I love trains. I had a train set when I was a kid. I remember calling VIA rail when I was 15 years old asking if we were allowed to sit on top of the box car for our next train ride; they said no for safety reasons, but I could tell they were smiling on the other end of the phone.

​When I lived in Ontario the first time, I’d take the VIA train back and forth to Kingston from Toronto during school breaks. Since those years, I’ve been on a couple VIA trains between Toronto and Montreal with 3-4 hour delays, which I assumed were anomalies or just what to expect when travelling by rail. My VIA rail experience in the prairies in 2018 however, really opened my eyes to current long distance train travel in Canada, especially in the prairies.

You may not know but Greyhound cut their bus services to Western Canada in 2018 due to lack of ridership. I had just moved to Wainwright Alberta in October for a job as Environmental coordinator and used a rental car from the airport in Edmonton to get to Wainwright. I needed to return the rental to Edmonton as I didn’t realize when I booked the car that there is only one car rental in Wainwright and the car I had rented wasn’t from that rental company! Therefore, I figured I’d drive to Edmonton on a Saturday, drop off the rental car, bus to the VIA rail terminal and take the train back to Wainwright.
​Easy peasy right?

​I arrived at the VIA rail station in Edmonton for a 2PM train to Wainwright. The trip was supposed to be 4 hours and cover 206kms. At 2PM VIA rail let us know that the train would be “delayed a bit” due to electronic issues. At 4PM we were told the train would arrive soon and we were told something similar until 7PM when the train arrived at the station. I remembered the stories one of my old friends in university told me about trains in India when she was living there; she had said two things were always certain about train travel, 1) you never knew when you were going to leave and 2) you never knew when you were going to get there!

We boarded and left the station around 8PM (2 hours after we were supposed to arrive in Wainwright). Now, I’d potentially be arriving in Wainwright at midnight. I felt frustrated, but I had a book to read and Sunday morning to sleep in a bit before cooking and getting ready for work on Monday. 

The train pulled out of the station and rumbled along for 5 minutes, stopped, and started to reverse back into the station! I flagged down a VIA rail representative and asked what the issue was. They said there was another train coming the other direction so we needed to move back and let the other train pass. 

Twenty minutes later we resumed leaving the station only to stop 45 minutes later, reverse and stop again. I turned and started a conversation with my neighbor. They said to me “Oh, yes, this is quite normal. Passenger trains do not have priority on cross country lines in the prairies. Freight, oil and gas take precedence". Anytime a passenger train encounters a freight train, the passenger gets out of the way and waits before moving on. 

I also found that in my case, when my passenger train was sitting and waiting, VIA turned off the heat. I was freezing! October isn’t one of the coldest months in the prairies, but it is sure not one of the warmest! VIA gave me a blanket as I had only brought a light jacket, not expecting to be sleeping in a train overnight. The time was 11PM and we weren’t even half way. I tried to get some sleep, but I was too cold to sleep so I asked for another blanket and tried to get comfortable.

I arrived in Wainwright at 8AM Sunday morning (14 hours after the predicted arrival time). I couldn’t wait to get out of the train. The 20 minute walk to my place from the train station was a relief; I was finally on solid ground. The walk got some of the kinks out of my back. 

At home I started asking myself questions. If I had known before I bought the train ticket that it would take 18 hours to travel 206km, I would have found another way. Had I known at 2PM the train would be arriving in Wainwright at 8AM the next morning, the predictability likely would have been soothing. In other circumstances, I would love a 206km 18 hour train ride if I wasn’t expecting to be somewhere and have a follow-on schedule. So was my inflexibility and expectations really why I had a bad taste in my mouth? Likely, but I think what ultimately made me feel disappointed was that passengers, who were taking public transportation, a more sustainable form of transportation, were given a backseat to commodities. 

​In addition to closing its operations in Western Canada, Greyhound bus services officially ended in Ontario and Quebec as of May 2021 again due to lack of ridership and subsidized competition (e.g VIA rail). VIA rail, in it’s 2018 ridership summary press release, has admitted that even with schedule modifications, it’s Vancouver to Toronto passenger rail line (the one I took between Edmonton and Wainwright) continues to experience significant delays due to prioritizing freight. Now with COVID health measures discouraging unnecessary travel, communal transport ridership and therefore train ridership has decreased. Hopefully only in the short term.

Despite my disappointing experience on VIA between Edmonton and Wainwright, I believe in train travel as a safe, relaxing, reliable and sustainable form of public transportation. I look forward to my next trip on a train where I can feel the rhythm of the train clacking over the tracks as I look out at the scenery without having to navigate vehicle traffic. I will, however, think twice about getting on a train anywhere in the prairies unless I have unlimited time and a very warm blanket. :) 

On a jog this morning I saw a Tesla parked on the side of the road. The temperature outside was 3 degrees and the car wasn’t hooked up to charge. My first thought was, “it’s nice knowing that you can charge your vehicle from home if you need to”. 

I’ve been debating getting an electric vehicle (EV) for several years now. I’m the kind of person that believes in reducing my carbon footprint. I’ve offset my car’s GHG emissions by contributing to organizations like Carbon Footprint Ltd. I’m also the kind of person that likes to maintain what I use until it falls apart, so I like to be fully committed before I jump into something new. There is also affordability to consider. Electric vehicles are getting more affordable now (see Table 1 below). Federal government incentives of up to $5,000 for EVs that cost under $60,000 and tax right off options for vehicles that support businesses. 

So what’s really preventing me from getting an EV? I feel the main reason why I have not opted for purchasing an EV is overall unpredictability and reluctance to change. 

EV battery power is especially concerning for those of us who live in colder climates because battery power determines how far a vehicle can travel on a charge and batteries don’t like cold temperatures. So what does this unpredictability look like? ​

​Extreme weather (below -10 degrees celsius) will reduce my vehicle’s battery range by between 30% and 50%. Table 1 below presents some basic numbers. Starting to dive with a close to full charge and preconditioning my vehicle, the closer to the 30% I’ll be (and the more range I’ll have). ​

​Preconditioning in the winter is an EV feature that uses charging to 1) charge, 2) preheat the vehicle’s cabin and 3) preheat the vehicle's battery and drive train before driving. Preconditioning gets the car components to optimal temperatures to drive, but extreme outside conditions during driving will still reduce my vehicle’s battery range. 

EVs have the equivalent of a gas gauge that provides range predictions based on environmental conditions and my driving habits. Now, there are no EVs with a 400-500km range (like my current Toyota Matrix), so to increase my range in the winter a heat pump is important. 

​Along with other ways to save battery power while driving, EVs with a heat pump improve driving range in the winter. Certain EVs models of Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and now Tesla (model Y) have heat pumps. The heat pump heats the car cabin when the car is on so your battery doesn’t have to. Heating the cabin might not seem like much, but having this heat pump to take care of my toes can increase my EV’s range by 30%. See Table 1 for some numbers. 

​The heat pump system in Tesla model Y is super fancy (and more heat efficient) and adds an extra liquid cooled condenser loop and a 8 way octo-valve. This set up distributes refrigerant and glycol between different heat exchangers in the vehicle to better distribute the heat generated by various pieces of equipment to those pieces of equipment that need it when they need it (watch the videos here for details). The model Y is a tad too expensive for me but the technology will spread fast and I’ll likely see something similar in future less expensive EVs.

Maybe an EV’s battery performance is really not that unpredictable.

I always want to say I’m open to new ways of doing things, but having to wait to charge my car is not always something I can easily make time for. Do I need to build my life around charging my car?

​ChargeHub indicates that up to 80% of EV charging is done at home because charging at home is less expensive and more convenient. Off peak time weekdays is 8.5c/kwh as opposed to 17.6c/kwh on peak in Ontario and I can charge when I’m sleeping. 

​If I need to charge during the day, I can stop at one of 81% of public chargers; Eighty one percent of public chargers (that are level 2 and level 3) are level 2 chargers with plugs that will charge all North American EVs.

​Distribution of level 2 charging stations depends on your location, however. ChargeHub has a great tool to find local public charging stations. In Barrie, for example, there aren’t charging stations within a 5-10 minute walk. Keeping winter conditions in mind, my vehicle battery will have to last me until I get home, unless I want a long walk.

​In a pinch at a friend’s house or with family, I can charge at any 120V outlet. I just need to make sure I remember to always have my car plugged in because charging this way will take 20-24 hours to full charge.

Maybe relying on an EV doesn’t really force me to change too much.

Overall, battery power is relatively predictable and for me, knowing that I can charge my vehicle from home if I need to, offsets my gas station accessibility worries. 

But, if I’m serious about moving forward with an electric vehicle, accessibility to charging stations is something that I would promote socially and politically. I’d support leaders that promote government incentives for installing public charging stations, changing the building code for residential housing etc.).