What’s the future of passenger rail travel in Canada? It depends on
where you live. More people are taking trains, especially between
suburban and downtown areas in the country’s largest cities. The
regional transit networks surrounding Montreal, Toronto and
Vancouver are expanding fast as auto drivers look to avoid high gas
prices and highway congestion. More recently, planners are pondering
a new commuter rail system for the Ottawa-Gatineau region, and
Alberta’s government is considering a high-speed rail link between
Edmonton and Calgary.
While residents
in our most populated urban centres turn to rail transit as a
commuting option, the prospects are more uncertain for the national
passenger train service VIA Rail. Since 2003 when former Prime
Minister Paul Martin’s government froze its’ funding, the crown
corporation has been largely unable to add trains or refurbish aging
stations and rail cars. Instead the agency is focusing on its
existing routes and scoring high levels of customer satisfaction.
Intercity
ridership continues to grow, especially in the
Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto triangle. Last year VIA carried a total of
four million passengers — 3.5 million of those boarded trains along
the Quebec City-Windsor corridor. By comparison, GO Transit provides
over 40 million rides annually in greater Toronto.
Can trains play
a role in a Canadian-made climate change strategy? The non-profit
research organization Conference Board of Canada states, “Intercity
rail travel in Canada has been under-funded and underdeveloped, even
though it can potentially draw people away from their cars in large
numbers.”
Harry Gow, past
president of rail advocacy group Transport 2000 Canada, points out
that Ottawa recently gave VIA about $50 million to refit some rail
cars and locomotives. However he says that’s “a drop in the bucket”
compared to the $500 million-plus that’s needed just to continue
existing levels of intercity train service.
In a response
to questions, the ministry responsible for planning the national
transportation system does not put forward long-distance passenger
rail as an environmental alternative to car or air travel. According
to Transport Canada, the government isn’t planning to add new VIA
routes — but an announcement is expected “in the near future” on
whether the crown agency will receive funds to maintain its network.
There are also
reports that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government will soon
provide details of a promised $33 billion plan for aging
infrastructure across the country.
At the same
time that VIA’s future remains unclear there is a surge of interest
in high-speed trains for Canada. Repeated studies have looked at the
feasibility of “bullet-trains” in the populated Ontario-Quebec
corridor, and now the Alberta government has started to protect land
for rapid rail service connecting Calgary and Edmonton. Using
technology common around the world, trains travelling 300 kilometers
an hour could cut the three-hour car trip between the two cities to
under 90 minutes.
Although
non-committal yet on the billions of dollars it would take to bring
high-speed rail to Canada, the Harper government does contribute
funds to upgrade freight railroad tracks in key areas. Recent
investments in British Columbia and Quebec will benefit the VIA
trains that travel those routes.
This year the
BC government also announced $10 million to improve tracks in the
province so that the U.S. rail operator Amtrak can add a second
daily Vancouver-Seattle passenger train in 2008.
On the future
of Canadian intercity rail, Transport 2000’s Gow says, “Overall the
prognosis is somewhat less positive than if (Ottawa) were investing
at the same rate that foreign governments, whether in Asia or in
Europe, invest.” However he worries about a replay of 1990 cuts
under Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney when VIA lost half
its services, he says. “It’s not impossible that that happen again.”
ED DRASS FOR
METRO NEWS SERVICES