VIA Rail Canada honours Remembrance Day with a donation to The Royal Canadian Legion on behalf of its passengers and employees

Montréal, 2014-11-6 — /Travel PR News/ — VIA Rail Canada (VIA Rail) would like to announce that, in honour of Remembrance Day, it has made a donation to The Royal Canadian Legion (the Legion), on behalf of its passengers and employees. As well, VIA Rail will offer free poppies to all passengers and staff on board its trains. Distribution of the poppies will be rolled out across the country over the course of next few days and will last until November 11th.

“This year’s poppy campaign has a particular significance. ‎It reminds us not only of conflicts in distant lands or at other times but it also honours the present-day women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces here and abroad. With this modest donation, VIA Rail wishes to honour those who risk so much for our freedoms and our rights,” said Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, President and CEO of VIA Rail.

100,000 soldiers on board VIA Rail trains since 2010
The Canadian military and the railroad have always been closely connected. Snapshots taken during the two world wars often showed Canada’s soldiers being transported by train to the Atlantic coast, where cargo ships would await them, ready to depart for Europe. To mark this historic relationship, VIA Rail has been offering members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Veterans and their families a 25% discount on the best available fare, with no route or date restrictions, since 2010. Through this program, more than 100,000 soldiers and members of their families have travelled on board VIA Rail trains‎.

About VIA Rail Canada
As Canada’s national rail passenger service, VIA Rail Canada (viarail.ca) and its 2,500 employees are mandated to provide safe, efficient and economical passenger transportation service, in both official languages of our country. VIA Rail operates intercity, regional and transcontinental trains linking 450 communities across Canada, and safely transports nearly four million passengers annually. The Corporation was awarded seven Safety Awards by the Railway Association of Canada over the last eight years, and was the recipient of the 2012 Agent’s Choice Award voted by Canadian travel agents and presented by Baxter Travel Media. Since 2007, the Government of Canada has invested almost a billion dollars in VIA Rail. Read more about our transformation at www.viarail.ca/transformingVIA.

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