October 24, 2024

In the context of railways, shunting is the activation of switches and signals along the track by trains travelling along the rails. A shunt is activated when an electrical current flows from one rail to the other using the wheels and axles on the train.

For clarity, here is a "manual" shunt showing the activation of a switch or signal. All that is happening is the connection of one rail to the other with a electrical conducting wire.

This is old technology, but constantly modernized. New technology also uses other types of sensing and radio/electrical frequencies to operate. It is also fully built into the infrastructure of rail systems. There are thousands of shunting systems that control switching and signals for train operations, and they are not easily upgraded or replaced. They are almost entirely self-regulated. The shunts CN uses are different from shunts other rail companies use.

CN owns most of the track that VIA Rail operates on. CN also owns a tonne of rail that Amtrak operates on in the USA.

CN track is designed to deal with freight. They do not consider the operations of VIA Rail or Amtrak trains in their decision-making as they see passenger rail as a money loser (or at least revenue neutral) and an annoyance. This lack of consideration of passenger rail services is mostly a regulatory problem, which is a government issue.

Governments in North America have relaxed oversight over rail companies from barely any to nonexistent over the previous few decades. Rail companies essentially write their own regulations now and are essentially automatically approved by the regulator.

VIA Rail is a heavily subsidized Crown Corporation with 50% of its revenue coming from the federal government.

It was taken off CN's hands when CN was privatized in the 1990s. What did not follow from that nationalization of a loss-leading asset was a regulatory framework that would facilitate regular coordination between CN and VIA Rail.

The federal government in Canada also sees VIA Rail as an expensive annoyance. Hundreds of millions of dollars go into subsidizing the operation of passenger trains at a minimum cost. Unlike what many government officials think, VIA rail is an essential component of the transport infrastructure in Canada. It provides service to remote communities, provides long-distance travel, is a tourist attraction, and acts as an essential connection along the (expanded) "corridor" between Quebec City and Kingston.

VIA Rail is also essential to the future transport of people at low emissions in Canada—or, at least it should be.

The minimal amount of money that is given to VIA Rail means that it has to cheap out on everything and charge ridiculously high prices for tickets. This makes it essentially uncompetitive against air travel and driving in many circumstances.

The other side of the limited vision for passenger rail coming from the government is that instead of building passenger rail locomotives and cars in Canada, the new train sets are just an add-on purchase from the USA's Amatrak procurement for a new fleet.

VIA Rail purchased Siemens trains made (and fixed) in California. This also means that all the problems that Siemens trains have been having in the USA—which include the loss of shunt issue have been inherited by VIA Rail.

The loss of shunt issue has been an ongoing nightmare for Amtrak in the USA. Amtrak has had to cannibalize their own fleet to add empty, unused cars to their new fleet of Siemens trains to ensure shunting on CN rail in the USA.

VIA Rail would have known about this if there was enforced or even cordial coordination between CN and VIA Rail (and the government) and Amtrak. But no such regulation exists and so no such coordination happens.

The technical issue of loss of shunt is still being worked out in the USA. They have had an active working group on it in for well over a year.

The main points are that Siemens passenger rail trains are:

• light
• fast
• have "smaller" or different shaped wheels (less contact with the rail)
• current does not travel as readily through the axles on these trains as on a freight train
• there are fewer axles on these (as few as 24) because these trains are short (have few cars)

There is no clear easy solution here.

• VIA Rail does not own its own track and depends on CN caring enough to bother with them.
• VIA Rail is dependent on hand-me-downs from Amtrak and the USA.
• The trains were designed without proper consultation with the rail companies who own the rails that these trains operate on.
• The Siemens trains are designed and built in the USA which has different standards, weather, companies, and issues from those in Canada.
• CN is uninterested in spending its own money on fixing this issue.
• The Canadian government is uninterested in going up against CN and CPKC to regulate passenger rail access and collaboration in the country.
• CN (and CPKC) operate as old-timey true monopolies/trusts. They have too much power politically and economically to operate without strict and expansive government oversight and control. They generate too much profit for their shareholders making them financially important as well. This is altogether too much power.

The short-term solution is that VIA is going to have pay its workers to upgrade its old cars and put them on the new trains to that they can travel at a constant higher speed.

The long-term solution is that we should learn that we cannot do transport cheaply in Canada and in a self-regulated way.

Passenger rail services are essential to the future of transport in Canada, but it cannot be a secondary thought. We should be building our trains (locomotives and cars) in Canada, we should be driving down ticket prices on the trains, we should be building dedicated passenger rail tracks, and we should be regulating our freight rail companies so that passenger rail has priority, so that there is investment in new rail, so that their signals operate for all users of the rail track.

The answer can be as broad as regulation to re-nationalization of CN. Regardless, the status quo is not working for Canadians.