[kool maudit]

VIA is useless outside of the corridor, and inside the corridor it is slow, eccentric, strange, and heavily compromised by a lack of track priority.

The best course of action is to get one route -- just one, say Montreal-Ottawa or something similarly central but unchallenging -- up to par and then let Canadians use it, enjoy it, and develop a feel for rail travel.

Because right now we are queuing for trains at gates like flights, stopping for reasons not explained by the conductor, paying for drinks with 1970s-style flatbed credit card machines and just generally playing host to a crazy old relic of a rail system. And the result is that we barely use it, and it all becomes a vicious cycle.