VIA Rail opening bargaining brief

VIA Rail Background

VIA Rail is a non-agent Crown Corporation. The Government of Canada directly determines the mission of VIA Rail.

  • Mario Péloquin: Chief Executive Officer (appointed May, 2023)

    • 5 year term
    • Previously Chief Operating Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York and Senior Vice President of the SNC-Lavalin Group. He held executive positions at Transport Canada, Transportation Safety Board, Siemens Mobility, Aecom, Thales Canada.
  • Françoise Bertrand, o.c., c.q.: Chairperson of the Board of Directors
  • VIA has about 3,400 employees
  • VIA Rail became the first land transportation company in Canada to join the United Nations Global Compact. UNGC is a voluntary CEO-driven ESG-orientated agreement to move to UN sustainability goals.

Revenue/Expenses

  • Revenues are up by 3.9% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 2023 and per-passenger subsidy is down.
  • Operating expenses increased by 5.9%.

2023 annual results are presented below.

Revenue:

  • 2023

    • 408.4 passenger revenue
    • 430.7 total revenue

  • 2022

    • $317.9M from passengers
    • $335M total

  • 2019

    • $388M from passengers
    • $411M total

Operating Expenses:

  • 2023: $812.5M
  • 2022: $689.4M
  • 2019: $665.2M

Operating loss (needed subsidy):

  • 2023: $381.8 M
  • 2022: $354.3 M
  • 2019: $272.6 M

Increase in operating loss (government subsidy) is due to capital funding and fleet replacement.

Passengers

  • Passengers trips

    • 2023: 4.117 M
    • 2022: 3.3 M

  • Seat miles across Canada (no change in passenger load: 61%)

    • 2023: 1,490 million
    • 2022: 1,200 million
  • 85%: intercity travel
  • 13%: long-distance
  • 2%: regional

Passenger numbers:

  • 96% intercity travel (the Corridor)
  • 3% Long-Distance
  • 1% Regional
  • 328 departures per week on average
  • 82.6% depart on time
  • 57% on time performance
  • 61% passenger load (2022)
  • On-time performance: 59%

Revenue per Train Route

  • 81% Intercity Travel
  • 18% Long-Distance
  • 1% Regional

Government subsidy

  • in millions:
Type Area To 2023 2022 2019
Government Operating Funding 381.8 354.3 280.7
Government Capital Funding 184.7 147.3 112.4
Government Capital Fleet Replacement 206.5 170.9 155.3
Total Government Funding 773.0 672.5 548.4

Corridor

Train Services Revenues; Costs Shortfall; Subsidy per passenger; Subsidy per passenger-mile; Passengers per week; Passengers per year

Service 2023 subsidy/pass 2022 Sub/pass 2023 $sub/mile Pass/Wk
Montréal-Ottawa-Toronto 60.56 69.60 0.24 34,272
Québec City-Montréal-Ottawa 44.94 66.80 0.30 13,394
Corridor East Total 55.73 68.81 0.25 47,666
Toronto-London-Sarnia-Windsor 47.35 59.91 0.37 12,449
Toronto-Niagara 165.09 1.69 521
South Western Ontario (SWO) Total 53.24 64.13 0.42 12,970
Corridor Total 55.20 67.81 0.28 60,636

Mandatory Routes

Mandatory Route Revenue Total: $4,956.

All routes increased except for Winnipeg-Churchill route.

Revenue ($1000s) Costs ($1000s) Passengers/Wk
4,956 56,830 1,087

Fleet

2022 numbers, will change with fleet replacement.

  • 74 locomotives
  • 355 train cars (in and out of service)

Stations

  • 104 train stations total
  • 24 Heritage stations
  • VIA Rail owns 61
  • 400+ communities served across Canada

Remote Passenger Rail

VIA Rail Canada’s mandate: VIA Rail Canada Inc.'s mandate is to operate the national passenger rail services on behalf of the Government of Canada, offering intercity rail services and ensuring rail transportation services to regional and remote communities

Remote Passenger Rail Program (RPRP): the two remote railways receiving funding are the Tshiuetin Rail Transportation (TRT) in Quebec and Labrador, and the Keewatin Railway Company (KRC) in Northern Manitoba.

Tshiuetin Rail Transportation (TRT) receives both capital and operating funding through the RPRP while KRC receives capital funding through the RPRP and operating funding through VIA Rail.

The government continues to finance the Remote Passenger Rail Program funded through an Appropriated annually investment through Estimates.

The RPRP continues to be relevant by addressing the ongoing need of enabling Canadians who live in remote communities to access the national transportation system.

Unifor positions on VIA Rail

  • Passenger rail should be organized to connect to regional transit and other modes (for different distances) of travel to maximize the utility of regional rail. And, to ensure funding is tied to the expansion of transit and other transport options.
  • Wages in VIA Rail must be competitive to ensure recruitment and retention of skilled workers. As a Crown there is also the responsibility to ensure training and apprenticeships.
  • Passenger rail is essential to meeting climate targets.
  • VIA Rail should have a VIA Rail Act with priority for VIA Rail trains on freight lines.
  • VIA Rail bests serves the public as a publicly owned and operated agency and/or company.
  • VIA Rail should have passengers and workers on the board to ensure it is delivering for the public.
  • VIA Rail operations and routes should be expanded
  • Public funding should be provided so fares can be reduced, new baggage policy reversed, and rush pricing policy should be scaled back.

Concerns

HFR is a separately incorporated entity.

  • Unifor is concerned that the new entity will mean a loss of jobs along the existing corridor.
  • Unifor is concerned that workers for that entity will not be covered by our Collective Agreement.
  • See briefing here on HFR.
  • See briefing here on consortia.

"Loss of shunt" on CN Tracks

Unifor committee presentation on VIA Rail train delay

VIA Rail claims:

Current operational safety management system exceeds compliance standards and is a leader in industry practices.

If this is true, industrial regulations of the rail sector need a major revision.

VIA's Environment plan for 2030 focuses on environmental operations of the infrastructure, but not responding to climate related issues.

Safety and Security is focused on injury prevention and infrastructure upgrades, but not responding to crises.

OUR MISSION

Passengers First

Our primary focus is our passengers. We work on improving our services and redefining VIA Rail to provide our passengers with the most enjoyable travel experience and to find better ways to connect Canadian communities. Safety is and will remain paramount.

Moving to implement regressive billing changes, charging people for additional baggage, limiting access to free amenities, and attempting to cut back on employees who serve travellers are hardly what we call passenger first.

The key to putting passengers first is to ensure employees can provide the services that passengers need in transit, but also in the face of unexpected interruptions to service.

"Resilience" is a word we use these days to define the goal of responding to impacts on rail infrastructure. For VIA Rail, where we rely on those who own and operate the tracks we run on, we have limited room to provide a service that is resilient.

As such, VIA Rail must focus on ensuring that there are always resource available to deal with interruptions in service caused by under investment in the rail sector resulting in low levels of resilience of our rail infrastructure.

These interruptions can be large or small. In today's world, even being tens of minutes late can interrupt travel plans and connections.

For these longer interruptions, ensuring passengers and crew have access to food, water, temperature controlled areas, working facilities, and alternative transport options falls on VIA Rail.

We do not have control over the tracks, the weather, or other trains on the system. We do have control over the resources put into ensuring a safe experience for passengers and crews.

Unifor has long called for priority for VIA Rail and for investment in track twinning so that disruptions like this can be avoided or routed around. In the medium term, it is essential that the government provide the resources to make these recommendations a reality.

In the mean time, the government and VIA Rail must also make the investment expected by the public to ensure a resilient, on time, safe, and comfortable experience for travellers.