation) decided the subsidy payments could be reduced by using new rolling stock on higher speed routes under 400 miles. The improvements would be funded by eliminating CN and CP longdistance and corridor-route duplication. As envisioned, annual operating and capital support for a new passenger operator would be dictated by Transport Canada and the Department of Finance. This preordained a hand-to-mouth existence similar to Amtrak's.
Created in 1977 as a Crown Corporation, VIA Rail Canada was expected to compete and manage resources in the commercial arena like any private business. Unlike its U.S. counterpart, however, VIA was never given statutory advantages, such as preference over freight trains. With CN also state-owned and the operator of by far the largest portion of the existing network, what could possibly go wrong?
"Transport Canada didn't see large subsidy reductions, because the commission refused to knuckle under to a 1976 directive to eliminate perceived duplication and little-used services," explains Canadian author and historian Doug Smith. A commission analyst at the time, and beginning in 1982,...