Canadian Railroads > thinking of taking the ocean to Halifax

going to Montreal in June to visit relatives. planing to go to Halifax on the train never been on a overnight train in Canada before. plan on going  in a sleeper  with my wife. what kind of cars do thay use on this train . do thay run the old 10-6 sleepers like Amtrak did years ago ?. how Meany sleepers do thay run on this train ? thanks in advance . steamboat

VIA currently runs British-built “Renaissance” cars on the Ocean, with a Budd-built Park-series dome car on the rear.  They sell the former drawing room accommodation in that car as a “large cabin for two” on their website.  The Renaissance sleeper accommodations are listed as “cabin for two” and “cabin for two with shower”.  I highly recommend the trip!

Dave

The Ocean uses the ‘Renaissance’ equipment except when a set is pulled from service and a Budd set is substituted which happened for a month or so this winter.
Here’s a link to a ride on the Ocean last June….consist included 5 coached and 8 sleepers.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,4582882,4582882#msg-4582882

And a few more shots of a Renaissance Ocean

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Scroll to pages 25 to 30 in this brochure for the 'Ocean'...... Sleeper floor plan is on page 29 "Sleeper Plus Class - Cabin for Two"

https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/111139179-1-Sales-tools_Anglais_WEB.pdf



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/19 04:12 by ghCBNS.

I also highly recommend the trip. The Renaissance cabins are a bit tight for two people, but they are actually only a few inches smaller than the standard North American bedrooms. The sink/toilet annex is bigger, though. You can actually turn around in them. The ones with the shower are even bigger. VIA no longer charges more for the cabins with shower. VIA charges a mere 15% more for single occupancy of the double cabins. My wife and I always take two cabins - money well spent.

Since VIA started selling the suite and drawing room in the Park car several years ago they had not raised the fare for that accommodation. The fare was the same year-round and these rooms are never available at a "discounted" fare so VIA Preference coupons could not be used. Seniors and corporate discounts are available, however. The fare for these rooms  has recently increased by 25%. My wife and I booked the suite (twin cabins for 2) a few months ago, but I wouldn't do it again. It was spacious, of course, but it was noisy - with rattles, squeaking, groaning and being the last car on the train it was a rough ride. The drawing room (large cabin for 2) that we took two years ago was not as noisy. If a Chateau sleeper is being operated as a crew car ahead of the Park car (usually only in peak seasons), a shower is available there. Our return was in the smooth-riding and quiet Ren. cabins. They do not open up into a suite as with North American equipment, but there are many pluses.

The food, although not cooked on board, is usually quite good. Meals are not served airline style as you can see from the excellent photos posted by ghCBNS. The food is slowly reheated and plated in the galley. 

VIA has a 20% sleeper discount on until April 7th, for travel between April 12th and Sept.7th.  When booking or checking fares use discount code "VIA 20".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/19 08:32 by DrawingroomA.

So the Renaissance fleet is not holding up well from a maintenance persepctive - I guess this is largely an exterior/under-carriage issue, as the interiors still look pretty good! Even the last time I rode aboard them, the interiors of the Renaissance sleepers were holding up better than the Amtrak's Viewliner Sleeper interiors. 

Besides losing the loop track in Halifax, is there anyway of keeping just the Renaissance sleepers in service - for the Ocean? Are the under-carriages erroding away that bad? No possible repair? Perhaps they can shrink the Renaissance fleet to just sleepers, service cars, diners, and transition cars? In other words - ditch the coaches that get more harder wear and tear? These sleepers even look so much more modern than anything VIA or Amtrak has. It's not like the Viewliner Sleepers have been maintenance free....... Water pipes froze up regularly until more insulation was added and they even had to rotate the Cardinal and Lake Shore consist to Florida to thaw it out in severe winter........

No question the food looks great and dining car - just a sleeper shell - also looks good. Put some linens out and find a good food purveryor and magic can happen!!!!

I would hate for the Ocean to be cutback to Moncton or lose its Renaissance sleepers to Budd sleepers, as the later will directly affect sleeper supply for the Canadian. As mentioned in another post, the Ocean even operates with eight sleepers - that's 80 rooms each with double berths, so 160 berths available for sale. Compared to Amtrak's three Viewliner Sleepers that would be the max number of sleepers in a given consist, that's 90 berths. Even at three days a week, that's a pretty descent amount of sleepers and sleeper revenue being carried by the Ocean, as compared to ANYTHING Amtrak . And Via houses the crew in a separate Chateau sleeper. VIA has indicated that they may have to assign the Budd sleepers to the Ocean once again, but it would be a reduced amount, thus driving up demand and potentially driving up the revenue in the process (classic economics). But VIA is still forecasting that this would lead to less sleeper revenue.