Canadian Railroads > Consist of mixed Budd/Renaissance Ocean

Further to my comments regarding the mixed “HEP/Renaissance” Ocean,  Reservia is now showing our September trip as having this equipment. This didn’t surprise me as I had counted forward on the calendar and it appeared this would be the case.
 
My wife and I and another couple had booked single occupancy of Ren. cabins with shower and I was curious as to what would happen to us. One of the ticket clerks at Toronto Union I have known for decades showed me information on his screen which, of course, is not available to passengers on our computers.  It was indicated that those occupying Ren. cabins for single occupancy would be switched to cabins for 1 (I still call them roomettes) with a refund of the single supplement.  We all agreed we would cancel and re-book for another day rather than accept this. But I was assured all efforts would be made to get us acceptable alternate accommodations on our date.
 
Because of the shortage of cabins for 2 in Château sleepers, it is inevitable that most people booked for single occupancy of a Ren. cabin for 2 will not get what they booked.  I had a look at the entire revised consist. The dining car was not shown, but it is expected to be the three-car set of service car/dining car/service car.  With my addition of this and the required transition cars, the revised consist for #14 on 15 Sept. is:
 
HEP-1 baggage car
3 HEP-1 coaches
transition car
service car
dining car
service car
Ren. sleeper with accessible suite (line #30)
Ren. sleeper (#31)
transition car
7 Château sleepers (#33 to 39)
Park car (#40)
 
The other consist of nine Renaissance sleepers has 89 cabins for 2. Even if there is a crew sleeper, some of those cabins will be occupied by crew, but that is still a lot of double cabins. The mixed consist will have 19 cabins for 2 in the two remaining Ren. sleepers and 21 in the Château sleepers.  It is obvious a lot of people are going to be getting different accommodations than they expected. Our sleeper was #34 and it was not possible to be switched to cabins in the two Ren. sleepers.
 
I was pleased to receive a phone call from a VIA agent whose responsibility is to re-accommodate passengers on every-second train all summer.  She noticed that there were two passengers with the same last name occupying adjacent cabins and suggested we might be comfortable in a “cabin for 3”  (drawing room) as opposed to two roomettes. Needless to say this was most agreeable to us. It has been about four years since “Mr. and Mrs. DrawingroomA” have occupied a drawing room A.  Another couple we are travelling with received the same offer.

As of early this morning Reservia was still showing that all berths and cabin types in both types of sleepers were available, except for the Park car. This is not true because a VIA agent told me that all cabins for 2, in the Ren. and Château sleepers, are booked as are all drawing rooms.

 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/19 11:46 by DrawingroomA.

I don't do sleepers, too expensive. But nice to see HEP-I coaches. I will not again ride a REN coach overnight. Been there/did that on the Enterprise.

Curious, is there a set running with all Budd equipment or are all the consists mixed Ren/Budd?

rwullich Wrote:
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> Curious, is there a set running with all Budd
> equipment or are all the consists mixed Ren/Budd?

If Reservia is correct, the second consist is all-Budd until the end of this month. The mixed consist starts in June.  I have been told that will run until the end of Sept. although it has not yet been updated in the computer.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I don't do sleepers, too expensive. But nice to
> see HEP-I coaches. I will not again ride a REN
> coach overnight. Been there/did that on the
> Enterprise.

There is no doubt the seats in the HEP-1 cars are more comfortable, but there are many passengers who travel by themselves who are fond of the single seat option in Renaissance. I don't travel overnight in coaches any more, but I have had a few day trips recently in the HEP-1 coaches. I noticed there isn't an arm-rest between the two seats. The Ren. coaches have a very wide arm-rest between the double seats.

This looks like it is going to be a mess....... but ok!

Obviously VIA took a stance that it was not repairing the Renaissance set that was damaged a month or so ago by debris on the track. 

Moreover, it appears that when VIA went down to tri-weekly service for the Ocean, they just prepped the third Renaissance trainset that had been of the Ocean for storage.

So now down to one trainset and a bunch of Chateau sleepers had to be rounded up from the Canadian........which although went down to twice a week scheduling, could likely have used those Chateau cars as there are days in October with cabins for 2 already booked up. 

Not sure if retiring the Renaissance sleepers, at least, is the best solution for VIA, but guess there’s not anything else they can do?