VIA Rail welcomes customers back aboard with 10% additional discount

MONTREAL – Starting tonight, VIA Rail Canada will offer an additional 10% discount on the best available fare for a trip in Economy or Business class for one-way or round trip travel between any two stations located between Ottawa and Toronto or Montreal and Toronto.

With this offer, VIA wishes to thank customers for their patience and continued confidence despite the recent accident involving a Canadian National freight train which happened near Cobourg, Ontario, on Sunday March 27th, and forced the railway operator to close the line to rail traffic since then.

As a gesture of goodwill, VIA has offered all impacted customers a credit equal to 50% of the fare they paid, applicable on a future trip within the next six months. All Business class travellers also received a partial refund.  Passengers with existing reservations were safely brought to destination by motorcoach.

“We pride ourselves on offering travellers the ‘human way to travel’,” declared Mr. Marc Laliberté, President and Chief Executive Officer of VIA Rail Canada. “We recognize that this week’s incident, while outside VIA’s direct control, caused considerable inconvenience and disruption to our customers’ travel plans.  This offer is our way of welcoming them back, and thanking them for their patience, understanding and continued loyalty.”

The offer will be available for new bookings from March 29 through April 3, and applicable to trips taking place between March 30 and April 12, 2011 inclusively. Other conditions may apply. For more information about this offer, or to reserve tickets, customers are welcome to visit our web site at viarail.ca. For all questions, customers can contact VIA at 1 888 VIA RAIL (1 888 842 7245) or at 1 800 268 9503 (for the hearing impaired).