Via Rail gets a lot of grief, some of it deserved. As someone who spent last Christmas Eve stuck on the train in Coburg for three hours, I get it. Anyone who rides the train fairly regularly knows the frustrations. For all its flaws, though, Via Rail actually provides an underwhelming but useful service on its main corridor between Ontario and Quebec. With the new High Frequency Rail plan, it could become a legitimately good service. We should invest in it.
The case for intercity rail isn’t that hard to make, in theory. It’s a high-capacity method of transportation that can get people off of congested highways while creating less emissions than air travel. In practice, it’s harder. Part of that is because of real technological constraints. Over a long enough distance, planes will always beat rail. Part of it is that we measure trains against an imagined standard of air travel or driving.
There are plenty of things we can do to make intercity trains faster with existing technology. Much of that involves building dedicated rail so that passenger trains don’t get stuck behind freight trains. Indeed, it looks like Via is going to do that — at least on the Windsor–Quebec City corridor, where 96 per cent of Via trips take place.
I’m not here to debate whether Via’s “high frequency rail” plan is the best approach. There are reasonable arguments that we should instead focus on a shorter full high-speed rail plan between Toronto and Montreal. I’ll leave that to people like Paige Saunders and Reece Martin, who have a thoughtful critique here. Whatever path we choose, there’s every reason to believe that we can make Via service much more enticing where people actually use it.
I’m sure you’re skeptical. After all, according to Via rail, the average travel time between Toronto and Ottawa is 4:26 (my last trip was 4:24). For Toronto to Montreal, it’s 5:08. Those aren’t short trips, especially compared to posted flight times (1:05 and 1:15). In both cases, the difference is more than three hours! Well, sort of. After all, you need to get to and from the airports — with enough time to get through security. The length of the experience can vary wildly based on where you live and where you’re going.
Let’s think about getting to Ottawa from the perspective of someone who lives in Toronto’s east end and relies on public transportation. Whether you’re taking Via or flying out of Pearson (the math isn’t much different for Billy Bishop), you need to get to Union Station. So let’s take Union as the starting point. If you’re flying, you need to tack on around 25 minutes for the Union Pearson express, assuming the schedule works out relatively well. That 1:05 flight is now 1:30. Of course, you need to build in enough time to get through security and to your gate. If you’ve got a Nexus card — and you buy the old economist’s creed that if you’ve never missed a flight, you’re wasting your time — you can probably get there about 40 minutes in advance. So, 2:10.
Tremblay O-Train station, viewed from the Ottawa Via Rail station. (Steve Lafleur)
Then there’s the other side. Let’s assume it takes you 15 minutes to deplane and exit the airport (a generous assumption): 2:25. Add on 38 minutes if you’re taking transit downtown (Parliament Station). If all goes well, you can get from Union Station to Downtown Ottawa in 3:03 from Pearson, compared to 4:42 (adding 16 minutes for the O-Train) by Via. That’s a notable difference, and the difference is larger if Montreal is your destination.
Of course, travel time isn’t the only factor. There’s the experience. This is where Via excels.
Let’s be honest: air travel isn’t fun. There’s the airport run, which often leaves you constantly reloading Google Maps, hoping it’ll tell you that traffic is getting better (it never is). There’s the whole airport-security theatre. Pacing around, hoping to find a spot at a lousy airport bar or a seat by your gate. There are other passengers, many of whom are not at their best when they travel. There’s turbulence. If you’re like me, maybe your ears won’t pop, and you’ll be half deaf for a day.
Oh, and did I mention delays? Yeah, that’s not just a Via Rail thing. They happen all the time at airports, too. You may recall that, while everyone was dumping on Via Rail for cancelling Christmas Day trips last year (my partner got stuck in Toronto), airlines across North America were also cancelling trips. Air travel isn’t some kind of magical experience, immune to the elements, logistics, and other people. Hurtling through the air at 36,000 feet is kind of miraculous, but it’s not exactly luxurious.
Now let’s turn back to Via. You can book a business-class ticket between Toronto and Ottawa for roughly the cost of an economy seat on a noisy turboprop. You walk into Union Station a few minutes ahead of your train and sit in the business lounge if there’s a delay. No security theatre. You just walk onto the train like a normal human being. When you’re on board, the attendant will bring you drinks and snacks, much as they would on a flight (well, other than when the seatbelt sign is on and your folding trays are in an upright position).
Then you’ll get a surprisingly passable meal, and you can hook up to the Wi-Fi and just watch the countryside roll by. It’s pretty nice. If you’re travelling for work, you can actually do work. Then you walk about 100 meters to the O-Train station, and you’re downtown in 16 minutes. It all feels so much more civilized than fighting your way to the airport, getting treated like a common criminal, and hurtling through the air in a shaky metal tube.
Enjoying some cod and white wine on one of the new Via trains. (Steve Lafleur)
Of course, people have busy lives. That means that, for now, Via simply isn’t always an option between Toronto and Montreal, let alone between Windsor and Quebec City. That means the corridor is mostly useful for shorter segments — Toronto to Ottawa, for example — or people with a lot of flexibility.
The High Frequency Rail plan would change that. It would reduce travel time between Toronto and Ottawa to under three hours (under four to Montreal). That pretty much eliminates the air-travel advantage. With greater frequency, it might even mean you can arrive at more convenient times. This may not seem as sexy as full high-speed rail, but it would be a game-changer for Via.
Making the train faster means track improvements that will take years. So for the foreseeable future, air travel will continue to be faster. But there are improvements Via could make in the meantime.
One challenge is improving on-time performance. (Some of that is out of its hands, since it often has to defer to freight rail.) The new train fleet rolling out should help. I once got delayed three hours returning from Montreal because of an electrical issue on an old train. The new trains should improve reliability.
Speaking of the new fleet, I got to ride one of the new Siemens Charger trains between Toronto and Kingston, and it was a very good experience. The seats are quite comfortable (at least in business class), and they’ve got a lot of the details right, like display screens showing the current speed and the next few stops. On speed, the trains are capable of going up to 201 kilometres an hour — and hopefully they’ll be able to reach that once they get dedicated tracks as part of the HFR program.
Display screen on a new Via train. (Steve Lafleur)
The other part is doing the little things to make sure the trip is as pleasant as can be and making sure Via gets credit for it. For instance, think of the meals. At some point, it started serving much better food than any commercial air carrier or train service in North America. The on-board service in business class is also great. It could be a little bit better if they focused a bit more on some small details; they could, say, focus a little bit more on carrying interesting local snacks and beverages, which is increasingly the expectation in the travel industry. These are small, low-cost details that can make the difference between feeling like you’re killing time at Starbucks and like you’re spending an afternoon in a nice lounge.
It could also improve the boarding process, as Paige Saunders has argued. I saw first-hand how
Business-class seat on a new Via train. (Steve Lafleur)
much more pleasant things can be while riding Florida’s fancy new Brightline train service. There’s no elaborate queueing process. You just scan your ticket on the way into the station, and they let everyone board when the train arrives. No need for people to line up well in advance to get on the train. Making the experience more relaxing and enjoyable is well within Via’s power.
Finally, it needs to change people’s perception. Like I said — the brand isn’t great. Part of that is for legitimate reasons, many of which it can work on in the short term. Part of it is branding. It’s got a pretty useful service for 96 per cent of riders. It’s got a nice new fleet rolling out using the very same trains as Florida’s fancy private tourist train, minus the absurdly comfortable hand stitched seats (you can read more about my recent experience with Brightline here). It’s also got a very good meal program that could be augmented through some clever partnerships with local vineyards, breweries, and snack makers.
Bottom line: Via Rail is already serviceable along its main corridor. With the new High Frequency Rail program, we can make it good. To get it done, we need people to understand that making Via good doesn’t require a moonshot (at least not where people already use it). We’re on the cusp of having a good rail system between Windsor and Quebec City. We should be excited about this — and we should get it done.
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