Taking the train instead of the car: so much more advantageous!

Last Tuesday, The Gazette newspaper published an article reporting that, according to Statistics Canada, gasoline sales have increased by 1.5% since 2010, despite a 19.2% increase in gas prices. This statistic is even more surprising when you consider that sales of hybrid and energy-efficient cars are up. Thus, we have more fuel-efficient cars, but we consume more fuel, despite rising prices!

If these statistics don’t take anyone by surprise, I must confess that I wonder about the reasons why Canadians use their cars for intercity travel. Yet, train transportation is so much more economical and advantageous!

First of all, train transportation is less expensive. Do you have doubts? You can just use our comparison tool to see the time and money you can save by opting for train rather than car transportation.

Train transportation remains more practical and so much more comfortable! By choosing the train, you can avoid traffic jams, parking problems, you have access to the fastest Wi-Fi service on track in the world, you maintain a cell phone connection, you can enjoy the scenery, read, sleep, in short, do what you want because we are driving you! You can stretch your legs and walk to the lounge car (available on many routes), or enjoy a good meal with a glass of Canadian wine.

It is also one of the safest modes of transportation. We might be at the heart of summer, but winter will soon be here and the roads will quickly become snow-covered and dangerous. By train, no need to worry about ice, snow or freezing rain. You can travel with peace of mind in the comfort of our cars.

Furthermore, comfort also means transformation at VIA Rail. With nearly a billion dollars invested since 2007, we are undergoing a transformation to provide an even more enjoyable travel experience: new technologies, new stations, new tracks, new cars, etc. Visit our Transforming VIA website for complete details.

And what about the environment? Did you know that last year, 4 million VIA Rail passengers traveled more than 851 million miles (1.37 billion kilometers)? Despite all these trips, they produced only 0.03% of greenhouse gas (GHG)  related to transportation, while motorists alone have produced 13% of GHG emissions. For more information about VIA Rail’s environmental initiatives, click here.

In conclusion, I humbly think that the solution to our environmental concerns does not rely only on using passenger trains, but really on interconnectivity between different modes of transportation. What I mean by that is better optimization of modes of transportation: public transportation, of course, but also intermodal partnerships such as the one between VIA Rail and Air Transat, cars, pedestrian areas, bicycle paths, etc.

To initiate a real change, the mode of transportation chosen for every kilometer traveled counts! So, next time you or the people around you have to make a trip between 150 and 800 km, I invite you to go to the nearest station. It is only by trying out our trains that we discover the many advantages of traveling on VIA Rail trains. And it’s only by taking our trains often that we can achieve change.

It seems that the choice of traveling by train is so obvious!  What do you think?