Poor Way To Run A Railway

Dale Smith, www.blacklocks.ca
Transport Canada has done a haphazard job on long-term planning for its passenger rail service VIA, says Auditor General Michael Ferguson. Auditors cited the railway for “significant deficiency” in the way its run.

“For a number of years VIA received only short-term approval of its funding and Corporate Plan, and often late in the fiscal year,” Ferguson said. “This makes it difficult for the corporation to carry out its operations economically, efficiently and effectively.”

VIA is to publish its newest financial statements this month. Annual deficits have run to more than $300 million a year.

“Over a five-year period their revenue went up by about $5 million but expenses went up by $60 million and ridership went down by about eight percent,” Ferguson noted. “That would really call into question at what level they’re going to be able to operate in the future, so it’s very important that they have clear instructions from the government about what the expectations and plans are for VIA.”

The transport department has said it will require three years to review VIA’s latest business plan to upgrade to 110 mph commuter service on its busiest routes in Ontario and Québec. The venture to be cost-shared with private investors would see faster service on dedicated tracks linking Québec City, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor.

“Fundamentally the responsibility for making sure there is an approved long-term plan for VIA really falls with the Department of Transport,” Ferguson told reporters. Transport Minister Marc Garneau did not comment.

The auditors’ findings followed a Transport Canada statutory review that concluded the Crown railway has been subject to unpredictable cabinet decisions. “VIA Rail’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed depending on the decisions of government,” said the report Pathways: Connecting Canada’s Transportation System To The World written by former industry minister David Emerson.

Pathways proposed that VIA cut subsidies outside its central routes that account for 90 percent of ridership, and stop the use of private rail lines where freight trains are given right-of-way. VIA’s on-time performance has fallen from 87 percent of trains to 64 percent in the past five years, according to management. “This is just not attractive to passengers,” CEO Yves Desjardin-Siciliano earlier told the Senate transport committee.

VIA runs some 500 departures a week with ridership at four million passengers a year, including the iconic transcontinental Canadian route from Toronto to Vancouver.