VIA in Canada
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[Originally posted to the All-Aboard email list]
A gentleman on our list asked several questions about VIA service in Canada. Eight years ago I led a project that took VIA apart and put it back together again on paper for the purpose of privatizing the company. Our final report presented to Prime Minister Mulroney’s federal government ran about 800 pages, complete with timetables, marketing plans, and a review of union contracts, among many other topics.
It was an interesting project, because our group of professional passenger rail consultants had the opportunity to say “what if?” on almost every topic relating to creating and operating a successful railroad.
For those of you wondering, our figures were created using standard North American accounting principles (we used railroad accounting where necessary, but converted our facts and figures to real-world accounting for the benefit of the government – it was an interesting conversion). Both our marketing and operating figures (as well as corporate overhead) were always conservative to a point where if we knew a coach seat headrest paper towel costs 15 cents to replace, we tripled that cost to err on the side of caution. We used VIA historical ridership figures for marketing calculations.
The only part of VIA for Amtrak to emulate is their customer service. They consistently rank very high with their customers, with high satisfaction scores constantly running above 95%.
The rest of VIA currently emulates Amtrak, and Canada uses the U.S. as a positive model for their arguments.
VIA cuts its annual federal government subsidy each year by improving their efficiency and passenger counts. However, the last time I looked, they were still only recovering about 40% or less of their operating costs at the farebox.
They have slashed their route system to the bone, where all but one of their long distance trains is tri-weekly. The Ocean, running between Montreal and Halifax is six times per week. VIA started its life with a huge corporate staff. They have trimmed some during the years, but many think they are probably still overstaffed.
Their version of the NEC between Sarnia and/or Windsor and Toronto and Ottawa and Montreal has daily service, but much less dense than our NEC.
VIA has always hauled express service and mail, but only because many of their routes are “social services” where there are no roads. The only form of transportation is either the train or a small airplane. Because of the nature of tri-weekly service, there is not much advantage to mail and express service of much consequence.
VIA has learned correctly that while it is a vital part of Canada’s domestic transportation network, they make huge money from sleeping car service. They also split their coach business into two classes. The long-distance advanced coach service (called VIA 1 on corridor trains) is similar to Amtrak’s regular coach service in terms of spaciousness and amenities. (VIA 1 on corridor trains is similar to first class airline service.) The riff raff in the lower class coach service on long-distance trains have an experience similar to riding in a short-distance Amtrak coach for a couple of days. It isn’t very pretty.
Their dining and lounge car services are exceptional. The diner has a much more upscale atmosphere than an Amtrak diner. The food is excellent.
VIA has no new equipment. They reworked the old Canadian Pacific coaches and sleepers at Pointe St. Charles about seven years ago, and it was on the same level as when the heritage sleepers were reworked at Beech Grove. VIA spent a bit more money and updated the equipment a little better, but they had the benefit of Amtrak’s previous experience to draw upon.
Their corridor equipment is about 20 years old and holds up well. Other than GO transit equipment in Toronto and some other isolated areas of Canada, there is no bi-level equipment that in Canada that VIA owns or operates (other than 35 year old dome cars).
VIA union contracts are not as progressive as Amtrak’s contracts.
VIA is a crown corporation, which means, like Amtrak, it is a creature of the federal government. Unless something has changed in the last few years, VIA has never even had the benefit of statutory authority from Parliament; it was created by an act of the cabinet, not the Parliament. Canada’s form of government is a copy of the English system. Therefore, the Prime Minister and cabinet have considerable powers that automatically flow to them that Congress does not afford our President in our system.
VIA is envious of Amtrak. The Canadians think we have a better system and wish they had our frequencies and routes. VIA management through the years made many of the same mistakes and Amtrak management, and paid as heavy of a price in 1989 when over half of their system was slashed by the government.
Our plan said it would take 11 years to privatize VIA (and not all of it; just the long-hauls) and would require a number of things to happen, including the purchase of bi-level equipment. It can be done, but there must be a long-term commitment to doing it and a workable plan everyone agrees to in advance.
Bruce Richardson
