Rap feuds revolve around diss tracks. This feud revolves around train tracks.
Driving the news: Via Rail submitted a request to the Canadian Transport Agency in June 2023 to force a new deal between it and Canadian National Railway (CN) for track access, per The Canadian Press. That request has since been languishing due to procedural delays.
- For the most part, Via doesn’t own the tracks it travels on and relies on access deals. The top track owner is CN, which controls the vital Québec City-to-Windsor corridor.
Why it matters: Only 59% of Via’s trains arrived on time last year — down a staggering 23 percentage points from 10 years prior. The carrier has blamed CN for its woes, claiming the company prioritizes its freight trains, forcing Via’s trains to hold up, and causing delays.
- Via has pointed out that on the meagre stretch of tracks it owns between Ottawa and Montréal, around 90% of trains arrive on time.
- That said, American passenger train service Amtrak runs on freight-owned tracks and was able to achieve a 75% on-time performance last year.
Zoom out: This month, Via sued CN over new speed restrictions on stretches of its tracks in Ontario and Québec, claiming they’re wrongfully causing delays and costing money.—QH