Mr. Speaker, on December 15 full VIA Rail service to my city of Saint John will be discontinued.
Recently VIA Rail launched a promotional campaign aimed at getting people to take the train over the next few months. Homes in Saint John received an envelope in the mail from the rail company offering special discounts on adult fares. As well, a 25 per cent discount was offered when travelling between December 15 and January 5.
This new marketing campaign is very confusing to my constituents. VIA announced the termination of VIA Atlantic as of December 15 but announced a discount for travelling between December 15 and January 5. Does this make sense? How is one supposed to get a discount when there is no train? Apparently the discount was not meant for the citizens of Saint John.
I urge the Minister of Transport to provide the citizens of Saint John with a dayliner so they too can take advantage of the great savings offered by VIA. I appeal to the minister to save our train.