Canadian Railroads > Reroute of VIA's Canadian

According to Don Phillips of TRAINS magazine, Canadian Pacific has approved a major reroute of
VIA Rail Canada's Canadian to the CPR line along the north shore of Lake Superior.  Reroute is
not yet a fully done deal but the involved parties seem to want it.  Expected timeframe is within a year.

Phillips writes about it in his column, in the July issue of TRAINS.

Running the VIA Canadian on the CPR around Lake Superior would be wonderful.  But are we sure this isn't April Fool's news published a month late?

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Running the VIA Canadian on the CPR around Lake
> Superior would be wonderful.  But are we sure
> this isn't April Fool's news published a month
> late?
>
> KG

A while back VIA Rail's CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano said he would like that to happen. 

OK, I'll ask... Why? The Canadian Pacific is close to if not parallel with the Trans Canadian Highway with the exception of the Whiter River to Sudbury part already served by the VIA Rail remote service. The Canadian National is the only thing going in it's area to the north, I mean no roads for most of the route from Sudbury to the Peg. Wouldn't this nullify part of VIA Rail's mission to serve remote areas? I know it is nice to think that thousands will lineup to ride out of Thunder Bay but the fact that Greyhound Canada is down to only one trip per day across this same region says people are flying or driving there. So why is VIA wanting this?

Jim

tq-07fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OK, I'll ask... Why? The Canadian Pacific is close
> to if not parallel with the Trans Canadian Highway
> with the exception of the Whiter River to Sudbury
> part already served by the VIA Rail remote
> service. The Canadian National is the only thing
> going in it's area to the north, I mean no roads
> for most of the route from Sudbury to the Peg.
> Wouldn't this nullify part of VIA Rail's mission
> to serve remote areas? I know it is nice to think
> that thousands will lineup to ride out of Thunder
> Bay but the fact that Greyhound Canada is down to
> only one trip per day across this same region says
> people are flying or driving there. So why is VIA
> wanting this?
>
> Jim

1) less busy railroad than CN

2) better scenery

3) I think the plan is to swap the RDCs onto the CN route to maintain the remote services

Dave