page_title: Via Rail
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Via Rail / History / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: Via Rail #6428, an GMD F40PH-2, leads Amtrak's International Limited into East Lansing, Michigan. The train consists of three ex-ATSF Hi-Level coaches and a Superliner car.
context_page_description: Via Rail Canada is an independent Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating services connecting remote communities.
  Via Rail operates over 500 trains per week across eight Canadian provinces and 12,500 kilometres of track, 97 per cent of which is owned and maintained by other railway companies, mostly by Canadian National Railway. Via Rail carried approximately 4.39 million passengers in 2017, the majority along the Corridor routes connecting the major cities of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, and had an on-time performance of 73 per cent.
context_section_description: On 24 October 2003, federal Minister of Transport David Collenette announced $700 million in new funding over the next five years. This funding was below the $3 billion needed to implement a high-speed rail proposal in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor nicknamed ViaFast; however, the funding was intended to "provide for faster, more frequent and more reliable passenger service across Canada... [preserving] the option for higher speed rail, such as the Via Fast proposal," said Collenette. This new project was to be called "Renaissance II". Critics of "Renaissance II" noted that the majority of spending would take place in the corridor services and not add new trains or improved scheduling to Atlantic and Western Canada.
  On 18 December 18, 2003, Liberal Prime Minister (PM) Paul Martin announced a freeze in federal spending on all major capital projects, including Via's five-year $700 million "Renaissance II" program announced just six weeks earlier by outgoing PM Chrétien's administration. Critics of Martin's cuts claimed that he was in a distinct conflict of interest as his family through Canada Steamship Lines and various subsidiary and affiliated companies had once had a significant investment in the Voyageur Colonial Bus Lines, an intercity bus line in Quebec and eastern Ontario that is a key competitor of Via.
  Route cuts under the Martin government included the withdrawal of the seasonal Bras d'Or tourist train, which ran for the last time in September 2004, and the Montreal-Toronto overnight Enterprise, which was discontinued in September 2005. The Sarnia-Chicago International was also discontinued in April 2004 by Amtrak. Via's portion of the route from Toronto-Sarnia remained in operation as Via was able to use their own equipment to operate the train.
caption: A Via locomotive leads the International with Amtrak coaches. The International route was jointly operated by Via and Amtrak from 1982 to 2004.
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