MONTREAL — VIA Rail Canada CEO Cynthia Garneau has resigned, Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has announced.
The resignation was announced and effective on Friday, May 20.
“I would like to thank Ms. Garneau for her service,” Alghabra said in a statement, “and her work over the past three years in contributing to the modernization of VIA Rail, and adapting VIA Rail operations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, while always ensuring the health and safety of employees and passengers.”
Garneau, in a statement released by VIA, said she left “with a sense of accomplishment.
“I had given myself the objective to obtain confirmation for the HFR [high frequency rail] project, and with the procurement process now underway, my train has arrived at its destination. It will now be up to another driver to lead the organization through the next steps. I would especially like to thank my collaborators on the management team, the members of the Board of directors, and all VIA Rail employees for their profound commitment to this great organization and its mission.”
The High Frequency Rail project seeks to build passenger-only right-of-way on a portion of VIA’s Toronto-Quebec City corridor. While any construction remains years away, Transport Canada is soliciting private-sector “expressions of interest” in the project, as announced in March [see “Transport Canada inches forward …,” Trains News Wire, March 10, 2022].
Garneau came to VIA in May 2019 after serving as president of Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. since 2016. Her 20 years in the aerospace industry also included technical and managerial roles at Bombardier Aerospace.
Francoise Bertrand, chairwoman of VIA’s board of directors, noted that, with most of Garneau’s tenure as CEO during the pandemic, “she faced extraordinary challenges while never losiung sight of our ambitious modernization program and the well-being of our employees. On behalf of the board of directors, the management commette, and all VIA Rail employees, I sincerely thank her for your contribution and wish her all the best for the future.”
Bertrand also announced that Martin R. Landry, chief commercial affairs officer for the past eight years, “will ensure business continuity” for the passenger operator.
“His expertise will be extremely valuable as service resumes across the country in June and we are finally able to fully play our role as the national passenger rail service and continue to do what we do best: serve Canadians from coast to coast,” Bertrand said.
Smells like CN board of directors in need of a francophone.
You may be right.
With the annulment of “The Canadian” throughout most of Garneau’s brief term, at least she did not have to waste any time or effort fighting with CN over punctuality of schedules, despite the embarrassing dwell time at every depot.
Too bad nobody in Ottawa or the provincial capitols have realized what a drastic error it was to force “The Canadian” off of its CPR route, where the population and major national parks were located. Note after that with that re-routing (1990?) how frequency was significantly reduced to the point of absurdity today-but 2 x week except during summer, 3 x week.
I’ll bet ATK’s Gardner drools over such a possibility in lieu of just killing off the LD trains..?
Yeah, HFR, a pie-in-the-sky concept years in the future – if ever – is some accomplishment.
Meanwhile, Martin R. Landry will have his hands full running the handful of VIA trains that operate each day that supposedly serve Canadians coast to coast, per Mme Bertrand.
Please note that “Landey” and “Landry” are unrelated surnames from entiely different ethnic backgrounds. Though my late railfan brother was also a Martin.