Prodded by the Canadian government to improve passenger service, Canadian National purchased several of the TurboTrains built by United Aircraft, and they were inherited by VIA. While Amtrak stopped running TurboTrains before VIA was even created, VIA kept running them … Continue reading
VIA’s blue-and-yellow colors were a refreshing improvement over Canadian National’s nearly black and dirty white. These colors were featured on this piece of cardboard that came pre-perforated to allow children to fold the cutouts into a little train consisting of … Continue reading
The Atlantic was Canadian Pacific’s train between Montreal and Halifax, competing with Canadian National’s Ocean and Scotian. VIA continued to operate trains on both routes until 1990, when budget cutbacks led VIA to drop many of the Canadian Pacific routes. … Continue reading
Named after the Skeena River, the Skeena was VIA’s name for the train that went between Jasper and Prince Rupert. This route formed one of the legs of Canadian National’s Triangle Route from Vancouver to Jasper to Prince Rupert and … Continue reading
Although the rail route from Victoria to Courtenay was owned by the Canadian Pacific, which served passengers with RDCs, VIA apparently did not want to keep running passenger trains on this line. This timetable card, which I collected on my … Continue reading
In 1977, six years after Amtrak began, the Canadian government created VIA, which like Amtrak is a supposedly independent corporation that actually depends heavily on government subsidies. VIA took over Canadian Pacific and Canadian National passenger trains, but not trains … Continue reading
