VIA RAIL BUDGET TO BE SLASHED IN HALF
Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer
Estimates introduced in House of Commons show 62% reduction from 2011-2012
OTTAWA, ON — Budget Estimates tabled in Parliament by the Harper Government show a drastic budget reduction in the country’s passenger rail operator, cuts that will inevitably impact passenger rail service coast to coast.
“The United States, China, Japan, and Europe are all investing heavily in passenger rail, but Canada is going backwards,” said Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer in the House of Commons. “The Conservatives seem determined to kill VIA Rail, chopping more than 60% of VIA’s budget in the last 2 years. Reckless cuts that deep will cause a train wreck for service across Canada.”
“What services will be slashed as a result of these drastic cuts?” asked Hyer in question period. “Will the last remaining trans-Canada service be further reduced?”
The Canadian, the country’s only cross-Canada route (Toronto to Vancouver) which travels through Thunder Bay-Superior North, was cut in 2012 from three trains weekly to two from October to April each year. The Ocean (VIA’s Montreal to Halifax route) was reduced from six times weekly to three at the same time, cutting VIA service to Atlantic Canada in half. Passenger rail supporters fear that this month’s announced cuts, some of the deepest ever in VIA’s history, will cause further cancellations.
“The government’s proposed reduction in the already-meagre VIA budget is a sure a way to kill Canada’s remaining passenger trains,” said Greg Gormick, Project Facilitator for Transport Action’s National Dream Renewed campaign. “Starved of capital, buffeted by political antipathy and undermined by bureaucratic hostility, VIA has been mistreated for all of the 36 years since a previous government created it to supposedly restore and expand what could and should be our most efficient, environmentally-friendly form of intercity transportation.”
Hyer hosted a Thunder Bay Town Hall on passenger rail with Gormick in November, with over 100 residents attending.
“This stands in stark contrast with all the other G8 countries, which are all investing in a massive renaissance of rail passenger service,” added Gormick. “As a result, Canada will be at an economic, social and environmental disadvantage. This is no way to run a railway – or a sustainable and competitive.”
