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That does not result in affordable travel: at time of writing, the cheapest ticket aboard this coming Saturday’s train from Toronto to Vancouver was nearly $700; from Sudbury to Winnipeg, $234; from Kamloops to Vancouver, $105. In every case the bus is much cheaper and faster — 20 per cent faster and 60 per cent cheaper for the whole journey. Air Canada will fly you to Vancouver from Toronto on Saturday for $545, and you’ll have an extra three days, nine hours and 29 minutes to burn once you arrive.

If the Old Chieftain were around today, you might see him in business class.

The Canadian is a cruise ship on rails, and the Crown shouldn’t operate or subsidize cruise ships — especially, Emerson’s report argues, when they compete with private-sector outfits like the Rocky Mountaineer, which runs luxury trains in Western Canada.

May’s intervention might lead you to believe otherwise, but Emerson’s report is certainly not anti-passenger rail. It accepts as guiding principles, without discussion, that “passenger rail has an important place in the public consciousness,” and that “the train that carries us from coast to coast is a symbol of our nationhood” — in both cases (ahem) “despite the small percentage of Canadians who use it.”

It certainly does not recommend swingeing cuts to VIA rail — not even to another clearly non-essential long-distance service between Montreal and Halifax. In 2014, taxpayers subsidized the Ocean to the tune of $36 million in total and $480 per passenger. It has no private-sector competitor, however, and Emerson’s gang seem to have been convinced by Atlantic Canada’s transport ministers that “passenger rail service may be the only viable transportation option for many residents.”