VIA RAIL WANTS MORE ROOM AT THE GOV'T TROUGH

    After this week’s purchase of nearly $1-billion worth of new trains, VIA Rail President Yves Desjardins-Siciliano is setting his sights on the Liberal government’s 2019 budget in hope that it will green light a multibillion-dollar expansion of its passenger rail network.
  Via’s proposal for dedicated passenger lines would cost at least $4-billion. The cost would rise to about $6-billion if the line is equipped to run trains using electric power.
   There are also questions about the proposed routes. Rather than running parallel to the existing CN Rail lines between Toronto and Montreal, a new HFR line would run from Toronto through Peterborough, Ont., toward Ottawa and then on to Montreal. On the Quebec side, Via’s existing service along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River would be complemented by a Via-owned track linking Montreal and Quebec City along the north shore. The federal studies – which have not been released – included looking at extending the plan through Southwestern Ontario to Windsor, but that would not likely be part of the initial stage of the plan.
   Via Rail is operated as an independent crown corporation and receives a subsidy from the Minister of Transport to provide service to remote communities. The line item for the subsidy is found is Volume III of the Public Accounts of Canada, and was in 2012 $494 million. Via Rail operates 50 trains per week in and between remote communities in Canada, six trains per week between Montreal and Halifax (3 in each direction), and three trains per week between Toronto and Vancouver. More than 400 trains per week run in the corridor between Windsor and Quebec.