VIA Rail rang out the holidays with higher revenue

VIA Rail Canada Inc. logged a busy holiday season between Dec. 18, 2018, and Jan. 7, which helped boost revenue to CA$21.1 million, a 1.8 percent gain versus the same period a year earlier.

During the holiday season, the railroad handled 299,000 passengers compared with 308,000 a year ago. VIA Rail registered its busiest ridership day Dec. 21 with 19,000 passengers.

"This is our best financial performance in the past 10 years," said VIA Rail President and Chief Executive Officer Yves Desjardins‑Siciliano in a press release. "It's a great way for us to close out [our] 40th anniversary and kick off 2019, with a growing number of Canadians choosing to avoid congestion and enjoy the comfort of the train."

In the railroad's busy Quebec City-to-Windsor corridor, more than 283,000 passengers traveled on trains serving Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor, London, Sarnia and Niagara Falls. Toronto-Ottawa was the corridor’s most popular route over the holiday period, logging 37,400 passengers.