LATEST VIA RAIL OPERATIONS UPDATE IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19

MONTRÉAL, March 28, 2020 – VIA Rail Canada (VIA Rail) announces service changes effective Tuesday March 31, which will be in place until further notice, in light of recent recommendations of the public health authorities across the country reinforcing the importance of social distancing. This will allow VIA Rail to better deploy its resources and equipment in order to further protect the health and safety of its passengers and employees by offering one train per day in each direction on routes still operating in the Corridor.

SERVICES STARTING MARCH 31

ROUTES	SERVICES
Québec City-Montréal-Ottawa	22 and 39
Toronto-Kingston-Montréal	66 and 63
Toronto-Kingston- Ottawa	44 and 53
Toronto- London-Windsor	72 and 75
Toronto-London- Sarnia	87 and 84
Senneterre-Jonquière	One round trip per week
Sudbury-White River	One round trip per week
Winnipeg-Churchill	All trains are operating
The Ocean (Montréal-Halifax)	Suspended until May 1st
The Canadian (Toronto-Vancouver)
Prince Rupert-Prince George-Jasper

* This information is subject to change without notice. 

FLEXIBILITY FOR OUR PASSENGERS

For maximum flexibility, we have extended our cancellation policy to include all travel through May 31, 2020. Passengers can cancel or modify their reservation at any time prior to departure and receive a full refund in addition to not incurring any service charges, regardless of when they purchased their ticket. This includes all travel up to and including May 31, 2020, as well as any travel after May 31, 2020, if their outbound train is on or before May 31, 2020.

REMINDER

In light of the announcement made by the federal government to implement requirements similar to those already in place for Canada’s aviation sector for intercity rail travel in Canada starting March 30, 2020, passengers will be denied boarding our trains if they are experiencing symptoms similar to a cold or flu (fever, cough, difficulty breathing) or if they have been denied boarding for travel in the last 14 days due to medical reasons related to COVID-19.  

VIA Rail continues to closely monitor the development of COVID-19 and we remain in close contact with public health agencies and the federal and provincial governments. 

The most recent updates are available on our website.  

About VIA Rail

As Canada’s national rail passenger service, VIA Rail (viarail.ca) and all its 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 over 400 communities across Canada, and about 180 more communities through intermodal partnerships, and safely transported over 5 million passengers in 2019. The Corporation has been awarded five Safety Awards and three Environment Awards by the Railway Association of Canada since 2007. Visit the “About VIA Rail” section at https://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail.