Via seeks faster service on Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor
Michael Prentice, OBJ
Published on July 13, 2015
Ottawa will be a big winner if Via Rail is successful in its bid to raise $3 billion in private funding to improve train service in the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor, OBJ has learned.
Most of Via’s proposed improvements would be on the line between Ottawa and Toronto, Via president Yves Desjardins-Siciliano said in an exclusive interview recently.
Via's chief executive appears optimistic the government-owned passenger rail company will raise the money required to improve service between Montreal and Toronto and turn the corridor from a money-loser into a profitable venture.
Under Via’s proposed improvements, travel time between Ottawa and Toronto would be slashed to as little as two hours and 30 minutes, making it competitive with flying and much faster than travelling by car or bus. Currently, the fastest trains between the two cities take almost four hours.
Train service along the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor is now slow and infrequent. Via says it loses $48 for each passenger it carries on the route – a sum covered by the federal government in its annual subsidy to Via of about $300 million.
Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano believes he can make service profitable in the corridor by slashing journey times and doubling the number of trains.
Right now, rail service linking Canada’s three largest eastern cities operates in a triangle, rather than a corridor. But if Via’s ambitious plans are successful, trains will speed between Montreal and Toronto, with a stop in Ottawa, in as little as three hours and 50 minutes.
The journey time between Ottawa and Montreal would be cut to about one hour and 20 minutes, about 30 minutes faster than the current fastest time. The rail link between downtown Ottawa and downtown Montreal would be faster than taking a car, bus or even a plane, taking check-in times into account.
Via is now in discussions with major investors – notably pension funds – in the hope of persuading them to invest in the proposed service improvements.
We’re now well into the 21st century, so why is Via considering $3 billion in service improvements that will still only put us in the 20th century?
Super-high-speed trains, such as those in Europe and Japan, would cost billions of dollars in government subsidies, and few if anyone in Canada wants to pay for them. Via estimates it would cost at least $9 billion to introduce super-high-speed trains serving Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.
One of the company’s biggest problems is that it has to share tracks – which are often old and dilapidated – with freight trains.
Under Via’s proposed improvements, $2 billion would be spent on new tracks or renovations to existing tracks. Most of the rest would be spent on doubling the fleet of trains that serve the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto routes. Via would have exclusive use of about 25 per cent of all track on the corridor.
Via estimates these improvements would enable it to operate the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto routes with an annual profit of about 15 per cent. That profit would then be shared between Via and the private investors.
Via has not yet indicated how such profits, if any, would be shared with investors. Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano told OBJ he expects the partners to get “a handsome return on their investment.”
Canadian taxpayers also stand to gain, he said, since he expects profitability in the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor to “eliminate a chunk of the federal subsidy.”
A big reason super-high-speed train service is so expensive is that it requires exclusive use of track, with no railroad crossings, added Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano.
He estimated it would take 12 to 15 years to implement the plan. The improvements proposed by Via can be introduced gradually, he said.
If investors are found and if the federal government approves Via’s plans, service improvements could begin within 18 months to two years after that, the Via chief told OBJ.
http://www.obj.ca/Local/2015-07-13/a...nto-corridor/1
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