Go VIA Rail and see Canada: Here is Canada’s national railway, covering 14,000 kilometers of track from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay. This illustrated history tells the story of how, starting in the early 1970s, VIA Rail became a separate Crown corporation, once and for all relieving the old Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways of their beleaguered passenger operations. It is a story rich in history—and marked with failures and misfortunes right up to our day, when a need for convenient, fuel-efficient mass transportation holds out hope for a renaissance.
Archival and modern photography, route maps, and print ads help detail the history of VIA Rail’s motive power and passenger cars from the likes of General Motors, Bombardier, Montreal Locomotive Works, and Budd Company, as well such passenger trains as The Canadian, The Atlantic, The Ocean, and The Super Continental. Chris Greenlaw also explains all of the political machinations that have inevitably shaped the railroad, and delves into its connection with Amtrak via The Maple Leaf.
Go VIA Rail and see Canada! Here is first the complete and illustrated history of Canada’s national passenger railway system—8,700 scenic miles (14,000 kilometers) stretching from the Maritime provinces to the Pacific Coast, and from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay.
In addition to providing a primer on VIA Rail’s prehistory dating to the nineteenth century, Canadian author and longtime railfan Chris Greenlaw tells the tale, rife with political machinations, of how in the early 1970s VIA was set on the path to becoming a Crown corporation finally relieving the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific of their beleaguered passenger operations. As VIA Rail develops and comes into its own identity, its story is one rich in national history, marked with failures and misfortunes, successes and fortunes, right up to the present day, when a need for convenient, fuel-efficient mass transportation holds out hope for a renaissance.
Archival and modern photography, four specially commissioned route maps, and print ads detail VIA Rail's motive power and passenger cars from the likes of General Motors, Bombardier, Montreal Locomotive Works, and Budd Company, as well such passenger trains such as the Canadian, The Atlantic, the Ocean, and the Super Continental. VIA Rail has always been a fundamental component of Canadian railroad history, and Greenlaw presents a fitting tribute to a national transportation icon.
