VIA Rail’s The Ocean is the keystone of Canadian railroading history. People think of the CPR, the Last Spike, and the Canadian, but that’s the second half of the story. The CPR brought British Columbia into Confederation, whereas the Ocean‘s route made Confederation happen in the first place.

The Intercolonial Railway, linking New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Canadas, was so important it was written into the British North America Act, 1867: Canada’s original constitution. The Atlantic colonies struggled to lay rails that, to the provinces of Canada, represented a vital link from the port of Halifax, the only major port in British North America accessible by ship all year round. These were the dangerous years following the American Civil War, when the Americans had crushing military superiority, expansionist ideas, and protectionist trade policies, while Canadians had good reason to think England could counterbalance that. The Atlantic wanted to link their rails and dilute their debt in Canada’s greater population; Canada wanted an all-red route for Imperial troops to Ontario and Quebec. No agreement should have been more natural, and it says something about the era that it actually worked out.

It cuts against the grain for a westerner to admit it but the Intercolonial Railway created the country. The Canadian Pacific merely expanded it. The Ocean follows nearly all the old Intercolonial route, now owned (of course) by Canadian National, and has since the first Ocean Limited set off in July 1904.

Yet it is, in every other way, a less historic train. Most carriages are from the 1990s, positively new for us, and it’s old without feeling historic; frankly, it’s shabby. The Ocean is a real transport link, the only practical overland transit between the Laurentian corridor and the Atlantic, but it survives because, when VIA’s budget was slashed, it served more valuable swing ridings than its sister cutting through Maine.

While it remains an interesting, beautiful experience (and, as a one-night trip, reasonable for even the ordinary person), it is relatively low on soul. Also time, so this post is a lot shorter than the last.

It’s not that VIA Rail is good. That would mean high speed, high reliability, high frequency, and low cost. VIA Rail is slower, less reliable, less frequent, and more expensive than, literally, the bus.

It also cost the Canadian taxpayer $773 million in 2023 to carry 4.1 million passengers (their most recent annual report). That’s a drop in the bucket, or perhaps a drop in the budget, compared to the billions the federal government wastes every year, but suffice to say it doesn’t compare well to Amtrak. You don’t want to lose efficiency contests to Amtrak. In a serious country, VIA Rail could easily do more with less, pleasing the many Canadians who want to go by train and hurting nobody except us foamers.

However, when an American visits Canada and rides VIA Rail, he is pleased, even when the train is eight hours late. Easy for him to say, he doesn’t pay our taxes, but Canadians don’t feel the same way on Amtrak. VIA Rail, the $773 million remittance man of the federal government, too unrewarding to nurture and too popular to eliminate, has got character. It places elegant slow travel within reach of the middle class. And since we do not live in a serious country, for most of us the choice is not between “current bad VIA” and “hypothetical efficient VIA,” but between “current bad VIA” and no service at all.

VIA is not good, but it is nice. Recently I got to cross Canada by train, starting with the Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto. It was very late most of the time and I sampled many VIA inconveniences. It was still very nice, and not as a “subsidized cruise ship on land” which would be, let’s face it, a waste. In fact, one of the most worthwhile VIA complaints is how hard it is to see whether the niceness is what’s costing all the money.