VIA Discussion Thread

[MasterG]

I couldn't find a VIA discussion thread in the general Canada section but wanted to put this here.

What does the future hold for public inter-city rail in Canada?

VIA seems strong for it's Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor services. However it also appears unable to solve it's own problems - increasing delays due to freight traffic, older rail stock, lack of capital investment - as governments don't fund the system the way other countries do.

It seems that governments everywhere are at best indifferent to the inter-city rail and at worst actively trying to destroy it with slow erosion of funding or piece-meal funding that never was designed to solve any real problems with the network in the first place.

With transit issues taking centre stage nationally in most major cities, is it time to rethink interurban rail in Canada? While vestigial historic routes may not make sense anymore, corridor service, Calgary to Edmonton and a few other options certainly can with the right funding and prioritization.

Will we ever see a rail renaissance in Canada?