VIA Rail

[casper]

Originally Posted by milomilo

The difference is those UK ghost trains are a result of well meaning policy and I think everyone agrees they are a bad, unwanted outcome. But in the grand scheme of things, a handful of ghost trains out of tens of thousands of rail services per day is inconsequential, and if it means that it is hard for operators to scrap service then it could be a fine price to pay.

In Canada, ghost train describes a large portion of the service, and if we introduced swimmer's daily Calgary - Winnipeg train, that one would definitely fit the description.

There is a fundamental difference. UK ghost trains are stops at stations that serve little purpose today. Stopping at a steel mill that is now non-existent or servicing a pier for a ferry that no longer exists. They are contractual obligations that private railway entered into a decade or two ago when they made sense.

Running a train between a Calgary and Winnipeg is about providing rail service to over a millions people. This is not a train to a ghost town or abandoned mine site.