Canadian Railroads > Levis Station and Ferry

Until 1998...Levis was the stop on the south shore of the St. Lawrence for the Halifax-Montreal trains and the short ferry ride was shown in CN timetables as a connection over to Quebec City. Today the old right-of-way along the river is a walking/biking trail and the trains now run through Joffre Yard several miles south. Here's the westbound Scotian from Halifax back in the '70s...and that same view today from the ferry. The old station building and canopy have been restored.

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And the view from the ferry of the Fortification of the Walled City and the iconic Canadian Pacific Chateau Frontenac Hotel......now a Fairmont (and not it's usual photogenic self with the scaffolding covering the face during a major renovation)

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The Scotian is being fuelled after a particularly nasty run through a snow storm up the St. Lawrence Valley from Riviere-du-Loup. (ferry dock in the background)......and on a more pleasant but very cold day.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/20 01:11 by ghCBNS.

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Terrific post! Those FPA's covered in snow is spectacular! I never even thought to visit that station; I now regret it!  I'm glad thay restored the station and canopy. Sometimes they get it right.

Brian N.

briancdn Wrote:
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> Terrific post! Those FPA's covered in snow is
> spectacular!...….

Thanks...and here's those same FPA's at Riviere-du-Loup just 3 hrs earlier. The fight didn't start until we got down to the flat plains along the river valley.

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Entering Montreal by ferry from Levis was one of the world's great approaches.

Right up there, in my mind, with coming out the front doors of Venice's Sta Lucia and facing the Grand Canal

Classic engines !!!
Timeless pictures of and era gone by.
I'm happy I got to ride these trains in the "Gaspe "section of these trains but didn't have the sense to take pictures.
I do have the memories... :):):)
Thank you so much for sharing the timeless pictures !!! :):):)

Classy way to arrive and leave QC. Now it is a bus schlep to Ste Foy. 

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Entering Montreal by ferry from Levis was one of
> the world's great approaches.
>
Also a very long approach 😀.  I know, you mean Quebec City.  

My first rail rail trip into Canada was in 1981 with my future wife, which included drinks at the Frontenac, followed by a stroll (stumble?) down to the port to catch the ferrry to Levis, and the Ocean to Halifax.  After biking to Yarmouth, we experienced another of those great approaches, seeing Mt. Desert Island rising above the horizon from the deck of the Marine Atlantic MV Bluenose on a crystal clear October day.

Dave

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Entering Montreal by ferry from Levis was one of the world's great approaches.

And a rather long one, at that.  
 

Thanks for sharing your visit. Classic CN style trains.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Entering Montreal by ferry from Levis was one of
> the world's great approaches.
>
> Right up there, in my mind, with coming out the
> front doors of Venice's Sta Lucia and facing the
> Grand Canal

It's long gone now, of course, but I'm reminded of the grand ferry approach to San Francisco from Oakland Pier.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> one of the world's great approaches.

Another good one is when you come out of the east portal of Yosemite Tunnel on Wiwona Road and you see Yosemite Valley spread out before you.  There's a visitor overlook there.    

Another ferry with excellent cityscape views is the one that links North Vancouver, BC with Vancouver.  Reasonably priced, too.  
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/20 12:35 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
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> > Entering Montreal by ferry from Levis was one
> of the world's great approaches.
>
> And a rather long one, at that.  
>

Yes

VIA appears to be a lot like Amtrak.  They go where they're kicked.  They should have preserved that line.  It used to be a nice station on a direct route.  Now the OCEAN makes a time consuming over-the-bridge-and-back move to Ste. Foy. 

It's all part of the "death by a thousand cuts".

Why can't rail operations live peacefully alongside areas that want to be re-purposed into trendy "Yuppie-villes"?  VIA could have used a small portion of the station and the rest of it could have been repurposed into art galleries, yoga studios and coffee boutiques.    

Years ago I was in the dome on the Ocean when it stopped in Levis.  I overheard a conversation between two ladies with American accents
"This must be the place where they make those jeans."
"Which ones?"
"You know - Lee-vize!"

To be fair, some of them are made in Canada, or were at one time. If you go through a pile of a given size, every one of them comes from a different county, and they are all different sizes regardless of the label.