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VIA Rail

roger1818 said:
I stumbled across some evidence to back this up. According to Wikipedia, Brightline's "Select" coaches (their name for business class) have "21-inch (530 mm)-wide seats" while their "Smart" fare coaches (economy) have "narrower 19-inch (480 mm)-wide seats." Now there is no guarantee that VIA will use the same seats as Brightline, but there is a good chance they will since they are going for the same 2x1 seating arrangement in business class.
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Will add that this is way more comfortable than bus or plane. A 20 -21" wide seat is what you get on domestic business class. And a 17-18" wide seat is what you get in economy. The CSeries/A220 has 18" wide seats with one 19" wide seat or airlines can opt for 18.6" wide seats across the whole row. That's the closest you'll come in the air to what VIA is probably likely to offer with the new fleet. Never have to worry about armrest wars on the train.
 
roger1818 said:
The media likes to divide any subsidy that can even remotely be attributed to the Canadian equally among the passengers, regardless of whether they are paying several thousands dollars or a few hundred dollars per person. That isn't really fair as the person paying more is likely paying more than their share of the costs of operating the train (even if you consider the extra costs of providing premium service). It makes for good headlines though, regardless of how misleading it is.
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It's not just the media. It's the lobbyists, and by extension the people they are lobbying, and anyone making speeches. It's so important for VIA to be able to counter all of this with independent transparent actual facts.

- Paul
 
I have what might be a silly question, but I can't find the answer: how does VIA set train numbers? I ask because there seems to generally be a pattern where corridor services are two digit numbers above 20 and most remote services are three digit numbers that usually start with a six (e.g. Winnipeg Churchull, northern Quebec) ... but then there are strange exceptions like train 643 (Ottawa - Kingston - Toronto) listed in with trains 53 and 59 between the same cities. Why are a few corridor trains three digits numbers starting with a six?
 
trebello said:
I have what might be a silly question, but I can't find the answer: how does VIA set train numbers? I ask because there seems to generally be a pattern where corridor services are two digit numbers above 20 and most remote services are three digit numbers that usually start with a six (e.g. Winnipeg Churchull, northern Quebec) ... but then there are strange exceptions like train 643 (Ottawa - Kingston - Toronto) listed in with trains 53 and 59 between the same cities. Why are a few corridor trains three digits numbers starting with a six?
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They seem to have drifted from this standard, but from my observations, it used to be that in the corridor 2 digit trains were for weekday (and weekend if it used the same schedule) trains and were numbered as follows, with even train numbers for eastbound and odd numbers for westbound:
2x - Quebec-Montreal​
3x - Montreal-Ottawa​
4x - Ottawa-Toronto​
5x&6x - Montreal-Toronto​
7x - Toronto-Windsor​
8x - Toronto-London/Sarnia​
9x - Toronto-Niagara Falls​
If a train only ran on weekends, it would be 3 digits with the same format but prefixed by a 6 (Saturday is day 6 on VIA schedules).

The problem was, that meant there was a limit of 5 trains a day each way for all routes (except Montreal-Toronto which could have 10), so lately they have been also using the 6 prefix to allow more than 5 trains a day. They also seem to have moved the 5x numbers to Ottawa-Toronto. There also seem to be other exceptions.

It will be interesting to see what VIA does with train numbers after HFR.

EDIT: Added 9x Niagara Falls trains to make list more complete, thanks @smallspy
 
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New Schedules in effect for the Corridor as of February 2

VIA has released new schedules effective tomorrow, according to which trains 24, 37, 48, 59, 62 and 69 will no longer operate. After the suspension of the third frequency between Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa (as of October 27) and of the weekend-only fourth frequency which served Montreal-Toronto and Ottawa-Toronto (as of January 12) this is the third round of service reductions during the ongoing second wave, with the withdrawal of one round-trip each on Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa, Montreal-Toronto and Ottawa-Toronto, while service in Southwestern Ontario remains unchanged. Effective tomorrow, the service offerings in the Corridor will be as follows:

  • Quebec-Montreal (and v.v.)
    • leaving QBEC at 08:00 (#35) and 13:00 (#37)
    • leaving MTRL at 12:45 (#24) and 18:25 (#28)
  • Montreal-Ottawa (and v.v.)
    • leaving MTRL at 12:04 (#35) and 16:50 (#37)
    • leaving OTTW at 10:15 (#24) and 16:10 (#28)
  • Montreal-Toronto (and v.v.)
    • leaving MTRL at 08:55 (#63), 13:28 (#67) and 17:10 (#69)
    • leaving TRTO at 08:32 (#62), 11:32 (#64) and 17:02 (#68)
  • Ottawa-Toronto (and v.v.)
    • leaving OTTW at 08:40 (#643), 11:50 (#53) and 18:25 (#59)
    • leaving TRTO at 08:32 (#52), 12:17 (#42), and 18:47 (#48)
  • Toronto-Windsor (and v.v.)
    • leaving TRTO at 08:40 (#71) and 17:30 (#75)
    • leaving WDON at 09:00 (#72) and 17:45 (#78)
  • Toronto-Sarnia (and v.v.)
    • leaving TRTO at 17:40 (#84)
    • leaving SARN at 06:10 (#87)
Note: all trains operate daily.

I’ve compiled the following condensed schedule:
1612225574474.png

Note: only major stops are shown.

At the same time, the Ocean and the Canadian will remain suspended (except for the once-weekly round-trip between Winnipeg and Vancouver) until at least May 15.

The new PDF schedules can be found here:

 
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p_xavier said:
As someone who relies on VIA service to get to work, it pisses me off that it's not regarded as an essential service.
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VIA is of course considered an essential service, as it otherwise wouldn’t have been able to continue providing service throughout the second quarter of last year, when its revenues were down 97.6% and its operating funding need went up 60.8%, despite a 78.7% reduction in service offered:
84D73B76-4E10-4981-9EE2-63491E75B94C.jpeg

Source: VIA Rail Quarterly Report Q2 2020

That said, I can imagine that especially the new schedule fails to accommodate certain types of passenger trip purposes, as every service reduction involves painful trade-offs for me and my colleagues in the scheduling department and which will inevitably affect certain trip types much more than others. Just out of interest, on which trains would you depend for your pre-pandemic commuting? (Feel free to respond by PM if you don’t want to discuss this here)

Have a great day and stay safe, while we weather the (pandemic) storm and eventually ramp up services once again to provide a more useful service...
 
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I used train 22 and 37 or 39 from/to Alexandria station to DT Montréal. I managed to live with 24 as I had an arrangement with my boss. Now I can't even do a daily commute with these hours! I can't go to Ottawa for blood work nor get surgeries, I need to stay overnight.

I have a medical condition where I can't drive. I will need to pay a cab to Vaudreuil exo station to get to work. This is really unstainable for many residents here as the population depends on this service as the population is much older.

I can't even go to Toronto through Ottawa, I would need to sleep in Ottawa! I can manage teleworking as its now an obligation, but I'm considered an essential worker so I may need to come to the workplace any day.
 
roger1818 said:
They seem to have drifted from this standard, but from my observations, it used to be that in the corridor 2 digit trains were for weekday (and weekend if it used the same schedule) trains and were numbered as follows, with even train numbers for eastbound and odd numbers for westbound:
2x - Quebec-Montreal​
3x - Montreal-Ottawa​
4x - Ottawa-Toronto​
5x&6x - Montreal-Toronto​
7x - Toronto-Windsor​
8x - Toronto-London/Sarnia​
If a train only ran on weekends, it would be 3 digits with the same format but prefixed by a 6 (Saturday is day 6 on VIA schedules).

The problem was, that meant there was a limit of 5 trains a day each way for all routes (except Montreal-Toronto which could have 10), so lately they have been also using the 6 prefix to allow more than 5 trains a day. They also seem to have moved the 5x numbers to Ottawa-Toronto. There also seem to be other exceptions.

It will be interesting to see what VIA does with train numbers after HFR.
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You also forgot about the Niagara Falls trains - they were/are 9X.

There have also been variations on this numbering scheme - when they started operating the services through Ottawa, those through-scheduled train were given numbers in the 5X, while the ones that weren't used 3X, 4X and 6X on those respective corridors. While there are (were?) very few through-routed trains before the lockdown, many of the trains running on that schedule still carried 5X numbers.

There have also been midweek trains given a 6-prefix as they've run out of 2-digit numbers on some of the routes.

Dan
 
crs1026 said:
Can’t wait to see HFR arrive and force a three-digit numbering scheme.

Running out of train numbers is a problem I can’t wait for VIA to have.
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Since VIA predominantly uses CN's track (with some exceptions), does CN dictate which numbers VIA can use, or can VIA use any number they want? It seems that, with the exception of the Sudbury-White River train (which uses CP track exclusively), VIA only uses numbers less than 100 and in the 600's.
 
roger1818 said:
Since VIA predominantly uses CN's track (with some exceptions), does CN dictate which numbers VIA can use, or can VIA use any number they want? It seems that, with the exception of the Sudbury-White River train (which uses CP track exclusively), VIA only uses numbers less than 100 and in the 600's.
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I don't know officially, but it has to be more than pure coincidence that CN avoids numbers in the 600 series.

Having said that, CN and CP use exactly the same train numbering series in coproduction zones - virtually total overlap. Operationally, the locomotive number is the unique identifier by the rulebook (although, there too, there is overlap between CP and CN numbers, and many foreign road locomotives on CN also.)

Behind the scenes, CN's numbering is actually more verbose. VIA 43 shows in CN's computer as something like P04331xx, with xx being the day of the month, and 31 being the region. Freights have other initials such as Z, Q, M, L, and U, so there are plenty of ways to differentiate. CN may use the same train number in different areas - the freight train numbers we are used to in Southern Ontario are also used, for example, on trains on the Chicago-New Orleans line, without any actual connectivity.

- Paul
 
Urban Sky said:
That said, I can imagine that especially the new schedule fails to accommodate certain types of passenger trip purposes, as every service reduction involves painful trade-offs for me and my colleagues in the scheduling department and which will inevitably affect certain trip types much more than others. Just out of interest, on which trains would you depend for your pre-pandemic commuting? (Feel free to respond by PM if you don’t want to discuss this here)
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With the first train of the day from Ottawa to Montreal arriving after 6 pm at night, with the return trip leaving Montreal at noon - that's hard to actually believe, that it's being treated as an essential service. That sounds much more fitted for non-essential excursions, than any necessary daytime activity.

At the same time, perhaps the border should be closed, with the English variant spreading widely in Ontario. But with the stay at home order being lifted next week - the timing does seem backwards.
 
nfitz said:
With the first train of the day from Ottawa to Montreal arriving after 6 pm at night, with the return trip leaving Montreal at noon - that's hard to actually believe, that it's being treated as an essential service. That sounds much more fitted for non-essential excursions, than any necessary daytime activity.

At the same time, perhaps the border should be closed, with the English variant spreading widely in Ontario. But with the stay at home order being lifted next week - the timing does seem backwards.
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How do you know that the stay at home order will be lifted and not extended?
 
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