Crown corporations  VIA Rail is a not a true Crown Corporation in that it cannot raise funds on the money market rather it is subject to the whims of the government of the day for its ongoing funding This is a major reason for the failure of VIA to improve its lot  True enough regarding how political control limits the companys viability pun intended however the definition of a Crown corporation throughout Canadas history has been fairly broad  In the sense that any publicly owned ie government company in Canada is a Crown corporation then VIA Rail would meet that criteria  For many years prior to its recapitalization in the late s and the Canadian railway industrys deregulation in the s CN was not allowed to raise funds either  Provincial Crown corporations like BC Rail and BC Ferries or NB Power were similarly limited at certain points in their existence  I could be wrong as I have not read the VIA Rail Act indepth but is there a specific provision which limits the company from seeking funds on the money market in the way you describe  I would also argue that there is likely no public transport company in the world which is financially successful in the limited way in which economists in the thst century measure this  Since there is no accounting taken for the numbers of vehicles taken off a nations highways each day or having to construct new roads to isolated communities served by VIAAmtraketc or the environmental benefits realized etc etc etc then VIA Rail Amtrak Eurorail various ferries etc will never be financially solvent  Cheers     The following section was added by  and I have commented it out pending input from others due to several errors  Officially the move from the CP to CN line was to keep service to more remote communities on the CN line However this move was seen as somewhat more politicallymotivated by some Coincidentally the CN route goes through more towns that voted Progressive Conservative Harvey Andr the Cabinet minister who represented Calgary in  was fairly public about the fact that he did not care if he never saw a train again in his life The CN line also went through Edmonton the home of both Mulroney and Joe Clark  No doubt politics played a heavy role in this nd round of VIA cuts however Im unsure as to what the actual political representation played throughout the Super Continentals route historically the Super was a CN transcontinental train and The Canadian was a CP transcontinental train  In the  cuts when VIA was reduced to a single transcontinental they decided to keep the morerecognized Canadian brand and use it on the CN line why the CN line is the question however some have suggested CN being a crown corp at the time gave VIA a better deal on trackage fees insurance costs etc etc  Politics could also have played a role or perhaps the thinking was that VIA should be supporting the feds to provide service to the more remote northern prairie communities since the TransCanada Highway follows the southerly CP route and was already wellserved by intercity busses  The main reason Ive commented out the above addition was the last line concerning Clark  Mulroneys ridings  Clark represented High River near Calgary Alberta in the s and Mulroney represented Manicouagan near Baie Comeau Quebec  Harvey Andr  I have no idea  very likely though  Once this part gets editedverified properly it should appropriately be added to the story surrounding the nd round of cuts in    Joe Clark was born and raised in High River but he represented Yellowhead a large riding between Edmonton and Jasper from  to  Mulroney never lived in Alberta nor was he ever an Alberta MP   Locomotive roster  The roster is a dogs breakfast of past and present with nothing to distinguish between Use of streamline to describe ex CPR Budd built stainless steel equipment is a questionable term This whole section needs some serious work     Yeah this is definitely a mess  Before I put some time in cleaning it up would anyone like to weigh in as to whether theyd like to see this sort of information in this article  For Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway weve resisted having the roster in the article but VIA Rail might be different because a its locomotive count is in the dozens not the thousands and b its a bit easier to compile a complete roster since VIAs under  years old  Im ki