The country's national passenger rail provider is reducing train service across southern Ontario amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Via Rail has announced that as of Tuesday it is cutting service from Toronto to London to Windsor in half. Routes to Montreal to Toronto, Toronto to Ottawa, and Quebec City to Montreal to Ottawa are also being reduced.
"To support the ongoing efforts deployed by the public health authorities across the country to limit the COVID-19 propagation, including recommendations for social distancing and in order to further reduce health risks to our passengers and employees, Via Rail Canada announces a reduction of some of its services as well as additional preventive measures," the rail company said in a statement.
Via indicated there was a "significant" reduction in the number of passengers it served last week and that cutting some service will allow the company to "more effectively" deal with the pandemic. Additional employees are being brought in to sanitize all train cars in operation. That is in addition to enhanced cleaning protocols at terminal stations previously announced by Via.
Modifications have also been made to the company's meal service. In order to limit contact between rail staff and passengers, those in economy class will receive a free snack and water, while those in business class will see their meal replaced with a light meal and water. No food outside of the snack in economy and light meal in business class will be offered.
Via is asking passengers showing any sign of a cold or flu, including fever, cough, sore throat or breathing difficulties not to travel.
"We are deploying these additional precautions knowing that they will have an impact on our capacity to run our trains on time. We thank our passengers for their patience and understanding during this challenging period for all Canadians and want them to know that all of us at Via Rail remain dedicated to offer the best possible service and travel condition, especially on board our trains, in our stations and our call centres," said Via President and CEO Cynthia Garneau.
Since March 13, Via has been forced to cancel 388 trains, affecting more than 20,000 passengers.
The service reduction will remain in place until March 27.
The Toronto to Sarnia route is running as regularly scheduled.