JASPER, Alberta — VIA Rail Canada and Canadian National have again revised the 2019 schedule for the Canadian, with the goal of keeping sightseers and intermediate-stop travelers happy — a challenge given CN’s freight traffic and summer trackwork windows.
The new schedule will take effect on April 29, 2019, for the eastbound departure from Vancouver and two days later for the westbound train from Toronto.
A comparison with the current timings — implemented last July after delays of 12 hours became the norm and a pair of trips were cancelled because trains were running more than a day late — reveals major westbound changes and lengthening (see table).
Train No. 1 reverts to a morning departure out of Toronto to adjust what had been middle-of-the-night stops at Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Edmonton, Alta., under the changes announced last month. [See “VIA shuffles ‘Canadian’ schedule for summer of 2019,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 2, 2018.] In 2007, the Canadian departed Toronto at 9 a.m. and was due into Vancouver at 7:50 a.m., but the journey back then took three nights instead of four.
Freight congestion around Winnipeg and Edmonton continues to be a significant problem. On an October 2018 eastbound, accordion-like adventure, train No. 2 left Jasper on time; arrived into Edmonton almost five hours tardy; departed Melville, Sask., just over two hours late; but slunk into Winnipeg 6 hours, 25 minutes behind schedule at 1:25 a.m. after following CN freights. Yet significant padding helped it roll into Toronto a few minutes early two days later.
For sightseeing, the eastbound train, running directionally on Canadian Pacific, hits the Fraser River highlights east of Vancouver and manages to cover scenery in daylight on both sides of Jasper. Westbound trips will traverse the colorful lake region east of Winnipeg in daytime, but miss riverside and mountain scenery east of Jasper.
While VIA first began allowing the new schedules to be booked on Thursday at www.viarail.ca, expect further tweaks:
— The company inexplicably scheduled 12:01 a.m. departures after evening layovers westbound at Edmonton and eastbound at Winnipeg, which is guaranteed to cause confusion for anyone traveling to and from those two cities; a simple fix is to move the departure ahead to 11:59 p.m., so arrivals and departures are scheduled for the same calendar day.
— This schedule will not permit a Panorama dome to be added between Vancouver-Edmonton on every Canadian, unless the third such car VIA owns is pulled from its current, every-other-round-trip assignment between Jasper and Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
— It has not been possible to reserve a Prestige Class bedroom only between Vancouver and Jasper or Edmonton, and that is still the case on through Vancouver-Toronto trains. But it will be permitted on the short-turn Edmonton-Vancouver trains. The fare with taxes for the Vancouver-to-Jasper trip, one night with two meals, is $7,077 Canadian ($5,380 U.S.) — the same fare quoted on other days from Vancouver to Winnipeg (two nights, with four meals). However, booking from Edmonton to Vancouver (two nights, three meals), Prestige class costs “only” $5,443 Canadian ($4,138 U.S.). A steal! Two Prestige cars were booked solid on the October trip.
Anna Harding, You are permitted to bring any food you want (even MRE’s) onto their trains; tow stipulations: It cannot be consumed in any food service car (in sleeping car rooms, and even in coach is okay); and a traveler cannot make use of Amtrak’s microwaves to heat any food, nor use of their refrigeration units. Most of Amtrak’s long-distance trains still have full dining car service, as well as lounge (cafe) service; two LD trains have cafe service for coach passengers, and a “Contemporary Choices” limited dining menu for sleeping car passengers only: Trains 29/30 (Capitol Limited), and trains 48/448/49/449, the Lake Shore Limited. # 91/92, the Silver Star, has cafe service only. # 58/59, the City of New Orleans, has food service available, but I’m not sure if it’s cafe only, or a combined diner-cafe service.
And so Bob Johnston, now of course, I am sure I sat across from you in the Park Car dome many miles not realizing it was YOU! And the same sleeper, the 214 Of course, I too saw us pass #1 14 hours late. What I had to endure was a two hour wait to leave the train at Winnipeg when we stopped 5 miles from the Winnipeg station. As a long time TRAINS (1965) reader, I have read your good work many times. I should have done a better job of introducing myself! Of course, you were asleep when I departed the train at 1:25 AM.
Sorry Frank, CP will never allow VIA to use their route. Just too many of their freight trains on their main line even it means twin tracks. Its their main prime cross-Canada economic engine line. Sadly I`m afraid that the Canadian will have to be operated on its own without any government contribution. It will be more expensive and probably have to run once a week during off winter seasons only (winter season does not draw enough users). The Canadian usually depends on wealthy foreign tourists and more likely than ever if the Canadian survive.
VIa and CN don´t seem to be a good mix.
Does anyone have an idea how the situation is like on the CP line? To me it looks like CP is able to keep at least Amtrak trains close to schedule?
May be it´s an idea to route the Canadian from Saskatoon via Regina and Thunder Bay??
Mister Williams:
Thank you.
We’ll have to see. But when you are five feet high, five feet wide, covered with rank black hair, and have breath that can peel the chrome off a Chevy at a hundred paces (and that’s before the cigar smoke), perhaps the MREs are the best option after all…
My concern is that they would get bent out of shape about the flameless heaters in the MREs. Yes you and I know they are safe but…but…they get hot!…
On the other hand, what would I know? I’m just a housewife in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
Anna, George is right,although it may not be gourmet fare,the meals served on Amtrak’s western transcontinentals will suffice much better than MREs.
Anna, I don’t think that Amtrak will discriminate in regards to juvenile Sasquatches dining in the diner,as long as they have a valid ticket,that is.
MARK Thanks for your post. When it seemed that VIA couldn’t possibly get any worse, now we learn (from you) that Ottawa and Montreal passengers can’t connect to the WB Canadian. Repulsive was my previous opinion of VIA. Reading your post, repulsive would be a compliment. “By far the worst aspect” you post. Spot on.
Some trivia with regard to Paul’s comment about 11 hours for 400 miles from Edmonton to Saskatoon: Using mileage from an old CN timetable (which is about the same as today’s Canadian route, give or take), VIA train 2 averages 29.8 MPH between Vancouver and Toronto (2772 miles, 93 hours). Amtrak provides daily service between Vancouver and Toronto via Seattle, Chicago, and Buffalo/Depew and averages only 36.5 MPH (2997 miles, 82.1 hours, trains 513/8/48/63). But there is 17 hours of waiting time (or dwell) pretty much evenly distributed at each of the three connecting points, so if this is discarded, that ups the Amtrak speed to just over 46 MPH, and the trip on Amtrak could be less if a later Thruway bus is used from Vancouver to Seattle rather than the early morning Cascades train.
Only a fool now believes that the Canadian has any utility as public transportation anywhere along its route, especially with regard to its new, slower, semi-weekly schedule all east east of Edmonton. but by far the worst aspect of it is train 1’s 930 AM departure from Toronto which offers no connection from Montreal or (with regard to intercity trains) anywhere else except Kingston.
Train 1 will connect (630 AM to 1245 PM) with train 5 (the remnant of the Skeena) in Jasper on Wednesday and Friday with the new schedule, but I’m sure this is unplanned.
Anna – Perhaps this helps: https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/baggage-policy/baggage-prohibited-items.html
Save and on time travels!
Anna – I don’t think there are any restrictions on food you can carry with you for your own consumption. You might still be pleasantly surprised with what you encounter in the diner of one of the Chicago – West Coast trains. East of Chicago, not so pleasant. Minor aside – Your query made me think of an Atlantic Coast Line train that ACL added in its last years, for coach passengers making shorter trips out of New York to southern points – It was nominally the “Weekend Champion,” but everyone, including the local ACL agent I knew, called it “The Chicken Bone,” for obvious reasons.
Pardon the shouting but I would like to know the answer:
Does anyone know if bringing MREs (Meals-Ready-to-Eat) onto an Amtrak train, to be consumed in a compartment, is permitted?
From what I am hearing dining car service is minimal to non-existent and I cannot go without eating for three days (although it would probably do me good).
Thank you.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
In 1965, Canadian National Railway issued thick detailed system timetables when other railways had thinning timetables. Several fine long distance trains were listed with high sleeping car ratios in their consists. At the time, CNR was government owned and well subsidised.
I was afraid their passenger trains would suffer the same fate as American passenger trains. And, by the mid-1970’s they had when Via Rail Canada was formed.
I really do miss “The Super Continental” which was a far better train than “The Canadian” ever was under Canadian Pacific and now Via Rail Canada. “The Canadian” is priced out of the market for most travellers and unable to maintain its schedule.
The Super was probably the greatest Canadian transcontinental. Efficient, fast, and economic. CP’s Canadian was a bit too expensive from the get-go, and CP lost interest very quickly, unlike the CN.
PAUL Around October 1974, Passenger Train Journal ran a feature on what was left in Canada. It was, plus or minus, what we had in USA. It seems to me that Canada has contracted more under VIA than it contracted prior to VIA.
An 11 hour ride from Edmonton – Saskatoon?. It’s less than 400 miles! “Hi Folks, we are parked here at Irma for a few hours for freight traffic..if you look over to your left you can see where Jean Pare- author of ‘Company’s Coming Cookbooks’ grew up. ” 😉
Riding CNR’s old “Continental Limited” (Not the “Super Continental”) in January 1959 from Vancouver to Montreal, I recall that a coach passenger could buy from the conductor each evening an upper berth in the sleeper for only C$ 2.00. My, how times have changed !
I’m looking at a round trip transcontinental early next year to deal with family business. I would dearly love to ride The Canadian but at those prices they can keep it.
Amtrak, for all its problems (does anyone know if it is jake to bring MREs onto Amtrak if you are booking a compartment?) has better scheduling and better prices.
I’m just a poor, underpaid civil servant. I don’t know who Via Rail is trying to sell their product to, but it isn’t the likes of me.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
Will Fred Frailey will write a blog about this brilliant move it is and how wondrous the dispatchers are at CN?
CN is a clogged, congested railroad that has spent more on share borrowing money to finance buy-backs than on capital expenditures for replacement or new capacity. The consequences of this management strategy are quite obvious here.
Maybe it’s time to split the sightseeing from the travel and run two separate trains. The LRC equipment is going to be bumped from the Quebec City-Windsor corridor; rebuild what hasn’t been rebuilt already and move it west.
How is it even possible to make an intelligent comment about VIA Rail?