Via Rail ‘needs to improve its service’ despite solid management: auditor general

Via Rail needs to improve its service — punctuality, in particular — according to Canada’s auditor general, who nonetheless gave solid marks to the Crown corporation’s management practices.

In a report, Karen Hogan said that over the past decade Via has failed to improve its on-time performance, which sank to a dismal 30 per cent in the first three months of 2025.

Via’s full-year average dropped to 51 per cent in 2024 from 71 per cent in 2015, according to Via documents.

“On-time performance is a key driver of customer satisfaction. Declining punctuality increases the risk of losing passengers to other modes of transportation, threatens revenue targets and undermines Via’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives,” Hogan wrote.

Caps on train speed and frequency put in place by track owners and other partners have contributed to the tardiness, the auditor general said.

Via owns only three per cent of the tracks it runs on, with the rest largely controlled by the country’s two main freight railways and regional transit agencies. Its two busiest hubs — Toronto’s Union Station and Montreal’s Central Station — also have outside ownership.

“Via’s on‑time performance has been impacted by several factors, including the sharing of tracks with other operators, speed restrictions imposed by track owners and mechanical issues with its new and old trains,” Hogan wrote.

She pointed out that one track owner — Canadian National Railway Co., though the report avoids naming it — imposed speed limits on its busiest corridor between Toronto and Quebec City in October 2024. “This speed restriction had a significant impact on Via’s on‑time performance.”

Hogan recommended that Via collaborate with asset owners to fix service delays, a suggestion it agreed to.

“The corporation will continue collaboration and pursue collaborative and legal avenues if needed to protect service reliability,” the report stated, citing Via.

Hogan also called for improvements to board governance and strategic planning.

Those advances should include self-assessment of its governance practices, shoring up its expenses policy and broadening its conflict-of-interest protocols, the report said.

Via further failed to define its “risk tolerance levels,” which help the organization identify risks that need monitoring or mitigation measures.

However, Hogan said the railway shows “good corporate management practices overall.”

Via said in an email it has implemented many of the auditor general’s recommendations, “with the remaining measures already in progress.”

“Ultimately, our objective is to deliver a service Canadians can count on and to demonstrate progress through measurable results and accountability,” said spokesman Karl Helou.

Via has struggled financially in recent years, with operating costs more than double its revenue in 2024, according to the auditor general.

Its operating loss widened to $385.2 million that year from $381.8 million in 2023, Via’s latest annual report states.

The corridor between Quebec City and Windsor, Ont., saw on-time performance hit new lows last year, internal documents show, a decline the Crown corporation blamed largely on new rules from CN Rail.

Files obtained last year through an access to information request reveal that Via trains, which run mostly on CN tracks, arrived late along that stretch 80 per cent of the time in February 2025 and two-thirds of the time the month before.

That’s a significant leap from late-arrival numbers below 30 per cent during the same two months in 2024, though heavy snowfall was also a factor.

Via sought an injunction in November 2024 to have the speed restrictions on its Venture passenger trains lifted, according to court filings.

CN said last March that it had implemented the new rules at rail crossings due to risks associated with similar trains.

It has said that safety was the chief concern behind the restrictions, which require engineers to slow down at each crossing to visually confirm the safety barrier was lowered.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press