All aboard… or not: Via Rail’s plans up in air

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/11/2020 (1945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Medical officers across Western Canada are urging people to avoid unnecessary trips outside the home, but the national rail carrier is revving up for passenger trips across provincial lines.

Via Rail plans to get rolling between Winnipeg and Vancouver on Dec. 11 in an attempt to salvage the Christmas season.

The company did not provide anyone for an interview Thursday, but said the plans aren’t final.

“We are closely monitoring the situation in Western Canada and are in regular contact with public health authorities,” spokesman Philippe Cannon wrote.

The Crown corporation announced a month ago its plans to start one weekly journey from Manitoba to B.C., after upgrading air filters and cleaning protocols. Via said it tries to space out passengers as much as possible.

Masks are required when people aren’t eating. Everyone eats lunch in their seat, with ramped-up cabin cart service. Premium customers get breakfast and dinner in the dining cabin, at a scheduled time slot.

Daryl Adair, owner of Rail Travel Tours, took a trip between Winnipeg and northern Ontario, and said Via seems to have pretty stringent policies.

“I think the restart has been overdue because there can be flights across Canada so there’s no reason there can’t be rail travel,” said Adair, who is based in Winnipeg.

He said Via started talks this summer on resuming rail service, in part because of communities that have lost bus service, and that there was no plan to extend the route to Toronto until at least next spring.

“Our numbers right across Western Canada were more positive, so a lot of people have been calling for the train to restart, (such as) communities where you can’t get in and out,” he said.

Adair took part in a Thursday briefing call Via’s marketing department held with tour operators. He said there are other precautions not yet listed on the website that are in the works. For example, the observation car would be closed, as would the shared-berth sleeper rooms. Showers would be scheduled so that Via staff can clean up between customers.

Still, with Manitoba leading the country in active COVID-19 cases and other Prairie provinces ramping up restrictions, Adair isn’t sure Via will be able to proceed with its plans yet.

“They’ve got to start somewhere. Nobody expected numbers like this for the second wave,” he said, adding that the entire travel industry will collapse if people don’t respect public-health rules and reduce case numbers.

He hopes Ottawa ramps up rail service next spring if case counts decline through distancing or vaccines, to help support the domestic tourism industry.

But for now, Adair hasn’t decided whether he’ll sell tickets for the upcoming winter service.

“I’m encouraged by what I heard on my conference call, on what’s being done. They’re taking the right steps,” he said.

“We’re not going until we know it’s safe.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca