Demarketing services on the DAR

[downeastrailfan]

I'd be interested to get feedback on this, but I think CP started de-marketing passenger service on the DAR in 1956 with the introduction of the Dayliners. For example, the RDC's did not have dining service, reclining seats, checked baggage and mail was dropped with their introduction. Two cars was not enough to handle passenger loads. The only benefit was faster starts and stops. I have not compared the schedules of conventional vs. RDC.

Also, when the Truro "station" (fancy name for a freight shed) opened in 1959, DAR passengers had to either taxi or walk to the CNR station. Not a great way to encourage business.

I had an interesting chat with a retired DAR employee in Kentville a few years ago. He said they would clean out cars for a customer in Weymouth, and a supervisor told them to stop. Deferred maintenance, damaged goods and cars, lost goods, weren't always accidents. Its not well publicized that the railways de-marketed their freight and passenger services, but by talking with retired railroaders, I learned it wasn't just competition from trucks and cars that caused the death of the branch lines in Canada, it was the railways themselves.

[stem]

Couldn't agree more. I think as an afterthought as well that CP regretted the purchase of all the Budd cars as ridership steadily decreased across the country. There's no doubt the seeds of not only passenger service but total abandonment for the DAR were planted in the 50's as the apple business never returned nor the pre-WWII ridership and tourism after WWII. The only thing CP was interested post war was the gypsum business as witnessed by the new special order steel hoppers and fleet of SW1200RSs. The Budd cars were a necessary evil as far as they were concerned to cut passenger costs.

With the rise of CTC and unit trains in the 60's came a whole new efficiency and economics to railways that doomed the DAR and in fact all short lines that could not fit its operation or economics into the new paradigm.

It is no secret that CP altered the schedules and didn't keep up the maintenance to discourage ridership so that they could abandon the passenger service. As witnessed by the return of passenger service by VIA Rail with attractive schedules, there indeed was legitimate ridership for the valley given a decent service.

[Tedsgrandson]

Hi Matt:

I also agree with you on this one. I can remember as a kid hearing my grandfather say that the CPR wanted to get out of this end of the country. I also remember hearing him say that the fares to travel on the trains were made very expensive so as to discourage their use , thereby justifying ending the service. Also, the fact that it wasn't possible for people from the valley to come to Halifax for shopping or appointments and to return the same day didn't make sense. It was good news when Via took over and revised the schedules and improved the service. Photographic evidence shows that most of the trains during the early 1980's had at least two or three cars, as compared to the single dayliners of the 1960's. Thus, ridership increased in the post CP era. However, ridership started to decline as the highways were improved and this led to the decline in the use of the railways.

Jim Joyce
Dartmouth, N.S.