VIA Rail

[kEiThZ]

My Toronto based parents and some relatives decided to travel abroad from Montreal. Coming home, they get to Dorval and get hit with the bag weight rules. They ended up leaving some stuff with brother in Montreal and took perishables and urgent items on the train. It was only a few pounds worth but they couldn't fit it in. The experience has them reconsidering whether it's worthwhile to use VIA to access deals like this in the future. Airline style baggage rules on a train is going to hurt VIA.

 

[lead82]

Too late. VIA is already hurt by negligence and incompetence. It’s really an irrelevant service for most Canadians sadly. If long distance trains disappear no one will care except for the few hundred folks directly impacted.

I agree the baggage rules for VIA are just plain dumb. So is their booking/pricing engine. Instead of making trains cheap they have gotten ridiculously expensive for a mediocre to horrible product that is slow and always late, has terrible wifi and food options.

The HFR is a pipe dream. It will never happen at this rate, much like all the previous other proposals.

 

[micheal_can]

Video in tweet link. Not sure if it was adopted.

View attachment 540492

I'd like to see this as part of the next federal budget.

 

[SamStar]

My Toronto based parents and some relatives decided to travel abroad from Montreal. Coming home, they get to Dorval and get hit with the bag weight rules. They ended up leaving some stuff with brother in Montreal and took perishables and urgent items on the train. It was only a few pounds worth but they couldn't fit it in. The experience has them reconsidering whether it's worthwhile to use VIA to access deals like this in the future. Airline style baggage rules on a train is going to hurt VIA.

VIA states one can bring up to 75 lb on economy (1 medium bag 50 lb + 1 smaller item 25 lb. Extra large bag up to 50 lb can be purchased prior to departure) and up to 125 lb in business.
Were your parents bringing more than 150 lb of baggage combined?

 

[kEiThZ]

VIA states one can bring up to 75 lb on economy (1 medium bag 50 lb + 1 smaller item 25 lb. Extra large bag up to 50 lb can be purchased prior to departure) and up to 125 lb in business.
Were your parents bringing more than 150 lb of baggage combined?

I don't have the full details. But they were told that their bags can't weigh more than 23 kg. It was actually my uncle who had more stuff. They couldn't fit it in to my parents bag and meet weight limits. They had all gotten off an international flight. So really their bags weren't going to be more than 23 kg/50 lbs anyway.

In the end it was only a few pounds worth of stuff. What they didn't appreciate was the treatment, where they had to open and rearrange bags in the station.

Again though, what's the rationale? They can easily insist that anybody with overweight luggage must load it themselves.

 

[crs1026]

Again though, what's the rationale? They can easily insist that anybody with overweight luggage must load it themselves.

I can understand some limit on size/number of bags, but weighing bags on a train seems very anal.

- Paul

 

[nfitz]

I can understand some limit on size/number of bags, but weighing bags on a train seems very anal.

- Paul

at 125 lbs? That limit is so insanely high that it shouldn't impact.

The Dorval story sounds suspect. They wouldn't even know how much someone is on until they actually tried to get on the coach. What did they do, hold the train while they repacked? No ...

 

[Bordercollie]

It has to be for works which are useful for HxR (which excludes London) and MMC is already taken care of by the Corridor fleet renewal (which includes a new maintenance facility at MMC). The only overlap between HxR and VIA’s current Corridor network is MTRL-OTTW-SMTF and the final approaches into TRTO and QBEC…

Edit:
No need to guess what the $491.2 million were intended for:

Technical Assistance to VIA Rail on Dorval Intermodal Station Project

SYSTRA Canada, consulting and engineering firm, world leader in public transport infrastructure engineering.

www.systra.com

So this would provide better connections to the airport in Dorval?

 

[Urban Sky]

I agree the baggage rules for VIA are just plain dumb. So is their booking/pricing engine. Instead of making trains cheap they have gotten ridiculously expensive for a mediocre to horrible product that is slow and always late, has terrible wifi and food options.

VIA’s objective is to maximize revenues, not ridership and as a taxpayer, I highly approve of this. And as someone who travels for business and doesn’t want to expense change fees, it saves my employer a lot of money that fully-refundable Economy Plus and Business Plus tickets are finally also dynamically priced and therefore most of the time much cheaper than before. When the new system was introduced, I was able to cancel my old Economy Plus tickets I had already booked for the next two round-trips and rebook in Business Plus (!) for slightly less than what I had originally paid for Economy Plus. I’ve also seen multiple accounts (like below) where people cancelled and rebooked upcoming trips they had booked with points, as the new system requires much less points:

So this would provide better connections to the airport in Dorval?

It would allow better connections, but the funding envelope doesn’t seem to include the extension of the REM to the Airport…

 

[nfitz]

So this would provide better connections to the airport in Dorval?

Marginally less walking to a bus maybe. It's not about REM - and that they aren't building one more short section from Trudeau to Dorval Circle is absurd.

There's already an intermodal station there, serving Exo trains and SMT buses. Last time I looked, there were connections to the VIA station, involving outdoor concrete staircases and highway underpasses. I'm not sure if that's been improved - it's been a long time since I used that station.

Presumably this would be a proper and convenient accessible connection from the existing terminal and Exo station buildings.

Now there used to be a STM bus from the bus terminal to Trudeau ... ran about once every half-hour - presumably still around. The STM 747 route non-stop from Lionel-Groulx to Trudeau would be a better choice. Runs as frequently as every 7.5 minutes.

 

[kEiThZ]

at 125 lbs? That limit is so insanely high that it shouldn't impact.

The Dorval story sounds suspect. They wouldn't even know how much someone is on until they actually tried to get on the coach. What did they do, hold the train while they repacked? No ...

Resorting to conspiracy theories is ridiculous. What in my history here would suggest I am making something up that I claim happened to my own parents?

They got off an Emirates flight early in the morning. That should tell you that they were automatically limited to the number and weight of checked and carry-on luggage. EK243 lands around 0700. Train 65 departs Dorval at 1126.

It took them about 2 hrs to deplane, get their luggage, clear customs, get some coffee and then take the shuttle to Dorval. According to them, they were the only passengers in the station at the time, so the staff set up to weigh their bags. My mom's exact words were, "We were lucky nobody else was there. Would have been embarrassing to repack in front of other people. And thank god [my brother] was there to take the rest of the stuff.". They weren't limited by total weight here. They were limited by the 50lb absolute limit on each piece. After all, flying internationally they were only allowed one checked bag and one carry on.

They flew from Montreal to a take advantage of some inaugural air fare deals by Emirates in November. Luggage weight rules weren't in place or being enforced when they left. But they were still limited by airline rules. The real irony here is that an airline let the few pounds go on an intercontinental flight while VIA forced them to leave some of their clothes with my brother and repack. VIA is somehow more strict than Emirates.

 

[Allandale25]

TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts

www.tvo.org

 

[Urban Sky]

TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts

www.tvo.org

It’s always refreshing to see people discussing HFR without pointlessly obsessing about the 3h59 it once took (once-per-day) to travel between Toronto and Montréal…

 

[kEiThZ]

TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts

www.tvo.org

Can we keep Corridor discussion here in the future:

Quebec-Windsor Corridor

I’m currently on train 35 (one of the Venture trainsets) and we came to a complete stop to “protect the crossing” at Dunning Rd (between Castleman and Ottawa). My first thought was that the gates weren’t working but when we did cross it, they were down with the lights flashing. I did notice a...

urbantoronto.ca

 

[Urban Sky]

Interesting interview with VIA‘s CEO, as discussed over on Groups.io:

What expectations do rail passengers have and how can you make rail travel more attractive?

Mario Péloquin: The world is recognizing that humanity is facing an existential climate crisis and we urgently need efficient, low-carbon transportation. We're all striving to make our world more connected, more accessible, and more equitable for all. In the face of these challenges, passenger rail offers a way forward.

In Canada, the Toronto-Vancouver line that runs through Edmonton, the Winnipeg-Churchill line and the eastern line from Montreal-Halifax all offer spectacular experiences that are truly unique in the world. VIA is also an essential link for indigenous peoples across the country and particularly in these regions. These trains date back to the 1950s in some cases; they require costly maintenance and lack the accessibility and comfort expected by modern travellers. Those cars and locomotives continue to operate thanks to VIA’s resourceful maintenance teams who keep them in service.

The long-distance and regional trains need to be retired and replaced. And soon.

It’s important to understand that it takes about a decade to procure this kind of equipment. If we don’t start this process right away, there is a real risk that there will be an impact on the level of service we offer across Canada. That would be a lost opportunity.

And it would be a terrible blow to some communities who rely on passenger rail service. In short, the need is urgent and the time to start replacing our long-distance and regional trains is now.

VIA Rail has a plan and we have delivered a vision to the government that outlines what we can do with new trains. We call it “Renewing the National Dream”, a build-up on the original dream to unite the entire nation in the late 1800s.

Fleet renewal across Canada offers much more than preservation of service. We believe it will be a catalyst for a new golden age of rail travel in this country, one that spurs economic growth throughout the nation. A new fleet will support equity by serving most regions of Canada and reaching up to 72 percent of the population, all while dramatically improving accessibility.

The train services operating across the country will be a renewed symbol of national pride. New trains for all of Canada will allow VIA Rail to build on its vision to link communities, to foster broad-based economic growth in the regions we serve and to promote reconciliation with Canada’s indigenous peoples.