E-7344 Restoration of VIA Rail service Quebec Petition Tracker | Signature Growth — Canadian Petition Tracker
Track E-7344 — Restoration of VIA Rail service Quebec — with 3,570 signatures and counting. Sponsored by Maxime Blanchette-Joncas. See signature growth trends and provincial breakdown on PetitionTracker.ca.
Canonical URL: https://petitiontracker.ca/petition/e-7344
Petition Details
- Status: Closed
- Closing date: July 23, 2026
- Sponsor: Maxime Blanchette-Joncas (Rimouski—La Matapédia)
- Category: Transportation
Signature Statistics
- Total signatures: 3,570
- Daily increase: +147 in the last 24 hours
- Seven-day increase: +667 over the last 7 days
- Growth velocity: ~95 new signatures per day (7-day average)
- Tracking started: April 24, 2026 — 355 data points recorded
Milestones
- 1,000 signatures reached on May 21, 2026 — total at that point: 1,003
- Debate threshold (500 signatures) reached on May 7, 2026 — total at that point: 500
Provincial Distribution
- Quebec: 3,366 signatures
- Ontario: 82 signatures
- Alberta: 19 signatures
- British Columbia: 14 signatures
- New Brunswick: 13 signatures
- Nova Scotia: 6 signatures
- Saskatchewan: 4 signatures
- Newfoundland and Labrador: 1 signatures
- Nunavut: 1 signatures
Historical Signature Growth
| Date | Signatures |
|---|
| April 24, 2026 | 8 |
| May 5, 2026 | 251 |
| May 11, 2026 | 813 |
| May 23, 2026 | 1,020 |
| June 3, 2026 | 1,086 |
| June 9, 2026 | 1,241 |
| June 17, 2026 | 1,321 |
| June 24, 2026 | 1,463 |
| June 29, 2026 | 1,703 |
| July 6, 2026 | 2,082 |
| July 11, 2026 | 2,455 |
| July 16, 2026 | 2,921 |
| July 22, 2026 | 3,451 |
| July 23, 2026 | 3,570 |
Petition Text
Petition to the Government of Canada
Whereas:
• VIA Rail is a federal Crown corporation funded by the Government of Canada and mandated to provide passenger rail service across the country;
• The federal government invested $1.337 billion in VIA Rail in 2025 for its long-distance fleet;
• There was daily passenger service for many years between Montreal and Halifax, serving several communities in the Lower St. Lawrence;
• In 2012, the frequency of this rail service was reduced from six round trips per week to three;
• Between 2012 and 2016, service revenues declined by 27.2% and ridership by 40.8%, demonstrating the negative impact of reduced service frequency on usage;
• Passenger trains currently pass through the Lower St. Lawrence overnight, limiting access to rail transportation for many residents;
• Passenger rail service operates primarily on tracks owned by freight railway companies, such as the Canadian National Railway (CN), which constrains the ability to provide frequent, reliable and punctual passenger rail service; and
• The shift of passengers to automobiles runs counter to Canada’s objectives of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable public transit.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Quebec, call upon the Government of Canada to take the necessary steps to ensure that VIA Rail commits to:
1. Restoring daily, reliable and accessible passenger rail service in the Lower St. Lawrence;
2. Adjusting the schedules at stations in the Lower St. Lawrence so that stops occur at reasonable hours for the public; and
3. Implementing measures to improve the punctuality and reliability of passenger rail service.
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