Back on track: NDP bill aims to make train passengers a priority

There’s a new push in Parliament to give passengers priority over freight on Canada’s vast network of rail lines.

The Rail Passenger Priority Act seeks to amend the Canada Transportation Act to require railway companies to give passenger trains the right of way or face monetary penalties of up to $250,000 per violation.

The NDP's transportation critic Taylor Bachrach introduced the private member's bill and said the "simple change" would go a long way in speeding up passenger rail service.

"It's a very simple change and it would make a difference towards improving our passenger rail system right across the country," he said from the VIA Rail station in Smithers, B.C.

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To help hammer home his message, Bachrach took the train from Toronto to Vancouver over the Christmas break. He said the train had to "pull over dozens of times" to let a freight train pass, with the overall journey taking about a day longer than it would have 50 years ago.

"If we had passenger priority, that trip would take less time and Via Rail would be able to maintain a reliable schedule that would allow more people to get on the train and know that they're going to arrive at their destination with some level of predictability," he said.

In 2022, only 57 per cent of VIA Rail trains were considered to be on time compared to 72 per cent in 2021. The company said its on-time performance was "negatively impacted due to congestion on third party infrastructure."

VIA Rail only owns three per cent of the 12,000 km of rail lines it uses. To run trains on tracks it doesn't own, VIA has to negotiate scheduling deals and pay track owners including CP, Metrolinx and CN.

"There are currently no regulations in Canada that give passenger trains priority when meeting a freight train, forcing VIA Rail trains to give way to trains owned by the infrastructure owner, resulting in chronic delays for passengers across the country," a spokesperson for VIA Rail said in a statement.

"A multitude of measures could be used to guarantee the reliable and punctual service expected by passengers, including a clear priority for passenger trains."

Roughly 50 years ago, the American national passenger railroad company — AMTRAK — was given the right of way Via Rail is now pushing for. Both CP and CN operate in the United States and give priority to AMTRACK to run its services.

“What we need here in Canada now is the legislative tool that allows us force Canadian National to actually offer a regular service and provide high performance service on trackage that they owe,” said AJ Wray, a doctoral candidate at Western University who focuses on public transportation planning.

In a statement, CN, who owns the vast majority of the lines used by VIA Rail, said any proposal of that kind needs to be carefully reviewed and the company advocated for separate dedicated rail lines for passenger trains.

“Any such proposal must be considered carefully in consultation with railways of all types and shippers across a range of industries that depend on safe, efficient freight rail service to get their resources to market and essential products to communities across Canada,” a spokesperson for CN wrote in an email to CTV News.

Even with the law in the United States, AMTRACK says freight trains caused more than one million minutes of delay to passengers in 2019. AMTRACK says the law has only been enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice once in 1979.

Still, the CEO of VIA Rail has said he wants to see something similar come to fruition in Canada.

"I would love that, together with a bill of rights for passengers similar to what we see in the airline industry, as imperfect maybe as it is," said VIA Rail's CEO Mario Peloquin in October.

A Via Rail employee walks past the Ocean, the Halifax-to-Montreal passenger train, at the station in Halifax on Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (/Andrew Vaughan / THE CANADIAN PRESS)But those in the shipping and freight industries have concerns that any type of regulation limiting the movement of cargo as it moves across Canada could impact the supply chain.

"We're getting over our COVID hangover right now," said John Corey, CEO of the Freight Management Association of Canada. "VIA having priority over tracks will turn that upside down and I don't think that's what we need right now."

Instead of competing with the freight service lines, Corey agrees with CN and believes Canada should create a designated network of rail lines for VIA Rail.

"I think is the real answer," Corey said. "You need to have dedicated track if you want to have a passenger service that is going to be effective and efficient. The problem with that is it’s going to cost a lot of money."

Canada is consulting on the creation of designated lines for a high frequency line between Quebec City and Toronto, but that is not expected to be completed until at least the mid-2030s.

Two decades ago, riders could board an express train in Montreal's downtown Central Station and arrive at Toronto's Union Station about four hours after departure, said Greg Gormick, who heads On Track Consulting.

Now that same trip typically takes about five hours — assuming no delays hamper the journey — despite roughly $300 million in federal investments along the Montreal-Toronto corridor since 2009.

Gormick believes many of VIA's delays happen because of what he calls "poor" equipment maintenance and track congestion in southwestern Ontario where Metrolinx operates the GO Transit system.

Olivia Chow, now mayor of Toronto, tabled a similar bill in Parliament when she was an MP. It never passed.

“I don't have a lot of confidence in this private member's bill going forward unless the government ... steps up and acknowledges that they want to do this,” said Wray.

Bachrach's private member's bill has completed first reading and would require the federal government's support to be enacted. He said he intends to contact the transport minister and other government officials when Parliament returns at the end of January.

With files from The Canadian Press