VIA Rail

VIA Rail operates trains in all regions of Canada over a network spanning the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay. It carries 3.9 million passengers anually. VIA Rail was created by the Government of Canada in 1978 to take over the declining passenger services of the Canadian National Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. The sharp ridership declines in the 1960's were caused when airlines, higway busses, and private automobile travel dislodged passenger rail's transport supremacy. The consolidation affected passenger rail in the United States where Amtrak was created to meet the same economic conditions.

In the 1980s the company's goverment funding was heavily cut by the government of Brian Mulroney leading to the closing of many routes.

The Maple Leaf is a passenger service operated jointly by Via Rail and Amtrak from New York's Pennsylvania Station to Toronto's Union Station via Albany and Buffalo. Similarly, The International operates between Chicago's Union Station and Toronto's Union Station.

Its corporate headquarters are in Montreal, Quebec.

External link

• VIA Rail Corporate Web Site

Referenced By