I was just onboard earlier this month. The last couple of years before COVID they ran a Vancouver-Edmonton turn as trains 3&4 instead of the 3rd full train that had run in summer months. They are not going to be doing that this year. Two trains is going to be it.
I haven't heard recent rumors of discontinuation. About five years ago (maybe a bit more) there were rampant rumors of turning it over to the Rocky Mountaineer people. That appears to have gone by the board, haven't heard anything about that in years.
Unfortunately, the treatment of the train during COVID has pretty decisively proven the train does not serve a "basic transportation" function. If you don't run it at all for a year, then just once a week, it is pretty clear people can do without it. If discontinuance talk comes up again, basic transportation isn't a useful argument against it any more. It can be rebutted in two words: 2020 and 2021.
Always remember that VIA's entire existence itself is somewhat tenuous. Unlike Amtrak, it has no statutory basis. It exists solely on the basis of an "Order in Council", the Canadian equivalent of an Executive Order. In theory the Prime Minister and Cabinet could abolish it at any time. Imagine if Amtrak existed solely at the will of the sitting President?
Heck, I can remember (and rode it) when it was daily (and on its CP home rails)
I haven't heard recent rumors of discontinuation. About five years ago (maybe a bit more) there were rampant rumors of turning it over to the Rocky Mountaineer people. That appears to have gone by the board, haven't heard anything about that in years.
Unfortunately, the treatment of the train during COVID has pretty decisively proven the train does not serve a "basic transportation" function. If you don't run it at all for a year, then just once a week, it is pretty clear people can do without it. If discontinuance talk comes up again, basic transportation isn't a useful argument against it any more. It can be rebutted in two words: 2020 and 2021.
Always remember that VIA's entire existence itself is somewhat tenuous. Unlike Amtrak, it has no statutory basis. It exists solely on the basis of an "Order in Council", the Canadian equivalent of an Executive Order. In theory the Prime Minister and Cabinet could abolish it at any time. Imagine if Amtrak existed solely at the will of the sitting President?
Heck, I can remember (and rode it) when it was daily (and on its CP home rails)
