Canada rail network congestion eroding appeal of train travel

Ottawa

FOR Via Rail Canada chief executive officer Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, the biggest challenge facing the country's passenger rail service can be explained with a grade-five math question.

Two trains - one passenger, one freight - are moving in the same direction on the same track; the passenger train is cruising at 177 kilometres an hour, the freight train plodding along at 64 km an hour.