Back in 1977, VIA Rail was established to take the passenger rail business off the CPR’s and the (then) CNR’s hands to allow them to concentrate on what they were doing best – and profitably – that was adapting Canada’s aging rail infrastructure to provide a profitable and sustainable freight service. Branch lines were either torn up or sold off to short line operators.
Not that a sustainable freight service was a slam-dunk without the millstone of passenger trains around their necks – they still had to…
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