By Railfan & Railroad Staff

MONTREAL — Service on VIA Rail Canada will return to pre-pandemic levels by summer 2022, the railroad announced. At the peak of the pandemic, ridership dropped by 95 percent and VIA has been slow to resume normal service. For example, the Montreal to Halifax Ocean and Toronto to Vancouver Canadian are presently only running one round trip a week. 

That will change in December when the Ocean will start running twice a week. And in May and June next year, both trains will resume their normal three-day per week schedule. Next spring, full service will also resume on the Quebec City to Windsor, Ont., route and regional routes. 

“Our objective has always been the safe resumption of all our services across the country when conditions allowed it, and we are encouraged to be able to proceed to this final phase of our gradual service resumption plan,” said Cynthia Garneau, president and chief executive officer. “We look forward to welcoming our passengers back onboard our trains, and I would like to thank all our employees as we continue to weather this storm: their resilience and dedication are what keep us on track.”