Government of Canada and VIA Rail announce extensive Chatham-Windsor rail line improvements

CHATHAM-KENT (ON), November 12, 2009 - At a ceremony in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Member of Parliament for Chatham-Kent-Essex, Mr. Dave Van Kesteren, Mayor Randy Hope, and Mr. Ronald Doherty, VIA Rail's Manager, Customer Experience for Southwestern Ontario officially announced a major rail infrastructure project to increase and improve the safety, frequency and speed of passenger rail service all along VIA's busy Toronto-Windsor route.

"The Government of Canada understands the importance of efficient, safe and reliable rail service for communities such as Chatham-Kent, and for millions of rail travelers across Canada," said MP Van Kesteren. "Our investment in passenger rail will create jobs and stimulate the economy at a time when they are most needed in Chatham-Kent"

Added VIA Rail's Manager, Customer Experience for Southwestern Ontario Ronald Doherty, "These investments will create a passenger rail service that is second to none. A rail service that is safe, fast, sustainable and designed for Canadians in the 21st century. VIA is delighted that the citizens of Chatham-Kent will be part of this new era in rail travel."

The upgrading underway on VIA's 56-kilometre portion of the Chatham Subdivision extends west from Bloomfield to Lacasse and includes:

• constructing a new passing siding at Stoney Point;
• adding an advanced Centralized Traffic Control signal system;
• welding and destressing the remaining 18 kilometers of jointed rail;
• installing 13,000 new hardwood ties;
• upgrading safety protection at rail/road grade crossings; and
  constructing 29 kilometers of strategically-located safety fencing.

Scheduled for completion by the end of 2010, VIA's Chatham Subdivision Project is budgeted at $17 million of which $6 million has been provided under the Government of Canada's Economic Action Plan.

"These improvements go far and beyond our first passenger rail service, back in 1853, when the Great Western's first train steamed into town," said Chatham-Kent Mayor Randy Hope. "Today's announcement will make sure it is well equipped to continue delivering intercity passenger rail services, well into the future."

VIA's Chatham Subdivision Project is closely linked with other work that is now, or soon will be, underway throughout the Quebec-Windsor Corridor, which generates almost 90% of VIA's ridership and 75% of its revenues. Other corridor projects include similar upgrading of other VIA-owned lines between Montreal and Ottawa and between Ottawa and Smith Falls, Canadian Pacific's Smiths Falls-Brockville line and Canadian National's Montreal-Toronto main line. These projects combined will lead to increased VIA train frequency and speed, better reliability and on-time performance, as well as improved safety.

Major upgrading work is also underway on key elements of VIA's locomotive and rolling stock fleets for intercity, transcontinental and remote services. Other infrastructure projects are aimed at improving service quality and cost efficiency at other points across VIA's coast-to-coast route network. This upgrading is part of an unprecedented $923 million capital investment in passenger rail modernization and expansion by the Government of Canada that is stimulating job creation, skills development and private sector activity across the country.