wawa-news.com, 9/27/17:
Opinion
Who is killing Canada’s passenger trains?
Who is killing Canada’s passenger trains? It can’t be our prime minister.
Since he was a babe in his mother’s arms, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been exposed to the virtues of train travel. That’s thanks to his father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who had a genuine affection and respect for passenger trains. He travelled on and campaigned from them frequently, and his government created VIA Rail Canada in 1977.
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But what of Canada’s passenger trains today? They are deteriorating rapidly and drastic action is required, especially on VIA’s once-great and always-late Canadian. While writing this piece on the afternoon of September 25, I discovered on VIA’s website that one westbound Canadian was seven hours late on the prairies, another was 21 hours late out of Jasper and a Toronto-bound edition was nearly 10 hours late in Northern Ontario. This is typical performance today.
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To fix our rail passenger system, Trudeau need only act on a view he expressed aboard the CPR’s sesquicentennial train: riding trains reminds us of their role in nation building. He can reset his government’s signals to make our passenger trains nation builders and unifiers again. For reasons both personal and practical, he should do it.
Greg Gormick is a rail analyst and policy adviser whose clients have included VIA, CP, CN and numerous elected officials of all political stripes. He currently serves as transportation adviser to Oxford County in Southwestern Ontario.