Last Train to Toronto: A Candian Rail Odyssey

In 1990, the federal government slashed VIA Rail's routes by half. Whole lines disappeared overnight. Pindell, an American who had already ridden the US rail system end to end, got on the last Canadian trains still running to see what the country looked like from the inside.

He started in Toronto. He rode 18,000 miles through small towns, empty depots, and the landscapes between cities that most Canadians only know from maps. What he found was that the railway wasn't just infrastructure, it was how Canada understood itself. The tracks ran where the country would not otherwise cohere. Toronto sits at the centre of all of it. The hub everything else radiates from. An outsider had to come here and ride the trains to say it clearly. Canadians were too busy to notice.