Local politicians ready to fight to prioritize VIA passenger rail over freight in southwestern Ontario

London Mayor Josh Morgan says officials from the City of London and several neighbouring counties will push the Ford government for improved passenger rail service in the region when they meet with the province this month at a conference in Toronto.

The city will join delegates from Elgin, Middlesex and Oxford counties in advancing a plan for enhanced passenger service at the Rural Ontario Municipalities (ROMA) Conference, which gets underway on Jan. 18.

"We've determined that there's a collective desire for better rail service in and out of the region and using London as a hub. It's something that has been a long-standing advocacy position for the City of London," Morgan said.

"We're collectively going to advocate with the province, and then collectively, together, advocate to the feds. It's really about regional partnership."

Faster and more frequent service is at the heart of the push by the city and the counties, he said. Two things in particular, however, challenge that goal — existing track conditions and track ownership.

Southwestern Ontario is serviced by VIA Rail, and like most of Canada, the tracks aren't owned by VIA; they are owned by CN Rail, whose freight trains take priority.

It's one reason why only 51 per cent of VIA trains were on time in 2024, a figure that fell to 33 per cent in the third quarter of 2025, according to the latest available data.

More recently, VIA has blamed CN for imposing speed limits at rail crossings claiming that its new fleet may not be long or heavy enough to trigger security measures every time.

"In other countries, there's a different balance of prioritization between freight and rail," Morgan said. "I'm not saying freight isn't an incredibly important piece of the economy, but we really have to find a path forward to better rail service."

There have been previous calls for Ottawa to reprioritize rail traffic in favour of passengers. A private members bill tabled in 2021 had sought to do just that, before it died on the order paper when last year's election was called.

Substandard passenger rail service doesn't just impact passengers, it also impacts the region's economic future, say the city and the London Chamber of Commerce.

Last week, the chamber revealed it had backed London's call for provincial action on passenger rail in a letter to MPP Ric Bresee, the transportation minister's parliamentary assistant.

London's new Master Mobility Plan has strategic goals to advocate and work with senior levels of government to improve passenger rail service.

"Dedicated passenger rail would be a game-changer for Southwestern Ontario," reads a post on the chamber's website, written by Kristen Duever, its chief operating officer.

It would expand employers' access to talent, open doors for students and workers to find employment and education opportunities, and improve productivity and cut congestion for the province as a whole, Duever wrote.

"Enhanced passenger rail is not just a transportation project. It is a strategic investment in people, productivity, and the future of southwestern Ontario ... Now is the time for the province to act."

Last month, the Carney government unveiled it would move ahead with plans for Canada's first high-speed rail network from Toronto to Quebec City. The initial segment, from Montreal to Ottawa, is set to begin construction in 2029.

Initially launched by the Trudeau government, it's now a key component of the Carney government's major projects push. Absent from the conversation, however, has been the Toronto to Windsor section of the Quebec City-Windsor corridor.

The meeting at ROMA is an "opportunity to partner with the province in continuing to put our case on the table with the federal government that their investments in better rail service are welcome, but there's a really critical piece missing," Morgan said.

"We're not necessarily pitching high-speed rail in that formation, but we know that there are significant limitations on the speed that passenger rail can travel now ... there could be interim changes that could help with that."