e-5107 (Transportation)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• VIA Rail’s Montreal to Halifax train (The Ocean) was recently forced to increase travel time by 90 minutes due to insufficient maintenance and track deterioration on the privately-owned Newcastle Subdivision between Cambellton and Moncton, NB;
• The Ocean’s travel time has increased by nearly 5-hours since the 1990s, part of a long-term pattern of short-term, profit-motivated decisions by private rail companies which hamper passenger rail and decrease the resilience of freight rail, Canada’s most low-carbon mode of transportation;
• In its 120th year, the Ocean is the longest continually operating train in North America, attracting international tourists and contributing to the Maritimes’ status as an international tourism destination;
• Since 2020, the Ocean provides the only ground transportation service between the Maritime provinces and the rest of Canada;
• The unreliability of the Ocean’s schedule has meant that direct connections have deteriorated, with this latest change all but severing PEI from the national network;
• The Ocean serves as the only public transportation servicing the communities between Bathurst and Eel River, and Rogersville, NB;
• Call to Justice 4.8 from the National Inquiry into Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls report calls for all of Canada to be connected by safe, affordable, and reliable modes of public transit; and
• Passenger rail is a safe, efficient, sustainable, affordable, and accessible mode of public transportation.