VIA Rail to Cut Jobs

The odds are good that unless you spend a lot of time in Canada you do not know much about Via Rail. For those of you who are not familiar with the company here is a look at how they describe themselves, “VIA Rail Canada operates the national passenger rail service on behalf of the Government of Canada. An independent Crown Corporation established in 1977, the company provides Canadians with safe, efficient and environmentally responsible public transportation. VIA consistently ranks as one of the most trusted transportation companies in Canada. In Leger Marketing’s 2010 Top 100 Companies in Canada survey, VIA outranked every other transportation company… VIA’s fleet includes 396 passenger cars and 78 active locomotives. In addition to 159 railway stations, VIA operates four modern maintenance facilities, and employs some 3,000 people.”

Well it looks like that 3,000 number may no longer be accurate as the company is getting ready to cut back on 200 jobs as part of a plan to update their system and reorganize the company’s assets. Or as the company said in the release, “As a result of this announcement, VIA’s unionized workforce is expected to be reduced by some 200 full-time positions, a decrease of about 9%. Over the last three years, VIA Rail’s annual attrition rate has been, on average, 8%. Since 2009, VIA has reduced its management workforce by 15%.”

The job cuts are part of a larger plan, one that the company is excited about. As the current CEO of the company, Mr. Marc Laliberté, said in the same release, “By the end of the year, we will complete work to expand track capacity between Montréal and Toronto, where demand for more rail service is high. We will begin operating a completely refurbished fleet of modern, high-efficiency locomotives coast-to-coast. We will start introducing vastly improved passenger cars offering more accessibility for Canadians with disabilities. We will be opening new and renovated passenger stations at key points across our network, and offer e-services so that passengers can better connect in the transportation network and work while on board our trains. Adjusting our services to better align with customer demand is an important step of our modernization – making sure we offer the right level of service to meet customer needs today, and building capacity to serve more customers in markets where demand will grow in the future.”

Clearly the company is looking to make a significant shift into its future and they are doing so in a way that, at least they hope, will increase the overall profitability of the company. Mr. Laliberté then went on to say the following, “Where the demand varies dramatically by season, we need to adjust frequencies in order to remain efficient. In growing markets, we are adding more frequencies to meet customer demand. In addition, mandatory services in regions where there are limited transportation alternatives will remain. We are not eliminating rail service on any routes where we operate today and we are maintaining the flexibility to adjust service levels in the future, as customer needs evolve.” So, it looks like the company may be dealing with more layoffs in the future.