VIA Rail Underlying Equipment and Service Pressures
LOCATION: National
Issue: On December 23, 2022, due to extreme weather conditions, VIA Rail experienced several service disruptions in the Quebec City – Windsor corridor, Ocean and Montréal-Senneterre-Jonquière routes. The Government of Canada is making significant investments to address the systemic issues that amplified these service disruptions.
Date: January 9, 2023
SUGGESTED RESPONSES
- While the Government of Canada acknowledges the extraordinary circumstances faced, the situation with VIA Rail during the holiday season was unacceptable.
- Transport Canada has been actively following up with VIA Rail regarding these challenges to ensure that there is an improved response for travellers should these serious problems be faced again.
- The Government of Canada is currently investing significantly to procure a new fleet of trains for VIA Rail’s operations in the Quebec City–Windsor corridor, which are beginning to enter into service.
- The Government of Canada is also continuing to make important investments to advance the High Frequency Rail project, which will transform passenger rail service in Canada through the creation of dedicated rail track, ensuring a faster, more frequent, accessible, and sustainable rail service among the major centres of Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, Montréal, Ottawa, Peterborough, and Toronto.
- Transport Canada is also working with VIA Rail to better understand the process that VIA Rail is implementing to identify lessons learned and to understand more about how VIA Rail plans to improve its incident response protocols and communications for passengers onboard stranded trains in the future.
If pressed on the department’s oversight activities regarding the VIA Rail HEP cars:
- An analysis conducted by VIA Rail has identified structural conditions on head-end powered (HEP) passenger cars and has recommended actions to mitigate the safety risks.
- In the interest of safe rail operations, a Ministerial Order has been issued to VIA Rail which requires the company to implement the recommended mitigations measures.
- Transport Canada is conducting oversight to Ministerial Order and has found VIA to be in compliance.
- Transport Canada continues to monitor the situation closely. Should a risk to safety be identified, the department will not hesitate to take immediate action.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Due to weather events that affected Quebec and Ontario, VIA Rail Services in the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor were significantly affected from December 23, 2022, until December 27, 2022.
Subsequently, on the morning of December 24, a CN train derailed on their busy mainline between Montreal and Toronto, which forced VIA Rail to cancel their services for three days (December 24-26) on the Toronto-Montréal and Toronto-Ottawa routes.
The VIA Rail service challenges were the product of extreme weather. Two structural factors made the situation worse:
- VIA Rail operates primarily on shared track with freight rail owned and operated by CN. This impacts VIA Rail’s capacity and ability to recover quickly following service disruptions.
- VIA Rail uses an aging fleet of rolling stock in the corridor. Due to the state of this equipment, VIA Rail has limited redundancy and ability to recover from significant disruptions. For example, they cannot run twice as many trains once service is able to resume.
Structural Condition of HEP Fleet and Ministerial Order
The structural conditions were found as part of the Heritage Program fleet modernization overhaul. The head-end powered (HEP) cars were built between 1946 and 1955.
The HEP cars are used in the Toronto-Vancouver, Montréal-Halifax, Montréal- Jonquière-Senneterre, Jasper-Prince Rupert, and Winnipeg-Churchill routes. Some HEP cars are also assigned to the Québec City-Windsor Corridor.
Transport Canada’s assessment of the technical report determined the recommendations developed by VIA Rail’s engineering consultant use sound engineering principles and are appropriate to ensure continued safety operations and the safety of passengers and the public.
On October 19, 2022, Transport Canada issued a Ministerial Order to VIA Rail to implement operational mitigations to reduce the potential consequences of a collision event and to conduct additional engineering simulations and testing to inform a structural reinforcement program.
By issuing a Ministerial Order, Transport Canada sets out a clear path for VIA Rail to implement the mitigation measures and support continued oversight and inspection activities by the Department’s Rail Safety inspectors to verify compliance.
Investments in Passenger Rail
The High Frequency Project will be the largest investment in passenger rail in a generation and one of Canada’s largest infrastructure projects in the last half-century. It will transform passenger rail service in Canada by creating a modern,
resilient, sustainable and mostly electrified rail service that uses mostly dedicated tracks between Québec City, Trois-Rivières, Montreal, Ottawa, Peterborough and Toronto.
The Government of Canada is making significant investments to replace VIA Rail’s aging fleet in the Corridor. The successful procurement of new rolling stock for the corridor means that new trainsets are coming online shortly to enhance capacity and reliability. By the end of 2023, it is expected that 8 of the 32 new trainsets will be operating it the corridor.