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Originally Posted by esquire
I'm fairly sure that you're right and that VIA has sporadically run bus service through the years, although I can't remember the details. Possibly in NB?
I did a Google Image Search and the only pictures I could find seem to suggest the services ran in the 1980s.
By contrast, Amtrak has for as long as I can remember run a fairly extensive fleet of buses to connect nearby cities with their rail routes.
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From what I’ve seen of VIA schedules from the late 70s and early 80s, they had a few bus services, although some were contracted out to third parties such as Greyhound or the Saskatchewan transportation commission. One such bus connected Charlottetown with Amherst, on the Ocean route; another connected Hamilton with Burlington station. STC ran between Regina and Saskatoon, initially complementing the VIA train on that route and continuing after that rail service was cut. There were also a couple of limousine services, one of which connected Fredericton with Fredericton Junction, a station on the Montreal-Saint John route; another connected Windsor’s VIA station with Detroit’s Amtrak station.
CN operated bus service on Newfoundland up until 1996, as a replacement for its passenger rail services which shut down before VIA even existed.
VIA also much more extensively used Budd RDCs back then. The Toronto-Kitchener-London route was served by Budd cars back then for all but one train per day. I believe Budd cars were also used for some Toronto-Kingston runs, and for a seasonal weekend late night train on the London-Burlington-Toronto route.