VIA Rail Knows How to Treat the Troops
Earlier this summer, Canada’s VIA Rail – that’s their equivalent to Amtrak – offered free unlimited transportation for the month of July to all members of the Canadian armed forces. And the offer was also made available to retirees as well as active duty personnel.
Wow!
Furthermore, during the promotion, VIA allowed the service personnel traveling free to bring as many as five guests along with them at a 50% discount off the regular fare.
Double-wow!
So was the promotion a success? I’ll say! Members of the Canadian armed services took more than 60,000 trips on VIA in July. Furthermore, all those discounted tickets generated nearly $800,000 in revenues during what is normally the railroad’s slow season.
VIA Rail: Doing well by doing good … eh?
Too bad Via doesn’t know how to treat students. Via will fine any student who doesn’t hold the ISIC card (some foreign id card) if they have a student ticket. In our case, the student fare was the exact same fare that anyone can get, adults etc – but if it says ‘student’ even if you have a Canadian University or College ID card – if you don’t go out and buy that foreign id card – this Canadian owned Crown Corporation will fine you! If this is how VIA wants to treat them – students (and parents) should boycott VIA!