Surprisingly, VIA is also eliminating cash purchases on trains serving remote regions between Montreal and Senneterre, Que., or Jonquiere, Que., and the Sudbury-White River, Ont., triweekly Rail Diesel Cars.
“In response to a long-standing customer request, VIA is introducing an electronic payment terminal (that will) optimize frontline operations while streamlining our back-end food management systems,” VIA spokeswoman Marie-Anna Murat tells Trains News Wire. “Eliminating cash will make VIA’s onboard transactions more efficient, allowing our employees to spend more time serving passengers; this change reflects the transportation industry trend towards cashless transactions.”
The company is “proceeding in a phased approach in order to ensure the successful implementation of this new system throughout our network,” Murat explains. Cash payment will still be accepted — for now — on the Toronto-Vancouver, B.C., Canadian, plus the Winnipeg-Churchill and Jasper-Prince George-Prince Rupert trains.
VIA gift cards can only be purchased at staffed stations; there is only one on the Sudbury-White River route, where snack and beverage service was added in 2016, and two locations on the Senneterre and Jonquiere lines. But Murat says, “our employees will be flexible in the weeks following the launch.”
Amtrak has long accepted both credit and debit cards aboard its trains and has periodically studied eliminating cash payments, but research thus far has indicated such a move would hurt sales. Concurrently, management has sought to improve and increasingly automate inventory control rather than continuing to place a time-consuming paperwork burden on cafe and dining-car lead service attendants before and after their runs.
The new VIA system attempts to link both objectives, but at the risk of losing business among travelers who may not have access to payment options the company now demands.
