Via Rail trip between Halifax, Montreal to take longer due to poor rail conditions

Train travellers between Halifax and Montreal will now spend more time on the rails, partly due to a lack of upkeep on the tracks in northern New Brunswick.

Officials with Via Rail say the eastbound Ocean train trip from Montreal to Halifax will take an extra 45 minutes, while the westbound trip from Halifax to Montreal will be 90 minutes longer.

"In response to recurring slow orders imposed by CN, along with a deterioration of operational speeds on that infrastructure due to track conditions, notably on the Newcastle subdivision, Via Rail has no choice but to adjust the schedule of the Ocean, starting June 19, to provide passengers with a schedule that better represents actual travel times," an official said in an emailed statement to CBC News.

The Newcastle subdivision is a 278-kilometre stretch of track owned by CN Rail that runs from central to northern New Brunswick. Via Rail said it gave more than $18 million to CN in 2014 for repairs of a 71-kilometre section of the subdivision between Bathurst and Miramichi.

"These funds were spent exceptionally to maintain status quo for passenger rail service levels on the Ocean, as CN was considering the abandonment of that portion of the subdivision," the statement said. "Unfortunately, the current conditions of that same infrastructure have now led to some operational changes."

The poor rail conditions are forcing trains to slow down to about 50 kilometres per hour, according to Transport Action Atlantic, an organization that advocates for the development of and advancement of public transportation in the region. The group also said that 30 years ago, the route had permissible speeds of up to 120 km/h over much of the track.

"It certainly was well travelled because it was a much more frequent service to begin with, but it was also much more reliable and it was a whole lot faster than it is now," said Ted Bartlett, former president of Transport Action Atlantic.

 "We're not talking high-speed rail here. We're talking 19 hours and 15 minutes from Halifax to Montreal. But that's a heck of a lot better than it is now."

He said because of the disrepair, trains are forced to "crawl" over some stretches at speeds "no faster than a walk."

According to the Via Rail website, the trip takes an average of more than 23 hours from city to city, with three departures a week. The westbound train from Halifax is scheduled to leave at 11:30 a.m. AT and arrive in Montreal close to 11 a.m. AT the next day. A change in departure time and the lengthened duration makes the trip less appealing to business travellers, Bartlett said. He said 30 years ago, the train left Halifax around 2 p.m. AT and arrived in Montreal the next day around 8:15 a.m. ET, giving travellers more flexibility.

"Really, this is a failure of transportation policy in Canada by successive governments," he said. "We won't blame the current government, its predecessors were just as bad," he said. "They totally ignored passenger rail."

The line itself is not owned by Via Rail, but by CN, a former Crown corporation that was privatized in 1995. In Bartlett's estimation, the lack of investment into passenger rail is about "shareholder value."

"And there's no shareholder value in investing in a track that's as lightly used as the Newcastle subdivision. So CN isn't going to do anything about it."

When asked about the condition of the tracks in the subdivision, CN spokesperson Ashley Michnowski said in an email that the corporation's ongoing maintenance of the area "will allow for some improvement to speed restrictions in the coming weeks and months."