I walked into the VIA Rail station in Windsor in 1991 to protest VIA Rail Canada’s refusal to allow my girlfriend to purchase a CanRail Pass. They refused her because she was a Canadian. Ridiculous……It was my first real world experience with the dysfunctional state of passenger rail then and today in our country. Back then and today, Transport 2000, (now Transport Action Canada) were, and still are, the only national passenger rail advocacy group in Canada. I had read in the newspapers about Harry Gow, President of Transport 2000 back in 1991. His fire and brimstone passenger rail advocacy was legendary and inspired me. Moving to Guelph in 1994, I got involved with local passenger rail activists the late Mary Pappert and George Bechtel. Mary was a no nonsense person and so was George. I had no idea at the time, just how effective they were at passenger rail advocacy. If cuts were coming or money was being made available for passenger trains, they immediately went into action. Organizi...

It is interesting when I look at all the forums, social media and wonder to myself, why in this modern era of information technology is there such a low number of people advocating on a national level for better inter-city passenger rail service? There are groups that fight locally to bring back/improve passenger rail service. Here are a few examples:  Southwestern Ontario groups, Algoma Passenger Rail and Passenger Rail for Vancouver Island . Nationally there are just two groups. Transport Action Canada (and its chapters) have been around since 1977 fighting for improved passenger rail service. They are long time supporters of VIA Rail Canada. The group is aging and are in need of new members so they can carry out more advocacy. Join them. It only costs $30. a year. High Speed Rail Canada is the group I formed in 2008. It was formed to educate people on high speed rail. So many Canadians think HSR is futuristic. Yet HSR has been around for over a half a century ...