MONTREAL — VIA Rail Canada saw an 8% increase in ridership and a 7.4% increase in revenues in calendar 2018, marking its fourth straight year of ridership increases.
VIA carried 4.74 million passengers in 2018, with 4.5 million of those in the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont., corridor. Corridor service saw a 9.3% increase in ridership and an 11.9% increase in revenue.
“A fourth year in a row of growth in ridership and improvement in financial performance compared to 2014 is a great way to close out VIA Rail’s 40th anniversary,” VIA president and CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano said in a press release. “… In all areas of the business, employees are working hard to attract more passengers, making them feel welcome and well-treated. Thanks in large part to their efforts, the number of passenger miles traveled on VIA Rail has increased by 23% since 2014.”
