Editing Via Rail (section)

===Background===
{{See also|History of rail transport in Canada}}
[[File:19680706 15 CN Rapido Pickering, ON.jpg|thumb|[[Canadian National Railway|CNR]] [[Rapido (train)|Rapido]] train cars in [[Pickering, Ontario|Pickering]], July 1968. In an effort to attract riders, new train cars were acquired by CN in the 1960s.]]
Yearly passenger levels on Canada's passenger trains peaked at 60 million during [[World War II]]. Following the war, the growth of air travel and the personal automobile caused significant loss of [[mode share]] for Canada's passenger train operators. By the 1960s [[Canadian National Railway]] (CN) and the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] (CP) found that passenger trains were no longer economically viable. CP sought to divest itself of its passenger trains, but federal government regulators and politicians balked, forcing them to maintain a minimal service through the 1970s, with the government subsidizing up to 80 percent of losses. CN, being a [[Crown corporations of Canada|Crown corporation]] at that time, was encouraged by the federal government and political interests to invest in passenger trains. Innovative marketing schemes such as ''Red, White, and Blue'' fares, new equipment such as scenic [[dome car]]s and [[Budd Rail Diesel Car|rail diesel car]]s, and services such as [[Rapido (passenger train)|Rapido]] and the [[UAC TurboTrain]] trains temporarily increased numbers of passengers, reversing previous declines.<ref name="nelligan">{{cite book |title=Via Rail Canada: The first five years |first=Tom |last=Nelligan |publisher=[[Passenger Train Journal|PJT Publishing]] |year=1982 |isbn=0-937658-08-1}}</ref>{{rp|4–5}}

These increases proved temporary; by 1977, total passenger numbers had dropped below five million. The decline of passenger rail became a federal election issue in 1974 when the government of [[Pierre Trudeau]] promised to implement a nationwide carrier similar to [[Amtrak]] in the United States. Starting in 1976, CN began branding its passenger services with the bilingual name Via or Via CN. The Via logo began to appear on CN passenger locomotives and cars, while still carrying CN logos as well. That September, Via published a single timetable with information on both CN and CP trains, marking the first time that Canadians could find all major passenger trains in one publication. In 1977, CN underwent a dramatic restructuring when it placed various non-core freight railway activities into separate subsidiaries, such as ferries under [[CN Marine]], and passenger trains under Via Rail which was subsequently renamed Via Rail Canada.<ref name="nelligan" />{{rp|6–9}}