Rail reliability vital to boost ridership

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2023 (789 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Walking the length of Broadway with my three boys and husband last spring, dragging our wheeled luggage behind us, felt delightfully novel. The sun was shining and we were in high spirits.

We were on our way to Union Station, destined for a grand adventure on the train: a hotel with a water slide in the burgeoning metropolis of Portage la Prairie.

I had never ridden the train in Canada, and we thought this little trip would be a fun introduction to rail travel for our kids. On board, they made a beeline for the snack bar, then the observation car, happily waving to folks stuck in traffic at railway crossings. My husband and I chatted with the Churchill-bound passengers who had another two days of travel ahead of them.

About 90 minutes later we were happily installed in a Portage la Prairie hotel, with the kids enjoying the water slide and pizza on the way. The ride had delivered on novelty and adventure, and all was well and good for our little semi-staycation.

The next morning we learned our 3 p.m. train was to be a couple of hours late. This was somewhat expected, and we made plans to check out of the hotel and spend a couple of hours at a playground. We picked up some ice cream and made the best of things.

Most often, Via trains run late due to freight traffic. The passenger cars ride on lines owned by CN and CP, and thus get second billing to shipping trains. In my mind, I had thought this meant delays of an hour or two, but was about to learn the hard way that these delays can be significant and require swift crisis-response planning.

Checking the Via app again, we found ourselves in a bit of a predicament: the train was now scheduled to arrive well after midnight, and getting later. The kids were already pretty tired of the playground, and reality hit us quickly. We had no vehicle, nowhere to stay and no way home. We were in the hot sun with three young children, dragging our luggage around and fending off the impending meltdowns of kids and adults alike.

Throwing our kids in with a group playing basketball in a schoolyard, we attempted to make a plan. We tried to find a cab that would drive us back to Winnipeg but none could fit five passengers. We tried to find a car rental agency but none answered their phones on Sundays. We considered returning to the hotel and getting up in the middle of the night to get the kids back on the train, but we had to work in the morning. I was incredulous: How could any passenger service run fully 12 hours late and expect people to ever buy another ticket?

Thankfully, Via seems to be aware of the preposterousness of their scheduling. Last week, Via’s CEO Mario Péloquin called for passenger trains to have right of way over freight, a development that would make Canadian rail travel more reliable. In the United States, Amtrak has this privilege, resulting in 83 per cent of its trains arriving on time. Compare that to Via’s dismal 62 per cent and the benefit is obvious.

Canada is vast and uncomfortable to travel by road, especially with young children who don’t do well under wiggle-prohibiting conditions. How wonderful it would be to stretch out on a train instead, with a handy snack bar and a place to lie down, to be rocked to sleep on the Prairies and wake up in the Rockies. But this heavenly comfort is completely stifled by the unreliability of the service. Without reliable schedules, the possibility of familial chaos is just too great.

Considering the fact major cities in Canada are largely tied together by a single ribbon of rail, this seems like a common-sense solution to promoting trains as a viable travel option while preserving the tenuous patience of travellers across the country.

As for our adventure, we eventually found a friend willing to come rescue us from the basketball court in Portage la Prairie, and we’ve learned the hard way to have a backup plan if we ever decide to try Canadian rail travel again. The recent plea from Via has given me hope that one day they might be able to run on time. In the meantime, we’ll be planning a road trip.

rebecca.chambers@freepress.mb.ca