Why are Canada’s passenger trains so slow?

In today’s Big Story Podcast, if you compare us to similar countries, it’s an embarrassment. Other nations have high-speed rail corridors shuttling thousands of people across distances between cities at speeds of up to 300 km/h. They are fast, sleek and almost always on time. Even the United States, which hasn’t bothered to do much of anything with its vast resources, has better, faster trains than we do.

If you ride Via Rail on its busiest corridors, you’re planning for a delay — or at least, you should be. The trains and tracks we’re using now haven’t changed much in decades. If anything, thanks to more traffic, they’ve gotten slower. 

Gabrielle Drolet wrote about Canada’s train system in Mainsonnneauve magazine. She said it’s not just about the time spent travelling, it’s also about cost.

“Depending on when you book and how lucky or unlucky you get, the cost can be comparable if not higher to take the train than to fly” says Drolet. 

Canada has had many opportunities to fix our nearly-broken passenger rail system. We’ve even made real plans to do it. So why hasn’t it happened?