March 10, 2015

New VIA Rail Canada services between Québec City and Windsor

Montréal, March 11, 2015 – VIA RAIL Canada (VIA Rail) is pleased to announce that Business class is now available on shorter trips for passengersdeparting from and going to intermediate cities such as Alexandria, Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston, Belleville, Cobourg, Oshawa, Chatham and Drummondville. New reduced fares for passengers travelling on shorter trips are also being introduced. Passengers can now book tickets starting from $20 for Economy class and $55 for Business class.

"These initiatives are in response to requests received from passengers I met while travelling on our trains," said Martin R. Landry, Chief Commercial Officer of VIA Rail. "They standardize and make our service offering throughout the Québec City-Windsor route more appealing. In addition to these enhanced services, many other improvements will be brought, including reduced travel times and additional departures. Our goal is to improve our service offering so that more and more Canadians choose the train as their preferred travel option."

Each week, some 17,000 passengers travel along the route that serves the cities between Oshawa and Cornwall, as well as Alexandria, Chatham and Drummondville. A number of these travellers have been taking the train to commute to work every day for nearly 15 years. VIA Rail hopes that these new offers will entice more people to join these commuters and take the train to work.

VIA Rail's Business class service is among the best in the industry. Key attributes include:

Enhanced amenities onboardincluding hot towels, soft drinks and snacks, and a full bar service which starts at 11 a.m.;

Menu consisting of delicious varied meals*

Complimentary Wi-Fi onboard and each seat has its own electrical outlet (also offered in Economy class);

State-of-the-art station lounges- all seven Québec City-Windsor route Business lounges (including Québec City, Montréal, Dorval, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto and London) have been completely refurbished, to provide a private and comfortable retreat with beverages, magazines and newspapers as well work stations and free Wi-Fi;

Priority ticketingand check-in lines.

Routes served by our newly renovated Business cars also offer:

Roomy cars: the new seat design clears windows, making the cars brighter. The renovated cars also offer passengers more space thanks to the new two-by-one seat configuration;

Ergonomic seating with strong lumbar support helps travellers arrive feeling rested;

Services for passengers taking shorter trips have been adjusted according to travel time. For more information on Business class fares and departures, visit our website.

*Meals are not available on trips with shorter travel time. However a snack and complimentary beverages are offered.

About VIA Rail Canada

As Canada's national rail passenger service, VIA Rail Canada (viarail.ca) and its 2,500 employees are mandated to provide safe, efficient and economical passenger transportation service, in both official languages of our country. VIA Rail operates intercity, regional and transcontinental trains linking 450 communities across Canada, and safely transports nearly four million passengers annually. The Corporation was awarded seven Safety Awards by the Railway Association of Canada over the last eight years, and was the recipient of the 2012 Agent's Choice Award voted by Canadian travel agents and presented by Baxter Travel Media. Since 2007, the Government of Canada has invested almost a billion dollars in VIA Rail. Read more about our transformation atviarail.ca/CapitalInvestmentProjects.