awwilliams@watcgl.UUCP (02/25/87)
In article <864@ubc-cs.UUCP> andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) writes: > > Similarly, I have taken two cross-Canada train trips >by VIA, and I think their service is excellent. I wouldn't >choose to go any other way on my trips in the Toronto- >Ottawa-Montreal area, since as well as being more >enjoyable, they take just about the same amount of time. >Isn't it odd that the guy who thought we shouldn't >subsidize VIA also thought that their service was lousy? > VIA rail seems to be caught in the following trap: A lot of people I talk to say that they would take the train if the service wasn't so bad. But how is service going to get any better if they don't get any money from passenger revenue? These are the same people that think that the railway is a "national institution" and should continue to run service to every nook and cranny in the country, and on time, no matter what the Canadian weather throws at it. Hence, the massive ($800 million / year) subsidies. VIA service within the Windsor<-->Quebec corridor is fairly reasonable, and has improved greatly over the last six years (the period which I have used it). I even got to ride an LRC train on a branch line on my last trip. The service is far quicker than buses, and by the time you include trips to/from airports, and airport check-ins, the service is competitive with airplanes. However, trains are a *medium* distance method of transportation. The cross-Canada trip should be taken *only* if you want to see the country, you have at least a week to spare, and you don't expect to arrive on time. (By the way, I highly recommend the trip). The cross-Canada train should be run as a "tourist excursion" type of service, where the trip experience itself is the important part, and schedules (other than the original departure time) are dispensed with. For the smaller towns along the cross-Canada main line, passenger service need only be a local "dayliner" type train that gets you to the nearest "large" city. Anyone who expect to travel from Toronto to Vancouver, and arrive within a couple of hours of the scheduled time should be on an airplane. One of the reasons that European train systems work so well is that that you *aren't* trying to travel the width of a continent. Look what happened to the Orient Express. As a method of transportation, it failed. As a tourist excursion, it is a modest success. The Canadian rail system should be partitioned into a "transportation" part and a "tourist" part. Then, perhaps riders will return to VIA rail, it will be able to afford a badly needed upgrade, and the drain on the taxpayer will be reduced. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alan Williams -- Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waterloo UUCP : {allegra|ihnp4|decvax|utzoo|clyde}!watmath!watcgl!awwilliams CSNET : awwilliams%watcgl@waterloo.CSNET ARPA : awwilliams%watcgl%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA