Via Rail silent on full return of Sudbury - White River train line

Northern passenger rail line still in limbo Via Rail has yet to announce if a passenger rail line between Sudbury and White River will return to its full schedule this summer.

Northern Ontario tourism officials say they're concerned Via Rail might be going back on its promise, to return a passenger rail line back to its full schedule in the region.

Via Rail announced a return of its lines to full schedules back in the fall, but according to Destination Northern Ontario, it hasn't been able to get an answer on if the "Budd Car" Line, between Sudbury and White River, will be included in that return this summer.

"I know a lot of operators along the line have a very busy year booked and we're starting to hear that people are cancelling trips because they can't book their train tickets," said David MacLachlan, executive director for Destination Northern Ontario.

MacLachlan said pre-pandemic scheduling saw about three weekly departures each way, but that's been down to just one departure a week.

"We've got everybody trying to get onto one train a week and it really makes for a busy train. I've heard that there's weekends where, this is like, this is the busiest train in Canada," he added.

Winnipeg-based Rail Travel Tours has been booking tours on the rail line for two decades.

Its owner, Daryl Adair, said he is struggling to find available tickets.

"It's very concerning. It's very distressing, not only from a tourism perspective where we've planned out two, three years ahead, we have customers that have been waiting for two years, who've stayed with us to ride that train," said Adair. "They seem to make the restart easily between Toronto and Montreal and again, poor northern Ontario is saying 'hey, we're still here.' We need this train, essential service too."

A statement from Via Rail said, "VIA Rail's ridership dropped by more than 95 per cent at the height of the pandemic, but as we now see increased demand, we are adding frequencies across the country while continuing to use a balanced approach to fulfill our important public service mandate while managing the financial impacts."

The company added that it should have further announcements regarding the line shortly.

MacLachlan and Adair said their attempts to contact the company have not been returned.