VIA Rail has actually increased their ridership over the last few years. I think they've done a really good job at increasing their ridership with what is fundamentally an older product.
The number that really jumps out to me in all of this discussion is 82%. Currently, 82% of the trips taken between Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto are by car. I'll bet you that those of you who drive occasionally on the highway notice that most of the cars have one occupant. In Ottawa we have a high occupancy lane; you only need to be two, and most of the time it's empty. That really is what you would call low-hanging fruit, to move people out of their cars and into a train.
Why aren't they doing it? Because we currently don't have the frequency of schedules to make it convenient so that you can decide to take a train, knowing that when you're finished doing whatever you're doing at the other end you'll come back by train; and it's a little slow.
One of the members today was saying that they came by train from Montreal. Montreal is a great trip. If you go to Toronto it takes a little longer, and the competition by car is faster. If you could get there more quickly by train than by car, you're going to eat into that 82% and you're going to see tremendous benefit quickly.
I think they've done a good job of selling what they have.