In all likelihood, few Ontarians have visited the Simcoe County hamlet of Utopia, let alone realized that it could one day become a crucial link for Canada's sole remaining transcontinental passenger train, The Canadian.

Back in the days before the CPR and CNR rid themselves of passenger train service, the country had four transcontinentals.

In those days, CP Rail had The Canadian with its stainless steel coaches and dome cars and The Dominion, an ordinary train that had ordinary coaches and would make stops at places as small as Alliston. Similarly, the CNR had the Super Continental and Continental, the former boasting dome cars and the latter making far more scheduled stops, but both having ordinary coaches with CN's black and green colours.

Although the CPR service was more popular, thanks to its route taking passengers along the gorgeous Lake Superior shoreline and through Banff, Lake Louise and spectacular portions of the Rockies, Via Rail ultimately opted to route The Canadian on the relatively drab CNR trackage. The main reason for the change undoubtedly lay in the fact that at the time the CNR was a Crown corporation, but another factor was CP Rail's disinterest in having any passenger trains slow its freight traffic.

Another advantage, from Via's perspective, was that the CNR had two lines between Toronto and Washago, one via Beaverton that entered Union Station from the east and the other via Barrie and Orillia that headed west out of the station. That meant considerable cost savings from no longer having to turn the train around.

Unfortunately, the privatized CNR decided to abandon the route via Barrie and Orillia, and all that remains of it is trackage to Barrie that's owned by GO Transit and was recently given a $20-million upgrade in connection with restoring GO Train service into Barrie.

As a result, the transcontinental currently is diverted onto the CNR's freight bypass, and with no tracks giving northbound trains direct access to the bypass, the train must now waste roughly half an hour going north of the bypass, backing down a siding and waiting for clearance so it can travel across the top of Toronto to the remaining CN line. Depending on freight movements, the time needed to reach the line to Beaverton can be anywhere from one to two hours.

However, a chat with Steve Gallagher, who manages both the Orangeville-Brampton and Barrie-Collingwood short lines for Cando Contracting Ltd., confirmed that some new trackage at tiny Utopia, through a farmer's field, is all that would be needed for the westbound Canadian to make a much shorter, speedier and more scenic trip north to Sudbury.

At present, the only interconnection between the Barrie-Collingwood line and CP Rail's Toronto-Sudbury line goes the wrong way, the lone curve sending a westbound train on the short line toward Toronto rather than Sudbury.

Although CP Rail might not be enthusiastic about providing its trackage for three trains a week, the railway would stand to get revenue now going to the CNR and already is accommodating the westbound Canadian between Parry Sound and a junction near the south end of Greater Sudbury.

In the longer run, our 'Utopian' solution might well become the first phase of a program that would greatly enhance the attractiveness of Via Rail's existing transcontinental service.

Currently, The Canadian follows drab CNR trackage all the way to Vancouver, following uniformly unattractive landscape in Ontario's far north en route to Winnipeg and then roughly following the Yellowhead Highway route rather than the Trans-Canada, stopping at Saskatoon, Edmonton and Jasper rather than Regina, Calgary and Banff.

One can easily imagine how much more attractive the transcontinental service would be if Via instead could use the CP Rail tracks out of Sudbury for the westbound train as far as Kamloops, where the CN and CP main lines meet again and parallel one another through the Thompson River Valley and along the Fraser River to Vancouver.

For the westbound traveller, the CP Rail route would offer relatively spectacular vistas even between Sudbury and Marathon, where it reaches the rugged Lake Superior coastline. As someone who last September took The Lake Superior, Via's only train that currently uses CP Rail trackage, I can vouch for the fact the route between Sudbury and White River offers an amazing number of lakes and river valleys.

Of course, there's no doubt whatsoever that the CP line between Marathon and Thunder Bay offers even more spectacular scenery, or that the route between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg via Kenora has a lot more to offer passengers than the CN line north of Lake Nipigon.

Although there may well be no North American precedent for the idea of having westbound and eastbound transcontinental trains follow different routes, there's surely no doubt that it would be a great selling point, including an encouragement for travellers to purchase round-trip tickets instead of making the return trip by air.