Municipal Leaders in Eastern Ontario Speak Out After VIA Rail Announces Non-Stop Trains Trial Between Montreal and Toronto

Brockville – Municipal leaders in Eastern Ontario are letting VIA Rail know they are not happy with the announcement by VIA Rail of Non-stop trials between Montreal and Toronto, set to begin on Monday, September 29th, which will eliminate stops in Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston, and other communities.

Starting on Monday, VIA Rail is launching a three-month direct service pilot project on select Montreal-to-Toronto trains, including trains 60, 61, 68, and 69, while train 50 will be reduced.

These trains will run non-stop between Montreal and Toronto, and the changes will cause cancellations to stops, both eastbound and westbound, in communities between Toronto and Montreal.

In a prepared statement, Leeds-Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes MP Michael Barrett said, “Via Rail’s decision to cut train services is unacceptable. Residents in our community, as well as those in other rural regions and along a major corridor in Eastern Ontario, will be underserved.”

Barrett said he will join MPs from affected communities “in a bipartisan effort in Ottawa to consider all options and discuss a plan to address Via Rail’s cuts.”

Brockville Mayor Matt Wren had this to say, “Did you know, under VIA’s route changes, there will only be one train per day to get you from Brockville to Montreal departing at 3 pm and, perhaps even worse, only one train a day departing Montreal at 8:30 am that will stop to let you off in Brockville?”

He went on to say, “They call it a pilot project. We should be concerned it could get worse and need to speak up about these cuts. After all, we’re getting bypassed by the high-speed project while we, Canadian taxpayers, have invested $1.4 billion in new VIA trains. The return on investment for those who don’t live in Montreal or Toronto just plummeted! Aren’t we supposed to be trying to get fewer cars on the 401?”

A VIA Rail spokesperson said, “Although this pilot project is an exciting opportunity, we recognize this change may inconvenience some customers who rely on intermediate stops. That’s why VIA Rail will carefully evaluate the pilot based on ridership, on-time performance, customer feedback, and community impacts. It is too early to determine whether the program will continue beyond this pilot phase.”

“A reason for this experiment is the loss of passengers between Toronto and Montreal, particularly in business class, resulting from the increasingly severe delays, including those caused by the restrictions CN imposed on new Venture trains. There is significant untapped demand between the two cities, so by running these express trains with 32-axle consists that will be able to operate at full line speed, VIA Rail may hope to win back lost ridership and attract new passengers. Much will depend on whether CN provides adequate dispatching so that slowdowns from freight trains are minimized and the express trains can achieve reliable on-time performance,” said Transport Action Canada.