In a move intended to “improve overall travel times,” VIA Rail says it’s eliminating train service at a station in the north end of Mississauga starting late next month.

The Crown corporation and Canada’s lone national passenger train operator says effective Oct. 25, “we will no longer serve or stop” at the Malton station, which is located on Derry Road East.

Cutting VIA Rail train service in Malton will help “improve overall travel times,” the national operator said. It added the north Mississauga station is expendable given its “proximity to Toronto’s Union Station and easy access to GO Transit and other local transit services.”

The move comes as part of VIA Rail’s latest schedule review, which was announced in mid-September and initially called for all service to Guildwood station in Toronto (Scarborough) to be permanently cut as well.

However, backlash from commuters and others in that part of Toronto forced VIA Rail to reconsider its decision this past Friday. As a result, the trains will continue to serve the Scarborough station — VIA’s only depot in that part of Toronto — beyond Oct. 25 as the train operator launches its winter schedule.

VIA Rail is also adjusting other services in its Quebec City-to-Windsor corridor as part of its schedule review, conducted twice a year.

“The revised schedule will better align service with passenger demand, strengthen network resilience and support more reliable and predictable service,” VIA Rail said in a September news release. “Overall, the revised schedule will result in an average of one fewer daily train between Ottawa and Toronto.”

Saturday service on trains 68 and 69 will be replaced by new departures on trains 668 and 669, VIA Rail said.

Also, Train 641 service will end, “but passengers will continue to have an early-morning option to Toronto on Train 41, which will depart Ottawa earlier at 4:56 a.m. and arrive in Toronto at 9:37 a.m.,” the national passenger train operator added.

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VIA Rail also said passengers with existing bookings affected by the service changes will be contacted directly and offered rebooking or a full refund at no additional cost.

(Cover photo: VIA Rail X)

Some of VIA Rail’s service adjustments that take effect Oct. 25. (Source: VIA Rail)


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