6 RAIL TRANSPORTATION

PASSENGER TRAFFIC

As Addendum Table A6-29 shows, total passengers carried increased 1.7 per cent and passenger-kilometres increased by 2.8 per cent for intercity rail traffic from 2001 to 2002. The number of VIA Rail passengers increased by 3.0 per cent to 4.0 million and passenger-kilometres increased by 3.0 per cent to 1.5 billion. Addendum Table A6-29 also lists Class II carriers with intercity services, which include Algoma Central, BC Rail, Ontario Northland and the Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway. Unlike VIA Rail, these carriers experienced a combined 14 per cent decrease in passengers to 0.27 million and a slight increase in passenger-kilometres to 71 million. These fluctuations were due to a large decrease in BC Rail passengers (after dropping rail passenger service in October 2002) and an increase in passenger-kilometres for Ontario Northland.

Commuter rail traffic in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver rose seven per cent in 2002 to reach 50 million passengers. This change reflects increased riderships in Toronto's GO Transit and Montreal's Agence Métropolitaine de Transports (AMT). Once again, GO Transit represented 70 per cent of commuter rail traffic. Addendum Table A6-30 shows total commuter rail ridership since 1994 for these three cities.

Major Events in 2003

Infrastructure

Industry Structure

Employment

Energy

Freight Transportation

Passenger Traffic

Price, Productivity and Financial Performance