Free VIA Rail trips for young patients to cover six children’s hospitals

Free VIA Rail trips for young patients to cover six children’s hospitals VIA Rail will offer free train travel to six children’s hospitals in Ontario and Quebec under a three-year partnership that builds on a London program launched in April. The national passenger rail operator announced the partnership with Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations on November 3. The free trips cover young patients and their families traveling to CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal Children’s Hospital, CHEO, SickKids, McMaster Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital in London, all on VIA Rail’s Quebec City-Windsor corridor. Six hospitals get travel, seven foundations get fundraising support Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations represents the foundations of 13 children’s hospitals nationwide, but the travel offer is limited to the six corridor hospitals. VIA Rail will also assist the other seven foundations in the network with their fundraising: BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation, Children’s Hospital of Manitoba, IWK Foundation and the Janeway Children’s Hospital Foundation. According to the organizations, children and families across Canada turned to children’s hospitals 3.9 million times in 2025. The new program is aimed at families who have to leave their home communities to reach that specialized care. Adam Starkman, president and CEO of Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations, said the country’s geography can make such care hard to reach and that the agreement gives hospitals in the network more ways to support families regardless of where they live. Mathieu Paquette, VIA Rail’s president and CEO, tied the program to the operator’s role in accessible travel: “For families seeking specialized medical care, and for people with disabilities or those who have limited transportation options, accessible passenger rail can be a vital link.” London program has booked more than 250 trips The national agreement follows a separate three-year collaboration between VIA Rail and Children’s Health Foundation in London, Ontario, announced in April 2026. It serves patients of Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), who travel for treatment, whether to the London hospital or to other specialized pediatric centers, and families access it through the hospital’s Paediatric Family Resource Centre. Since April, families in that program have booked more than 250 free train journeys to and from specialized care. The November announcement did not detail eligibility rules or how families at the five newly added hospitals will book their trips. Kelly, a CHEO family whose son Kayden had to travel from Ottawa to Toronto for surgery, described what the offer would have meant for them: “If this kind of program had been in place then, it would have been a game-changer for us. Eliminating the financial burden and stress of travel is going to mean so much for families who must travel for care.”