VIA Rail Canada (VIA Rail) has announced an impressive 106.5% increase in ridership (451,200 passengers), and $50.9 million increase in revenues (147.1%) for the first quarter of 2023, reflecting a strong resurgence of interest in train travel.
"VIA Rail's activities bounced back during the first quarter of 2023 surpassing the record levels that we set in 2019," said Marie-Claude Cardin, VIA Rail's Chief Financial Officer.
"Our Q1 performance reflects the resilience of the Corporation, the dedication of our employees and the appetite of Canadians for train travel. At the same time, we are continuing to work at mitigating the effects of an inflationary environment on our business while pursuing our commitment to sustainability and passenger satisfaction."
The reintroduction of additional frequencies year over year has allowed VIA Rail to meet the increasing appetite for rail travel in 2023, with 874,700 passengers choosing to travel with VIA Rail between January and March.
Chair of the VIA Rail Board, Françoise Bertrand, expressed confidence in the future.
"As Canadians enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to travel once again it is clear that the relevance of passenger rail is stronger than ever because it is the smarter way to travel. We are confident that VIA Rail's strategic investments in our modernization will ensure that we meet the expectations of our customers and continue to deliver a comfortable, efficient, accessible, passenger rail service that meets the needs of Canadians."
In this first quarter of 2023, VIA Rail teams continued to lay the groundwork for modernization projects that the company says will transform the passenger rail experience in Canada over the coming months.
The rollout of VIA Rail's new fleet of trains for the Québec City-Windsor corridor intensified in Q1 with more passengers travelling on the new train between Montreal and Ottawa in anticipation of the full commercial launch over the course of this year.
In parallel, teams have been hard at work fine-tuning, training, and testing for the launch of VIA Rail's new reservation system featuring an intuitive process that VIA says will make planning train travel much simpler.
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