Category Archives for "Intercity Rail and Bus"

Building Canada requires a national rail strategy

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Northern Ontario , Southwestern Ontario

Transport Action strongly believes that a good freight and passenger rail network is a major component of a strong and independent Canada. However, with 5 decades of observation and advocacy, we have regretfully seen the opposite – a continuous diminution of Canada’s rail system.

Transport Action Canada and Transport Action Ontario have written Prime Minister Carney summarizing the reasons for this decline, including largely foreign ownership of our rail assets and continued populist actions by government to subsidize personal vehicle use.

Our letter recommended establishing a national strategic rail authority to:

• Identify the necessary rail network, including multi-modal inlands distribution centres
• Work with the industry to jointly develop shared investments that boost both freight and passenger rail service
• Support provincial rail investments
• Decline federal funding for urban highway expansions
• Maximize Canadian industrial benefits
• Maintain transparency on the Alto HSR project and on its impact on VIA Rail
• Encourage First Nation participation

Our letter is attached.

Optimizing the Role of Railways in Building Canada’s Economy

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario

Transport Action Ontario has written to the Premiers of Ontario and Alberta expressing our delight that both governments are considering expansion of rail services in Canada for resource development and increased interprovincial trade. Based on our observations from the decades of diminution of rail infrastructure under largely investor-focused, mainly foreign ownership, we provided the Premiers with a number of pragmatic suggestions including:

1. New and expanded infrastructure should be under public ownership.
2. Use crown corporations such as Ontario Northland Transportation Commission to develop the projects.
3. Consider indigenous partnerships.
4. Minimize U.S. capital and supplies.
5. Comparisons with highway alternatives should include long term and externalized costs.
6. Include consideration of passenger rail service and international rail tourism.
7. Public investment on privately-owned rail corridors must be included to increase resiliency and capacity on a mutually beneficial basis.
8. Provinces should “rail bank” all rail infrastructure considered surplus by private operators.

Our letter can be viewed below.

Photo: CN freight train passing Brantford station.

Mapping Canada’s Intercommunity Bus Routes

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News

Transport Action Canada (TAC) is supporting and working with geographer Sean Marshall to improve Canadians’ knowledge about where intercommunity bus routes operate and where there are gaps in the bus and train network.

Sean presented an update of his work at the TAC Annual General Meeting in Kingston, Ontario on April 5, 2025.  He discussed:

• The importance of intercommunity buses
• Changes between 1983 and now
• Mapping Canada’s intercommunity bus links – features and challenges

His presentation is attached to this posting.

The map can be viewed at: https://www.transportaction.ca/canada-intercity-transportation-map/

We encourage operators to send us their updates, and the map will be updated at least quarterly.  

This is only a first step in improving Canada’s intercommunity bus network.  Transport Action’s plan is to continue to advocate for filling gaps in routes, using joint stations (ideally with VIA Rail and local transit operators), schedule coordination between carriers, central booking of tickets and through-ticketing.  We are also working with other on-line bus services like BusBud and Betterez to integrate platforms to provide complete planning and travel information in one website location.

Photograph: Prevost H3-45 motorcoach by Jason Lawrence CC BY 2.0

VIA Rail cost reduction best achieved by revenue boost

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News

In early July, the Canadian government directed virtually all ministers to find ambitious internal savings and reduce program spending by 15% in the next 3 years. This includes VIA Rail.

However, in the case of VIA, we believe that achieving a 15% reduction in the federal subsidy should not be accomplished by service cuts, as they would decimate the operation. Instead, the much better approach is to increase passenger numbers and revenue so that the subsidy is reduced. The two top ways to do this is for the Ministry of Transport to intervene on the two disputes that VIA has with CN – grade crossing restrictions in the corridor and renewal of the Train Service Agreement.

On July 21, 2025 we wrote to Minister Freeland making these points and referring her to our earlier letter of June 6 for more details. Our July letter can be viewed below.

Response to Ontario Minister of Transport Letter to Federal Government

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario , Southwestern Ontario , Urban Transit

On June 2, 2025, Ontario Minister of Transport Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria wrote to federal Minister of Transport and International Trade Chrystia Freeland outlining several areas where federal financial and regulatory assistance is needed to modernize Ontario’s transportation infrastructure. Specific items were identified for subways, highways, rail, marine, airports, electric vehicles and critical minerals.

While Transport Action Ontario supports a number of these items, we felt we needed to comment in several areas:

• The real costs of provincial highways is high
• Need more provincial focus on southwestern Ontario
• Need to improve existing rail asset utilization
• Rail abandonments need more scrutiny
• Regional equity and rail tourism need more focus
• Descoping and delays of GO Expansion project have serious consequences
• Highway 401 tunnel in GTHA is a bad idea
• Infrastructure for critical minerals should include freight rail

Our letter can be viewed below.