Oddly enough, there’s been two articles from the major media recently that are clamouring for improved rail in Canada. This topic is something I actually experienced recently during a trip to Regina.

As everyone knows, rail in Europe is essentially “the” way to get around. Unfortunately, while Europe and parts of Asia were investing in rail, North America put all it’s money into highways. It’s this “road first” mentality that has destroyed John A. MacDonald’s dream of a coast to coast railway for Canada.

Throughout the past 5 decades, the government has refused to properly fund passenger rail, and has handed over complete control of the rail system to private corporations.

To put it into today’s perspective, during my recent trip to Regina, I examined the three ways to get there without a car: Greyhound, Via Rail, and WestJet. Now, as most know, flying in Canada is almost as expensive as our cellular data plans! Course, many will pay the premium to skip the long travel time that a train or bus presents.

Now, due to funding cuts, Via no longer even runs trains through Regina - closest I could get was Saskatoon. This routing has also eliminated any national rail connections through Calgary. All rail from Vancouver is looped north through Jasper and Edmonton, to Saskatoon and Winnipeg, and finally to Toronto.

Beyond that “small” annoyance, the cost comparison of rail to a coach service like Greyhound is unbelievable. For example, it was almost $600 one way for me to get to Saskatoon from Vancouver, whereas a return trip via Greyhound could be obtained for only $400. Not to mention the rail trip took longer!

Same scenario for rail south to Seattle or Portland - two wonderful day trips that could easily be a wonderful experience via rail transport. Unfortunately, the provincial government refuses to cooperate with Amtrak and the federal government of the States, which are trying rather futilely to upgrade the “Cascadian” route to handle high speed rail. BC has chosen to implement the cheapest of the proposed upgrades - a couple of rail passes. Like that will speed things up much!

It’s all a very disappointing state of affairs. With three major corridors ripe for high speed rail, governments across Canada are neglecting our rail system at a time when considerable investment is needed. With the advent of both climate change and peak oil, not only are citizens going to look for rail as a “green” form of transport, corporations are going to shift from trucking to rail for continental shipping.

And we’re still stuck with a 100+ year old rail bridge in New Westminster causing numerous backups and limiting expansion and growth of our rail system - with no plan or funding in place to replace it!

What in the hell is going on here?

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