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VIA Rail

@Urban Sky does VIA hold back any seats for walk-up traffic and/or 'day of' purchases?

I was looking for purposes of discussion in this thread at tomorrow's runs to Windsor and see 2 runs completely sold out in all classes, and the other beginning to sell out.
 
mdrejhon said:
While I do know VIA is often expensive last minute and holidays, for most destinations, I must remind you....

For advance bookings, VIA is now cheap Toronto-Ottawa nowadays thanks to the huge number of trains they added. There are more than double the number of trains Toronto-Ottawa now than there were in the 1970s.

VIA fares between Toronto-Ottawa are only $40 if you book a month in advance -- much easier to find than cheap airfares for a 1-month booking.

Go to www.viarail.ca and search for train fares one month in advance. Avoid those vacation and weekend dates, like a Friday night - Monday morning roundtrip, and you can easily pay less than $100 taxes included for a roundtrip Toronto-Ottawa on VIA train.

Especially if you book during one of those Tuesday sales, though the $40 are non-sale prices if you book a month in advance. I've seen them go as low as $29 during better annual sales, though $34 and $36 is more common during a Tuesday sale, and $40 to $49 everyday 1-month-advance prices.

I always can get sub-$50 VIA airfares reliably almost year-round on non-Holiday dates simply by doing my bookings on a Tuesday for any trips approximately one month in advance.

Just stop the mentality of searching at the last minute on common holiday dates like Good Friday and Ottawa-Toronto VIA is reliably cheap about 350 days of the year provided you remember to book sufficiently (~5-6 weeks) in advance

Chrissakes. So few know how to book cheap Toronto-Ottawa VIA fares. People become experts at searching airfares but never bother to even learn the 101 basics of finding cheap VIA fares.

I get it. Yes. VIA isn't cheap for other city pairs, and it should become cheaper. And those cheap seats often sell out too quick on other routes. But hundreds of cheap seats now exist on VIA Toronto-Ottawa if you do 6 week advance searches, and they don't sell out until around 3-4 weeks prior. So it's kid's play to land those $33-$34-$36-$39-$40 seats for a sub $100 roundtrip.

Many don't realize how good we now have Toronto-Ottawa -- we've never had this much VIA train service ever in history between Ottawa and Toronto. That's how much VIA has climbed back for this specific city pair, unbeknownst to many, and how the volume in the last ten years has allowed VIA to offer reliably lower prices in the last decade for 5-6 month advance bookings of this popular corridor pair. People have given up on VIA but Toronto-Ottawa is now become almost price-competitive to 2 persons driving a SUV between Toronto-Ottawa, if you only do a little advance booking planning.
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That said, I dream of a day when there is an nofrills intercity rail similar to SNCF's Ouigo. Prehaps a converted 6 car GO train set that runs a milk run service on routes with a high student population (Toronto - London/Windsor, Toronto - Kingston/Ottawa/Montreal. I personally wouldn't take it (I value my back and spine) but such a service would complete well against MegaBus if priced right.

You are completely correct, when I travel to Ottawa I book business class in advance and factoring in the meal and free drink service - it's a better value than economy class.
 
Garuda said:
That said, I dream of a day when there is an nofrills intercity rail similar to SNCF's Ouigo. Prehaps a converted 6 car GO train set that runs a milk run service on routes with a high student population (Toronto - London/Windsor, Toronto - Kingston/Ottawa/Montreal. I personally wouldn't take it (I value my back and spine) but such a service would complete well against MegaBus if priced right.

You are completely correct, when I travel to Ottawa I book business class in advance and factoring in the meal and free drink service - it's a better value than economy class.
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When VIA was formed, CN had a substantial surge fleet which sat idle in the mid-week but filled out consists on weekends and holidays. It was especially usefull in Southern Ontario where student travel was quite heavy at weekends, but not during the week.

That surge fleet was technically ancient (ice airconditioning, for instance), as well as worn out.... and was mostly retired as the LRC's were delivered. As VIA shed its b/y fleet and acquired the HEPII equipment, it has gradually become a fixed-capacity fleet that manages demand rather than capacity.

By the time the Chargers arrive, the LRC fleet will be older than the old "Canadian Flyer" surge fleet at its retirement. I don't foresee many LRC cars being retained - if any. so VIA is unlikely to have surge options. If you believe in electrification or improved car utilisation with more doubletracking getting done, perhaps some GO bilevels could be surplus by that point, but I doubt that too.

As we've discussed before, the Challengers are a seat for seat replacement for the current fleet. The question will be whether VIA has the business case to permit exercising options on more Challengers. Otherwise, GO will have to step up somehow.... with its own equipment, or some sort of partnership with VIA to acquire and maintain additional equipment to meet peak demands. If the whole thing ends up as a P3, one is unlikely to see a private vendor maintaining equipment just for the weekends. The constrained-capacity fleet is here to stay.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
When VIA was formed, CN had a substantial surge fleet which sat idle in the mid-week but filled out consists on weekends and holidays. It was especially usefull in Southern Ontario where student travel was quite heavy at weekends, but not during the week.

That surge fleet was technically ancient (ice airconditioning, for instance), as well as worn out.... and was mostly retired as the LRC's were delivered. As VIA shed its b/y fleet and acquired the HEPII equipment, it has gradually become a fixed-capacity fleet that manages demand rather than capacity.

By the time the Chargers arrive, the LRC fleet will be older than the old "Canadian Flyer" surge fleet at its retirement. I don't foresee many LRC cars being retained - if any. so VIA is unlikely to have surge options. If you believe in electrification or improved car utilisation with more doubletracking getting done, perhaps some GO bilevels could be surplus by that point, but I doubt that too.

As we've discussed before, the Challengers are a seat for seat replacement for the current fleet. The question will be whether VIA has the business case to permit exercising options on more Challengers. Otherwise, GO will have to step up somehow.... with its own equipment, or some sort of partnership with VIA to acquire and maintain additional equipment to meet peak demands. If the whole thing ends up as a P3, one is unlikely to see a private vendor maintaining equipment just for the weekends. The constrained-capacity fleet is here to stay.

- Paul
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According to the corporate plan, upgraded HEP2 trains will become the surge fleet.

 
Northern Light said:
@Urban Sky does VIA hold back any seats for walk-up traffic and/or 'day of' purchases?

I was looking for purposes of discussion in this thread at tomorrow's runs to Windsor and see 2 runs completely sold out in all classes, and the other beginning to sell out.
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No, it does not. If any seats become available, it's because someone cancelled.
 
As I've been told by local rail fans in Michigan (and some employees themselves), Amtrak Midwest's plan is to eventually upgrade all their owned track to class 6+, maybe even class 7-8 track, meaning 110 to 125 mph services (depending on locomotives available and funding). If top speeds increase by 37.5-57%, then you can probably shave at least an hour off the total commute, meaning that trip could take 6 hours or less, especially if Canada gets involved and upgrades their track as well.

If they get it below 6 hours, this could honestly appeal to a lot of people, especially since these days, in order to get to Chicago, you have to be at Pearson 3-4.5 hours before your flight (I've been in Security lines during the banks that were above 2-2.5 hours, plus 30 minute - 1 hr preclearance lines). Factor in the trip to Pearson and the trip from O'Hare and you're looking at very competitive trips. It's no better if you fly out via BUF, it's a 2 1/2 hr drive to Buffalo at best (usually more due to the border), plus the 60-90 minute wait, the 1.5 hr flight, and the half an hour trip to the loop. This service could be very useful if VIA gets involved and upgrades its tracks.

The only faster way is probably via Billy Bishop, but those fares are far too high for most people.

I'm not even worried about the Detroit Windsor tunnel, only 1 of the 2 tunnels are actually in use, and existing Amtrak rolling stock is well within the dimensions of the second tunnel. The only challenge might be the border itself. Normally, I'd advocate for preclearance facilities, but this service serves too many stops, and the facilities at union would make it near impossible to install such facilities. I think an interesting solution is allocating one car in the train for CBP services, have people board in one section of the train, and if they are not crossing the border, they can remain in that section of the train. Those that actually need to go to the US or vice versa can go through this CBP car, get their passports stamped, and wait in a preclearance zone of allocated cars that do not unlock until they enter the US. This could definitely save time and resources by removing the need for many border agents to handle peak loads, and spreads out their use over a larger portion of time.
 
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steveintoronto said:
Buses to replace long-distance Amtrak trains under Trump budget proposal
12 Mar 2019
https://www.railwaygazette.com/news...mtrak-trains-under-trump-budget-proposal.html
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This talking point is brought up every year, and congress never approves. Fact is that people actually like their Amtrak services, and they are reliable and dependable. Also, if I am not mistaken, Amtrak has the lowest subsidy of any passenger rail service in all of North America (with the exception of maybe bright line), and 500M per year in retrospect is nothing, especially when you consider that California subsidizes their services by like 300-400M annually for much less service.
 
Northern Light said:
Thanks.

I think that establishes to me that there is substantial unmet demand, moreso that I was thinking at current pricing and speeds.
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Forgot to say this, if you really need a seat you can go to the ticket counter and ask them to break your trip into separate segments since they hold seats for passengers getting on at intermediate stations. The downside is that this only really works if you have an Unlimited Student Pass, Employee Pass, or CN Rail Pass. Also, you'll have to change seats a couple of times.
 
dowlingm said:
The suggestion that customs checks can be performed in motion or similarly to how they are done in Europe ignores the vastly more intrusive nature of US-Canada border checks in 2019.
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This is the heart of the matter. This reality simply isn’t about to change.

Our airports and road crossings can manage this because the more intrusive travellers are taken out of the line, allowing flow to be maintained. Plenty of people miss their flights, but this is invisible to the rest of those crossing the border, and there is usually a later flight available anyways.

If the once-a-day train has to be held until the most problemmatic traveller is cleared, ir’s a different proposition.

One can think of technological solutions, such as pre clearance at the boarding point with some sort of validation at the border, but it isn’t worth it for that one train a day.

- Paul
 
I don't know if someone could tell me what will be happening to the Newcastle subdivision? CN had made a deal with the NB government to keep the line running after 2019 if it's use would go up. It actually went down to the point that some days only the Ocean goes on it. So the CN would be entitled to discontinue the line.
 
p_xavier said:
I don't know if someone could tell me what will be happening to the Newcastle subdivision? CN had made a deal with the NB government to keep the line running after 2019 if it's use would go up. It actually went down to the point that some days only the Ocean goes on it. So the CN would be entitled to discontinue the line.
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Does this help?
183560
 
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