Via Rail
VIA Rail Canada ( also referred to as VIA Rail or VIA) is the national railway company of Canada for long-distance transport, based in Montréal. VIA Rail operates rail services in eight provinces (except Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Iceland ) from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay.
Since its foundation in 1977, VIA Rail could not achieve economic independence and relies on permanent subsidy payments.
Traffic performance
VIA Rail operates 497 trains per week and serves 159 stations across Canada. The train fleet includes 396 passenger cars and 78 locomotives. (As of March 2013).
The majority of the traffic performance is accounted for by the intercity transportation in the Quebec- Windsor Corridor (2012 91 % of passenger traffic and 74 % of passenger-kilometers ).
Route network
VIA Rail uses trackage of ten freight railway undertakings on 12,500 kilometers of track and therefore has only 223 km railway line itself VIA Rail has only limited impact on punctuality, consistent alignment of schedules to the demand for passenger transport services as well as the shortening of travel times.
Daily train service is provided by VIA Rail only in the Quebec -Windsor corridor.
Corridor trains (timetable as of March 2013)
Long-haul trains, tourist compounds (schedule as of March 2013)
The cross-border train The Maple Leaf Toronto - Niagara Falls- New York City is operated jointly with the U.S. rail company Amtrak. The other cross-border rail connections Adirondack Montreal - New York City (1x daily) and Cascades Vancouver - Seattle (2x daily) Amtrak operates alone.
History
Similar to the development in the U.S. also drove in Canada since the 1960s, the two railroad companies Canadian Pacific Railway ( CP) and Canadian National Railway ( CN) with its passenger trains a loss. 1966 was therefore decided by the National Transportation Act ( NTA) subsidization of passenger trains. Despite a rate of up to 80 percent of the passenger remained in deficit. Therefore it was decided in January 1976, future cover 100 percent of the losses by the state and under the logo VIA CN presented the Canadian National Railway shortly after its new offering. The two companies CP and CN attempted to coordinate their offer in the following year. Since these efforts were relatively unsuccessful, the government created in 1977 the CN daughter VIA Rail Canada on whose board the CP should be present. Since the cooperation and thus did not improve, was converted into a Crown Corporation on March 31, 1978 VIA Rail Canada, enabling the company to the government under the direct. As a result, VIA Rail from CP and CN bought the necessary passenger equipment.
In the following years numerous trains were canceled, but also acquired new traction material. So VIA Rail procured 1977-1981, the so-called LRC trains, which should provide more comfort than the car parks of the Turbo Trains used previously. By the end of the 1980s flowed enough government funding, so that the company could be also rise into the tourism business.
On 8 February 1986, in a collision between two trains in Hinton, Alberta, with 23 deaths the heaviest train accident occurred in the history of VIA Rail.
With a 1989 prescribed austerity measures the government grants were reduced by 50 percent, resulting in the deletion of more than half of the trains and the decline of over 45 percent of passengers by the year 1990. In subsequent years, the number of passengers from 3.5 to 4.0 million was stabilized and then increased slightly.
In 2000, an annual grant of $ 170 million has been written and approved a five- year plan for investment of $ 400 million. This made it possible to VIA Rail to acquire modern locomotives of the series P 42 General Electric as well as new cars. These 139 cars were actually in the Euro Tunnel transport Germany - provided the UK, but have never used it. The VIA acquired the car in 2001 and directed it for their purposes under the designation " Renaissance " her. Main applications are the overnight express The Ocean / L ' Océan and previously driven with LRC material Corridor trains.
Since 1989, several studies for the construction of high-speed rail services in the Quebec -Windsor corridor were developed, implementation has so far failed in its funding.
2009, the trains name used so far have been abandoned and replaced by route designations. The only Canadian / Canadien and Le The Ocean / L' Océan retained their traditional names.
On February 25, 2012 accident in Burlington, Ontario, a passenger train from Niagara Falls to Toronto. Three people were killed and 45 others were injured.