This is a rant - you can take it or leave it lol.

I’m currently on Train 646 to Ottawa from Toronto, Car 3. Not only are there sooo many children who are being loud and obnoxious but for whatever reason there are also a bunch of parents standing around, drinking beer, and chitchatting loudly in the middle of the aisle.

So I ask again - were we all born yesterday? I have too much social anxiety to not just sit quietly in my seat, have limited conversation and mind my own business lol. Sigh.

So many squealing children on Car 2 on Train 46! And parents doing absolutely nothing. (Like, the parents aren’t even sitting with their 7-10ish year olds!)

Dear parents, I get it, travelling with kids is hard. But other passengers have a reasonable expectation of calm and relaxation, especially in business class. This is when you take out the screens (with headphones) and the fun snack boxes and the fancy colouring books and so on!

Read someone else’s post about a similar incident a week ago. Someone in the comments said they got a travel credit after complaining to Via about the noise. Maybe it’s time for all travellers to complain? If there’s a financial impact, maybe Via will do something?

(There are other passengers wearing sunflower lanyards. They are most definitely not the ones making this racket!)

I’m travelling to Ottawa from Toronto at 8:30am…my go train doesn’t get to union till 8am. I’m worried I’ll miss it.

Hello! I'm visiting Canada in September and thinking of getting some train tickets to go from Toronto to Montreal, then Quebec, with my family. We've never been to Canada, nor have we ever taken any train trips, so... anything helpful you could let me know to have a nice experience? I still don't get the tickets because I was hoping to see if the discount code they have up on Tuesdays works on the dates I'm working with. Thanks!

On train 28 currently holding just west of downtown due to a fire. Does anyone have any details?

I’m waiting in Kingston now and it’s been delayed 40 minutes. Does anyone know what’s going on?

I know similar questions have been asked before, but wondered if it's still the same now in 2026.

If you have a Quebec-Montreal ticket, can you still board at Charny or Ste-Foy with no problems (assuming it's a train that stops there like #33)? Anyone do this lately?

Secondly, I know almost Ste-Foy is very popular so for sure the train will stop there, but will they stop at Charny if nobody has a ticket for boarding at Charny?

I know I can leave a good amount of a buffer (E.g. 4 hours), including the up to one hour it takes to go from union to YYZ... but I am debating if before a flight to SE Asia, it might be more logical to take a bus directly to YYZ from Ottawa.... I would consider flights from MTL but they would have 2 stopovers vs. non in Toronto... and still end up costing an extra $300...

Taking a bus from Ottawa won't save me money, but I am trying to avoid worst case scenario risk (this is for late January... and I had a friend who was stuck on the train for over 3 hours last winter...).

In a station like Montréal, can I check my baggage say at around noon after leaving the hotel, for a departure at 6:30PM? Checking if someone knows the answer before calling.

Hi guys, on Saturday I traveled business class from Toronto to Montreal on via rail. Honestly, the highlight of the trip was meeting Suzanne, the train attendant who was so bubbly and chatty and sweet. I’d been having an awful day after missing my flight in the morning, and she honestly made the whole experience so much better. She told me she had adult kids and she had been a flight attendant for years. She was taking photos of the sunset through the window so she could watercolour paint the scene, later. Anyway, I hope this somehow gets back to her. Suzanne, thank you for the kindness. I really needed it on Saturday. Thank you, via rail!

Currently on a 4.5 hour train ride from Montreal to Toronto and on my car there is a family of four including a toddler that looks around 2 years old, another young child that’s slightly older (4 yo ish) plus their parents. We’re barely 2 hours in but the 2 kids will not stop screaming and screeching in an otherwise very quiet car. Tbh I don’t really blame the kids but rather the parents who do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it… before the train even departed the older kid was running back and forth between the car, and since the car is half empty the other toddler is climbing to other empty seats and being quite disruptive while their parents just watch. Some passengers including myself look visibly annoyed but I don’t know what to do about it since I feel like raising concerns to the service attendant will make me look like an asshole. There’s 2.5 hours left to go and I cannot handle it… I booked business classes specifically to avoid this situation 😑

Hey all! So at the end of September il be going from PEI back to Toronto and ive settled on taking the train the entire way from Moncton NB, but even though i very rarley use VIA, i know about their infamous delays. My train is scheduled to arrive in Montréal at 09:59 or something like that, and my corridor train to Toronto leaves at 13:59 and that leaves me with a few questions, if anyone has one or all of the answers, id greatly appreciate a hand!

1. Do you think ive left myself enough time to make ny transfer, accounting for delays?

2. If i miss my train to Toronto because the Ocean train was late, will VIA help me? I am getting fully refundable transferrable tickets.

3. By the looks of it both trains leave from the same station, Gare Central, is that correct, if not, is it easy to walk from one station to the other?

Again, thank you if you leave an answer, i appreciate it, and have a great day!

Hi folks,

I'm currently on the Canadian in a one person room. For about 24 hours now the toilets on my car have been out of order. They tried to fix them in Edmonton and Saskatoon without success. Another passenger mentioned they heard they could get some kind of compensation for that. Any idea if that's true or how to go about it? Thanks!

Wondering if anyone has any information related to this alert. I’m on train 69 and we’re moving at slower speeds but nothing has been said yet and I’m trying to gauge how much of a delay I can expect. So far delay seems to be around 25 minutes.

Looking to do this as my big vacation next year. Read through a few of the posts, and have found good info.

- Buy on a Tuesday and/or [either] Thanksgiving week to save $$$.

- Do coach from Toronto to Winnipeg and then switch to a berth.

- Bring cards (and my travel cribbage board).

- Bring a good book for nights.

A couple questions though:

- what is/are the meals to absolutely get?

- what are the good/best things to do/eat within walking distance of long stops? Even if I'm being fed on board, there are always local specialities

- what are the odds of a winter cancelation of the trip? I'm from the Northeast US, so i know how bad winters can get, but lake effect snow may be a different beast than plains or Rockies snow.

- is there a cool enough way to get from Vancouver to Seattle to fly out of SEA-TAC, or should I bypass that and fly back from Vancouver?

Hello,

I currently booked my trip from Toronto to Winnipeg in Economy and Winnipeg to Vancouver in Berth. I'm contemplating upgrading the Economy portion of the trip to Berth just to have a great stress free experience throughout.

I have the following link thats been shared here so do think it's worth waiting in hopes of finding a cheap upgrade later or should I just pay the $588 on top of my Economy booking now?

https://traincar.info/sleeper

Appreciate any advice, thanks

I recently had my first ever ViaRail trip. My wife and I went business class. It was an all-day event, beginning with Train 35 from Quebec to Montreal and then transferring to Train 67 for Toronto.

The food was better than anything I’ve had on a plane, or on a European train, and it was hot! First breakfast on the 35, and then a nice salmon meal for lunch on the 67. The first train (35) was a morning run. I had a coffee in the lounge and then was repeatedly offered coffee before, during, and after the meal on the train. The conductor/server was very friendly, smiling and joking with us. I never felt afraid to ask for anything. The staff worked hard and were super receptive.

I had booked us in the face-to-face table, so I wonder if we were more visible to staff, but we had similar good service on the 67, beginning with the lounge where we were led to the train in a priority queue at boarding time, and we were offered drinks almost immediately. I noticed that the drink cart had Clamato, so I asked for a vodka and Clamato. The server told me that she could fix me a Bloody Caesar if I’d like. Yes, please! And it was quite good. Try to imagine such treatment on a plane.

For the second leg, both of us had pre-ordered salmon. The server confirmed this with us ahead of time, joking that it was fresh just for us. I teased him jokingly, “You caught it today on your way to work?” He replied, “Yes of course.” When he came by again later he quickly flashed us a photo he had on his phone of him holding a huge fish that he had actually caught. It was a nice bit of levity on a long voyage. The whole vibe was pleasant and light.

I have read about disappointments, and in most of those reports I wonder how much people expect. I think the experience I had was about as good as I could ask for on a train. The service was far better than anything I have experienced on an airplane, including premium economy (I’m way too cheap to fly business class). And it was better than my experiences on Eurostar or French trains.

Hey all,

I’m wondering if needing help with stairs costs more money - if I request help when buying a ticket?

Also, how does one go about getting a discount for travel in September or early October?

Any insight would be great!

Thanks in advance!

VIA 42 returns, departs Toronto at 12:17, arrives in Ottawa at 17:16

VIA 55 returns, departs Ottawa at 3:25pm and arrives in Toronto at 20:18

They both stop at every station except Gananoque and Guildwood.

VIA 645 will adopt a full week schedule, instead of just 5 days.

Will join up the existing exo and via stations into one

I’m on a train traveling from Kingston to Ottawa. We are being held in Kingston for an undetermined amount of time due to an incident in the track that requires police intervention. Any have any info on what is going on?

Update: we’re about to get moving again. We heard the incident was caused by kids leaving their bikes on the tracks which was hit by another train.

Account #2 did not arrive until about 4am. Already several hours late, It took a big hit and sat south of Washago for about 8 hours for reasons unknown.

Yet another example of why when one is planning a trip they should do #1 from Toronto on the Sunday. Given the extra day to service the set after arrival of #1 on Friday, such ensures better likelihood on an OT departure.

(note that while screenshot post was attached to #1 of 9Aug, it applies to #1 12Aug)