An Act to amend the Canada Transportation Act (passenger rail service)

Bill C-371 was a Conservative Private Member's Bill amending the Canada Transportation Act (S.C. 1996, c. 10) to strengthen federal-jurisdiction passenger-rail-service standards for VIA Rail Canada and federally regulated passenger-rail operations. Brought after the 2023-2024 VIA Rail Quebec-Windsor corridor service-delay record (approximately 13 percent of trains arriving more than 60 minutes late per VIA Rail Performance Report), and after the 2024 federal High-Frequency Rail (HFR) Quebec City-Toronto project moved into route-selection phase (decision expected 2026, total project cost estimated $6-12 billion). The bill called for binding on-time-performance reporting, mandatory passenger compensation for delays over 60 minutes, and federal-jurisdiction track-allocation priority for passenger rail over CN/CP freight. Did not pass second reading.