Via's 24-axle trains fell short of CN's 32-axle crossing test — $31M in vouchers

Since the autumn of 2024, CN has imposed speed restrictions at all rail crossings used by Via on the Quebec City–Windsor corridor, arguing Via's new Venture trains, in use since 2022, might not be long or heavy enough to activate barriers and signals every time. A one-locomotive, five-car Via train has 24 axles, short of the 32 CN calls for to ensure crossing safety measures trigger.

Engineers often slowed from a 160 km/h cruising speed to below 80 km/h at crossings to visually confirm the safety features worked. Corridor on-time performance fell from 45% in August 2024 to 29% by August 2025, and Via calculated about 15% of its corridor trains ran at least an hour late. Under its delay policy, Via offered $31 million in travel vouchers — 50% of the fare for delays over an hour, 100% beyond four hours.

Quebec's Superior Court rejected Via's request for an injunction against the original restrictions in April 2025. In August 2025 Via struck a stopgap deal with CN letting trains roll at a constant, reduced speed over longer segments without confirming automatic activation at each crossing. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon called Via's performance 'obviously sub-optimal'; both companies said they would not compromise on safety but could not agree on the extent of the problem.

$31M in travel vouchers — 7% of Via's 2024 revenue; corridor on-time performance fell from 45% in Aug 2024 to 29% in Aug 2025

Via's Venture fleet's standard one-plus-five configuration has 24 axles, below the 32-axle threshold CN requires for reliable crossing detection.

The incompatibility surfaced only after the trains entered service in 2022, when CN imposed corridor-wide speed limits at every level crossing.

Slowing to verify crossing activation at hundreds of crossings made one-hour delays routine across the busiest corridor in Via's network.

Via's legal challenge failed — the court denied its injunction in April 2025, leaving the restrictions in force while talks continued.

New rolling stock has to work on the tracks it borrows: if the host railroad's safety circuits cannot reliably see your train, procurement specs — not your timetable — decide your on-time performance.

The August 2025 stopgap deal simplified operations and showed early improvement, but Via's spokesperson called it 'a step forward, but not a definitive solution'. The dispute remained before Quebec's Superior Court, and the federal transport ministry was seeking an agreement between the parties.