(The following story by Bruce Campion-Smith appeared on the Toronto Star website on October 11.)
OTTAWA — VIA Rail is expected to get new funding today to refurbish old rail cars and locomotives and speed its service.
Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will hold a news conference this afternoon at Toronto’s Union Station where they’re expected to announce new funding for the national passenger rail service.
“VIA has been on a starvation diet. … There is an urgent need for funding for state-of-good repair alone,” said David Jeanes, president of Transport 2000.
“We’re hoping to see sufficient funds announced by the government (today) to really deal with some of these issues,” he said yesterday in an interview.
“VIA’s ridership is on the increase and yet their annual subsidy from the federal government has been held at the same level for many years.”
While Canada is fast becoming the only G-8 nation without a high-speed rail line, Jeanes expects today’s announcement to focus on making “incremental” improvements to the service.
The rail line, for example, has been seeking funding to refurbish its older passenger cars. And it also wants to rebuild its fleet of 53 older locomotives, to extend their life as well as reduce emissions. That would allow Cannon and Flaherty to tout their announcement as a step to help the environment.
Jeanes said new funding could also be used to improve service on busy routes, such as the Quebec City-Windsor corridor.
VIA also faces a bill that could reach $92 million to make passenger cars more accessible to travellers in wheelchairs. The Supreme Court of Canada in March upheld federal regulators who ordered VIA to make the changes to its Renaissance rail cars to accommodate disabled passengers. Today’s announcement could include the funding to proceed with that work.