Canadian Railroads > VIA Schedules?

Hello all-

I'm plannning a train trip across Canada and to Churchill in late Oct/early Nov, and when I went to the VIA website today it says that "Printed timetables are currently being revised and are not available at the moment. Please use the tool above to check train schedules."  I prefer to use actual timetables, rather than the origin-and-destination search tool provided, to plan train trips.  Does anyone know when VIA may have their timetables back online?

Thanks much!

Stan Hunter
Davis, CA

Suggest you go to viarail.ca then Plan Your Trip, and then click on Schedules.  This should bring up current schedules and you can check there after June 1 for changes.  I presume the changes will be there by then.

Have a great trip.  I will be doing my 20th Churchill trip in mid October. Great fun as, of course, are Trains 1 - 2.

Printed VIA timetables are as rare as hen's teeth.

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
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> Printed VIA timetables are as rare as hen's
> teeth.
>
> KG

It depends where you are looking for them.  Lately there have been very few in Toronto, but London has had lots of them and they aren't hidden behind the counter.  Vancouver and Halifax have also been generous.  I expect the printed timetable that should be issued June 1st will be late coming out.  Changes are still being made (I received an e-mail a few days ago about a change) and the timetable most likely won't go to the printers until the on-line version is available.

There’s a big VIA schedule change coming on June 1 so the current PDFs have been removed from the web page. Check back then or shortly afterwards and you’ll probably be able to download and print your required schedule. The new timetables should be available at stations too as I’ve heard nothing about paper ones being discontinued like the Amtrak System Timetable.

I realize some people have to have a paper copy but in the meantime just use the schedule search tool on the VIA site as this along with the Apps VIA has available probably work just fine for 90% of people requiring schedule information.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/16 14:39 by ghCBNS.

kgmontreal Wrote:
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> Printed VIA timetables are as rare as hen's
> teeth.
>
> KG

I always have at least one copy of VIA's most up to date TT.  Never had a problem finding them.  They are perhaps a little slow after a change to be available though.

I know of 2 schedule changes, because I have reservations, though have not been notified of anything changing:

Train 24 Montreal to Quebec City will depart Montreal 15 minutes earlier at 12:45pm, and arrive QC at 4:26, 6 minutes later. That is quite a stretch.
Train 27 Quebec City to Montreal will arrive Montreal 2 minutes earlier, but be renumbered to 39 as it will run through to Ottawa & Fallowfield

The westbound Ocean, train 15, will be leaving Halifax an hour later than usual, at 1300 after June 1st.  The arrival time in Montreal is about 40 minutes later than it has been.  Sounds like they're trying to move it farther away from the morning rush hour rather than really speed things up.  The track through northern New Brunswick is still only 30 mph for long stretches.  Not sure yet what, if anything, has changed for the eastbound schedule.

​GTD

The new schedules effective June 1 have been uploaded to VIAs Web Page:

http://www.viarail.ca/en

Under ‘Plan Your Trip’ click ‘Schedules’ and the new PDFs are all listed under ‘Printable Timetables’

Westbound Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa schedule is stil not there.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Westbound Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa schedule is stil
> not there.

It is there, but it is mislabelled.  The first timetable under "Corridor" says "Ottawa-Montreal-Sainte-Foy-Quebec" but it is actually westbound.  Here is the timetable.

http://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/schedules/june2016/06-07_Quebec-SainteFoy-Montreal-Ottawa.pdf

If you want Ottawa-Montreal-Sainte-Foy-Quebec you have to click the second listing which is also mislabelled. It doesn't even mention Quebec. This is the eastbound schedule.

http://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/schedules/june2016/08-09_Ottawa-Montreal-SainteFoy-Quebec.pdf

You can get the entire timetable here:

http://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/schedules/Biligual_Timetable.pdf

  It appears to be an on-line version of the printed timetable, assuming there will be a printed one with an issue date of June 1st.




 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/16 16:21 by DrawingroomA.

The old 1pm to QC, now to be 12:45pm, will be given 23 minutes just to get to St Lambert (10 minutes more), then 5 minutes more for Drummondsville-Charny. Sounds like a little mess with opposing train meets. Wonder if this is because of the 12:30pm AMT's St Hilaire train in the way ?

There will be some shuffling of LRC and REN train assignments. Thise seems to be all about thru running QC to Ottawa. My assigned seat on the 3pm from QC has changed equipment and train number. I hope they do not take away my window seat.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/16 08:03 by joemvcnj.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The old 1pm to QC, now to be 12:45pm, will be
> given 23 minutes just to get to St Lambert (10
> minutes more), then 5 minutes more for
> Drummondsville-Charny. Sounds like a little mess
> with opposing train meets. Wonder if this is
> because of the 12:30pm AMT's St Hilaire train in
> the way ?
>
> 

Odd as this portion is double track (or more) the entire way and sees many trains at the same time on a very regular basis.

I have a couple question regarding the train to/from Churchill. 

- I notice that one train just makes a round trip single frequency from the Pas to Churchill. This train carries the same consist as the trains heading to Winnipeg I would imagine (coaches, Diner, sleeper?), but how do the cars get cycled down to Winnipeg for servicing? 
- The other two frequencies make the whole distance (e.g. Winnipeg to Churchill). It's a shame to see how bad the timetables of the Churchill trains have become. I know that a Park Car often is added to the consist during peak season.......and now it is actually added to the website page (at least for the first half of the year) but isn't it added again like during September to November? Is VIA pretty good about posting this info? Taking the train to Churchill is on my "to do list" and I really want try to do the trip soon - perhaps even this year.
- Isn't there a period for Whale Watching, Polar Bear Season, and then the Northern Lights? Perhaps the later two are a combined season, not sure. 
- When is it best to take this train and have the Park Car in the consist? I just think the Park Car would add another car to actually go to and explore during the LONG journey to Churchill (e.g. At least we could wander between the sleeper, Diner, and Park Car?).
- During Peak Season - whenever that is - I believe they put a cook back in the diner right? This kinda goes with the question - when is peak season to get the "fresh meals" so to speak?
- Anyone have any suggestions for lodging in Churchill? I think the days of taking the train up and doing a tour of Churchill and then taking the train back to Winnipeg that evening is sort of gone.....as I heard the train can be late. I think it would just be a couple days in Churchill and then back to Winnipeg. 
- Do they operate more than one Chateau sleeper in peak season? For some reason I thought the train got a little more length in peak season. But I could be wrong (extra coach and extra sleeper). However an extra coach may be added at random anyway.

I can remember when this train's schedule was synched to be a connecting train to that of the Canadian. For example one could connect from the train from Toronto same day with the train that left for Churchill that evening at 8:00 pm. I recall that it was a pretty popular connection too. But not no more! Speeds on the line are lower as is padding in the schedule.  Does anyone know what ever happened to the "Northern Spirit [Sleeping Cars]" that were once part of this train? I thought they were hauled back to Toronto. They sort of were maintenance prone and froze up much more quickly than a Chateau sleeper. Not sure if they were leased or eventually purchased from Amtrak (they were former Amtrak 10-6 sleepers).

Hopefully soon I will be able to take a vacation and take this train to/from Churchill as part of it.

Thanks in advance for any info anyone can provide!!!!