Cost of bustitution

[Tom Box [e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

A story in the Ottawa Citizen reports that VIA spent $1.72
million dollars in 2013 on buses, taxis, etc. to get passengers
to their destinations. <http://ow.ly/BKspU>

The story is headlined "Via Rail paid its competitors nearly
$2 million last year", and includes a comment from a Greyhound
spokesperson, but I wonder how much of that amount really went
to operators of scheduled bus routes or airlines, which I
would consider VIA's direct competitors. The last couple of
times I've been bustituted, it wasn't on a Greyhound or
Megabus, but on a bus from a small charter operator, which
I wouldn't call a competitor of VIA. As the story mentions
in passing, some of the replacement transport is by taxi.
Again, I wouldn't call that a competitor of VIA.

The cost to VIA was higher than in the four previous years.
The story notes that the rail accident rate has been
declining over the same time period. I'm not sure there's
anything paradoxical there. Passenger trains are a small
fraction of the total traffic on the rails, and serious
accidents are (fortunately) rare events, so it's very
possible that the number of accidents affecting VIA
(freight derailments, grade crossing collisions, etc.)
could easily increase in one year at the same time the
overall accident rate was declining, just through random
fluctuation.

One should also note that not all of the substitute transport
is a result of accidents. Missed connections are another
reason for sending passengers onward by bus or taxi.

Tom Box
tbox at ncf dot ca
Port Hope, ON, Canada


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[xcnken-/[e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Maybe some of those added costs should be passed onto CN. Especially if it's one of their freight train that derails or gets a knuckle, the CTC dispatching malfunctions creating monstrous delays or grade crossing signals fail. Anything that's related to them.


All the more reason to find out how many $$$ Via pays out to CN annually.


K. Wadden Pointe Claire Qc.

[Tom Box [e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Post by Tom Box tbox-***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
A story in the Ottawa Citizen reports that VIA spent $1.72
million dollars in 2013 on buses, taxis, etc. to get passengers
to their destinations. <http://ow.ly/BKspU>

There's a follow-up story in the Citizen, by a different reporter:
<http://ow.ly/BRtn8>. The new story says:

"Via Rail says track repairs in New Brunswick were the main reason
behind a sharp jump in costs last year for providing alternative
transportation – such as buses, and taxis – for its stranded
passengers. [...]

"A Via spokesman said on Tuesday that $300,000 of the $400,000
increase was spent on alternative transportation between New
Brunswick and Quebec for the nine months that tracks were being
upgraded."

I don't understand that at all. The previous story was about
bustitution costs in 2013. What "track upgrading" was done in
N.B. for nine months that year? Until May 2014, Canadian
National was in the process of abandoning part of the Newcastle
Subdivision, so they certainly weren't upgrading that track.
And I don't recall any prolonged period of bustitution for the
Ocean in 2013. Can any of you make sense of the above
statements attributed to VIA?

The story also says, "According to its 2013 annual report, Via
Rail's federal funding has fallen from $530 million in 2010 to
$398 million last year."

That's true, but it fails to mention that the drop has been
in capital funding, which is sporadic by nature. Operating
funding has gone from $261.5 million in 2010 to $307.6 million
in 2013.

"Via has also undertaken service cuts, especially to parts of
the Windsor-Quebec City corridor outside the high-volume
Toronto-Montreal routes."

That's not a very accurate statement. It's odd that an Ottawa-
based reported would fail to notice that Montreal - Ottawa and
Ottawa - Toronto frequencies have increased, while those on the
direct Montreal - Toronto route have been reduced. Quebec -
Montreal frequencies have also increased, while those in
southwestern Ontario have been cut back.

Tom Box
tbox at ncf dot ca
Port Hope, ON, Canada


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[Alan Taylor [e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

What? Reporter gets the facts wrong? Inconceivable!


The closer you are to a news story, the more you see wrong with it.


Thanks for your reports though.