Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Beautiful scenery, comfort, great service, great food |
| Disadvantages: |
Some delays |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
My boyfriend and I went to Canada in the summer and as he is a bit of a train addict (I know - I wonder why as well) we decided to see Canada by rail. This review will be partly about the service etc you can expect from Via and partly about our specific journeys with the company. Just to warn, this is a long review, but I hope it's helpful. Oh and just for reference its pronounced vee-a
WHAT IS VIA?
Via Rail is Canada's national passenger
train company. It runs trains through most of Canada's regions except Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Labrador.
FARES AND SERVICES:
There are two classes on Via trains, Comfort Class (economy) and Via 1/sleeper/silver and blue (1st class - name depends on the particular train). For shorter journeys I would definitely say that paying extra for first class is not worth it (see later in review). However, if you're spending the night on the train, try to upgrade to sleeper if you can - you will be so grateful by the time you reach your destination!!
There are obviously lots of different fares for various different routes. I'll use some examples for some of the routes we travelled. All prices are in Canadian dollars.
A single from Montreal to Toronto costs around $110 in comfort class.
The main part of our journey was on the Canadian, train number 001. This train runs from Toronto through to Vancouver with various stops along the way. If you go all the way it costs around $490 off peak (22nd Oct - 31st May) and around $650 for peak time (1st Jun - 21st Oct) for Comfort Class. For Sleeper Class (Silver and Blue on the Canadian) it costs around $840 for a berth and $1270 for a room off peak. At peak time this rises to around $1120 for a berth and $1689 for a room.
Via does offer various discounts, including student, senior, child and early booking.
When we went we decided that we would get a rail pass. We ended up getting a North American Rail Pass (NARP) which covered any train on Via Rail and Amtrak. This worked out to be a fantastic deal. The NARP gives you 30 days unlimited rail travel on any Via or Amtrak train. It costs $1149 at peak time and $815 off peak. As two students we paid $1034 and this applies to seniors and children as well. To get this fare as a student you do need an international student card (ISIC) - they will not take a NUS card.
If you just want to travel within Canada you can buy a rail pass just for Via which costs $827 at peak time and $523 off peak. However this only lets you travel on 12 days within a 30 day period.
The rail passes only cover comfort class. I was not exactly relishing the thought of spending 3 days on a train from Toronto to Jasper sitting during the day and at night. My Dad (bless him) said he would pay for us to upgrade for any parts of the trip where we had to sleep on board the train. The upgrade fare for the Canadian (a total of 3 nights) was $1159 for both of us (student rate). This was for a berth although we were later put into two single bedrooms for no extra cost. So in total we paid $1613 each for all our travel. When you consider that the fare for the Canadian on its own would have been $1120 each on its own - we thought that this was an absolute bargain.
As a note - this can be a bit of a risk because you can only book an upgrade 21 days before you travel but definitely worth it.
As well as giving us a bed our upgrade also gave us all our food inclusive - more about this later - but wow!
The trains in Canada are not frequent. In fact the amount of trains compared to over here is pretty bad. The Canadian goes three times a week from Toronto (and from Vancouver back the other way). Trains go every day between Montreal and Ottawa, Ottawa and Toronto and Toronto and Niagara Falls. You need to make sure that you print all the schedules off the Via website so that you can plan your time around these. Turning up at the station is not an option really as there may not be a train for another two days!
BEFORE WE LEFT THE UK:
My boyfriend booked the passes online through the Via website, rather than going through a third party in the UK. We were then contacted by Via via (lol!) e-mail. A lovely lady called Stella told us all the information that she needed (passport numbers, student numbers) and then proceeded to book us tickets on the one Via train and the one Amtrak train that we needed to secure the passes. She was very helpful and continued to help us with any questions that we had. From this experience I would have to say that Via's customer service, as far as their sales department was concerned, was fantastic.
THE JOURNEYS:
Our first experience of Via rail was travelling from Montreal to Ottawa. We went Comfort Class for this part of the journey. We had prebooked our ticket for this before we left the UK. When we got to the station in Montreal we went to the Via desk to collect and pay for our passes. This should have been a fairly quick process but the other half had forgotten to ring his bank to say he was going abroad and they put a stop on his card when they saw the amount he was trying to put through. Huge fuss about ringing the bank and eventually putting it on my card but the man behind the desk could not have been more helpful, phoning the bank etc.
Via trains and Canadian stations work slightly differently to over here. Instead of hanging around on the platform waiting for the train, you have to queue up in the main station hall, then go through one by one, down escalators to the train.
So we were off, other half very excited about being on the train - I humour him. There was nothing magical about this part of the journey; it just felt like a normal train ride. However, I will say that the seats are so much more comfortable than economy class in the UK. They recline and have their own little table.
Being students we did not purchase any food from the on-board service, which is normally very over-priced, so I can't comment on this. We took our own food on board and this did us just fine.
Our next journeys with Via were Ottawa to Toronto and Toronto to Niagara Falls return. These were again fairly standard trips, with great service and comfortable seats.
THE MAIN EVENT:
For us the main event was the trip across Canada. After an early start, which involved packing the essentials for three days into a smaller suitcase, we headed off to Toronto station. When we arrived we took our suitcases to the check in desk and deposited them - a huge relief after lugging them across the city to get there. We then headed to the Silver and Blue Lounge, which we had access to because of the upgrade on this part of the route. Here you could help yourself to a newspaper and various drinks and snacks. It was not a huge lounge but it was certainly better than queuing up for an hour to get onto the train.
We then headed on board. We were directed to our carriage and from there our bedrooms. We had been booked into two berths but were upgraded to two single rooms at no extra cost because they needed the extra berths. Our rooms were, well, tiny! I mean really tiny! There was a sink in the corner, with a toilet next to it. There was then a seat opposite the toilet, built in. Where is the bed I hear you ask? Well it's in the wall. You pull the handle and as if by magic it descends from above the seat. It then clips down. All very neat and compact, and everything you need. Only problem that I could foresee was that the bed covered the toilet, so if you woke in the night with that nagging feeling, you have to get out of bed, unclip it, push it into the wall and then put it all back down again when you've finished. All in all quite a fuss but not a huge problem.
When we got to our rooms we found a little welcome pack which consisted of a towel, shampoo, conditioner and soap. Nothing fancy but a nice touch. Then our cabin attendant, Shannon, came to see us. She told us that how to put our beds down, where to find everything. I know that they're paid to be friendly but Shannon, and the other staff that we met, we all really nice, without too much of that fake 'Have a nice day now' attitude you get in the States.
Having got rid of our bags in the cabin we went exploring. There is no lock on the outside of the cabin door so take your valuables with you. We headed up through the dining car, and the entertainment car, to the dome car. This car has to be the iconic image of Via. The car is on two levels, the lower with a small seating area with large windows, and the upper level having the roof made almost entirely of glass. The views from here were spectacular. However, because it has the best view, it is very popular and you really need to get there early to bag a seat. Some people left their things on the seats while they were having lunch or dinner, which really irritated me as there were nearly always people on the lower level, waiting to go up.
We managed to bag a seat in the dome straight away, which was great, we could see everything as we pulled out of Toronto and said goodbye to the CN Tower. We were then presented with champagne and some nibbles to welcome us on board - I could get used to this! These we brought round by Kevin, our barman, who was always around. He brought the drinks (alcohol was not included in the price) and ran the entertainment car. He was great and would spend his time chatting to us quite happily - again that feeling of friendliness without the 'over the topness' you can get in the States.
In the entertainment car you could help yourself to tea, coffee and orange juice as well as biscuits and fruit. In the morning there were muffins and yoghurts for those people who did not want to go to the dining car for breakfast.
Then about four hours out of Toronto, BANG. Everyone felt the train jolt, and then come to an emergency stop. We all looked around, confused. For a little while there was no explanation. Then we heard someone over Kevin's walkie talkie say that we had hit a car - bloody hell we thought. A couple of minutes later there came an announcement over the tannoy asking for a doctor. Unfortunately it was too late; the car's driver had basically been killed on impact. He had apparently tried to beat the train, ie crossed the crossing before the train got there. The level crossing had lights but no barrier. Thankfully, Kevin said it was very rare.
We all felt pretty horrible about this, but it should not be in any way a deterrent from taking the train across Canada - yes it was tragic but it was dealt with well by the staff. However, we had to wait for about four hours while Via investigated the crash so we had a huge delay. This only got worse, as we were already late, and a lot of Canada only has single tracks, we spent a lot of time waiting in sidings. By the time we got to Jasper we were over eight hours late - not great. It did mean that we got an extra meal on the train which was good as the food was great.
FOOD
So onto the food. Breakfast was run on a first come, first serve basis, as was lunch on the first day. However, normally you have to make a reservation for first, second or third sitting, which was for lunch and dinner. We always tried to take second sitting, which was at the most civilised time, around 12.30 for lunch and 7 for dinner.
I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the food on the train. There were a couple of dining cars, each with its own kitchen. The kitchens were absolutely tiny and the amount of cooking that went on in them amazed me. For breakfast we had juice or cereal to start and then a choice of four hot options. These included eggs benedict (yummy), French toast and full cooked. There was also continental breakfast for those who preferred that. For lunch there was a choice of three meat and one veggie dish. The ones we had included beef burger and quiche. Dinner was soup and salad and then again three meat and one veggie meal. This was followed by desert or cheese and biscuits. Some of the dinners that we had were beef, stuffed chicken breast and bison (other half had this but I tasted it and it was very nice). Drinks (apart from juice with breakfast and water) were not included. We were given a free glass of wine each by our restaurant manager (I changed mine to a lager which they were very happy to do) due to the delay. If you want to buy a drink the lagers were around $4 per can. Each table in the dining car seats 4 people and you are placed with different people every meal time. This is good as it means you chat with all the different people and you learn interesting things. Most of the people were a lot older than us (many people do this trip in retirement) but this was fine as they were all very chatty and we didn't miss having people our own age. Overall the food was a very high standard, especially when you consider the number of people and the size of the kitchen. We also went on Amtrak and the food on Via was far, far superior. On Amtrak the best you could hope for was a greasy burger. The service was also very good, with the staff being nothing but friendly.
SLEEPING
And so to bed. We headed off to our rooms and pulled down our beds, making sure that we used the 'facilities' first (no fuss in the middle of the night for me!). I got into the bed and it was actually quite comfortable. With earplugs at the ready I settled in and prepared for what I thought would be quite a restless night. I actually slept a lot better than I thought I would. It was not as restful as in a bed that wasn't rocking, but in the morning I did feel fairly refreshed. The next night was even better. We also had the experience of sleeping in the berths which was just as comfortable and I would say that it really isn't worth paying the extra for the door (unless you really value your privacy). Obviously when you have a berth you have to share a loo, but at least this means you don't have to undo the bed to have a wee!
THE VIEWS:
One of the main reasons for taking the train across Canada is to look out of the window and admire all that this beautiful country has to offer. When we started out we saw one of the Great Lakes out of Toronto. After a time we were in prairie country. We saw a lot of this because of the delay. You would normally not see as much as it would be night but we were there in the day because of the delay. We then went through the lakes. This part was spectacular. The lakes were so beautiful, you feel spoiled and there gets a point where you feel almost complacent (another lake, really I've seen twenty in the last hour, how different could it be). This is terrible to admit but for the most part we really appreciated what we were seeing. You then enter the Rockies. The train slows down and climbs up, winding round the mountains. The most disappointing thing on the train was that we did not see any animals - even when we were in the mountains. When travelling through the Rockies you see Mount Robson (the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies) and many rivers. Again this is breath-taking.
ENTERTAINMENT:
On the train there was an entertainment car. Here you could play games which were provided by Via. There were activities such as bingo, where you could win small prizes (and yes I use my key ring every day!). There were also quizzes. The activities depended on who was running the entertainment car (in our case Kevin - who was great). They also showed movies in the entertainment car.
OTHER POINTS:
Right, last couple of points. Everything on the train was bilingual (French and English) as per Canadian law. There was a shower in each sleeping carriage, and there was never a queue when we went so either we were really early or really late! This was small but adequate and had a tiny dry space by it so that you can change in there.
OVERALL OPINION:
I would recommend this trip to anyone who wants a trip of a lifetime. It was the most amazing holiday I have ever been on and the train played a big part in that. Canada itself was a great country and I really want to go back. Via provided us with great service, and absolutely delicious food. I thought that the price for the passes was quite reasonable and the upgrade was an added bonus. I would recommend an upgrade if you can afford the extra as the food was so good and having a bed really makes a difference. The views are second to none. It would be suitable for any age, there were plenty of people with kids/grandchildren on the train, along with a few our age (in early 20s) and older as well. Highly recommended and well worth doing. Made my summer!
Thanks for reading xx
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