An Amtrak Regular Tries VIA Rail For The First Time
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2022
- In 1977, Canada decided to do what America did in 1971, and semi-nationalize their passenger rail. What resulted was VIA Rail, which still connects Canada today. How does Amtrak compare to its neighbor to the north? Join me today on a Corridor train from Aldershot to Toronto to find out!
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I do know that VIA is currently testing new Siemens equipment, running sets of Chargers (more of the Brightline spec) with Venture cars, and they should be in service next year. It's basically the stuff that Amtrak is getting over the next few years to replace their Amfleet cars.
I’m waiting for venture cars for the Amtrak San Joaquin corridor to be delivered, plus the cars don’t have to go far because they’re built in south Sacramento.
Siemens got the technology from bombardier of Canada
VIA Rail is like all the worst parts of air travel. At big stations, they line you up before boarding, they weigh luggage (apparently for workplace health and safety reasons), and do assigned seating.
Aldershot to Toronto is like one stop. If I evaluated all of Amtrak by riding Princeton Junction to Penn Station I'd probably think it was just fine.
Fair! I hope to take a long distance train at some point to get a fuller experience
@@ClassyWhale you are very likely to be delayed on the longer routes
0:54 Even though the Amtrak Northeast Corridor doesn't technically have any branches, the Northeast Regional service has lots of them, kinda like the VIA Rail Corridor service.
The seats of the corridor LRC trains are former Deutsche Bahn ICE3 1st class leather seats in both classes. Business is even with free meals. I rode in the last month from Ste Foy, QC to Montreal Bonaventure and then from Bonaventure to Toronto Union. Travel time in total was for the first route 2 hrs and 7 hrs for the second due to a truck on the rails at Cornwall at that time.
Nice review. I was reminded of my first trip on VIA, which was from Toronto to Windsor (across from Detroit). There are cafe cars on VIA's long-distance trains, and you should check at least one of those out at some point. I really enjoyed the train up to Churchill on Hudson Bay, an extremely isolated route and a train with truly vintage equipment.
Cafe cars don't exist on corridor trains.
not one Canadian says "aboot" or do we pronounce the second "T" in Toronto...
Nice Review. Welcome to my Country.
Amtrak years ago used to run Toronto to Chicago daily on the Georgetown line through the Sarnia tunnel but they stopped it
Food and drink carts are also common on Indian railways trains as well.
Toronto is pretty cool
TGV has cafe car (at least the one I took, which I believe started in San Malo or something to Marseille (I picked it up in Lyon around Lunch time, it had left the west coast at 7:50am or so)
When I took LNER they had both a Trolley and a Cafe car
Thanks for the video showing their corridor service vs Amtrak’s service. I have not ridden VIA but did ride the Canadian National between Toronto and Montreal. In those days they ran older traditional long distance cars. They even offered an overnight train on the Toronto to Montreal run similar to what Penn Central and early Amtrak offered between Washington DC and New York and Boston. Just like Amtrak it looks like VIA is more concerned with running short distance trains rather than longer distance overnight service trains. However they do have a good reputation for good on board service including full service dinners on their long distance trains. As usual I look forward to your next video while you aren’t Canada.
3:40 how you said "like on the acela". im pretty sure i read somewhere that said that the acela cars were based off of the LRC cars
i got to your part about the cafe car. just NO. i want the cafe car it seems so fun
They even had a new train in 2023 and dome cars instead of observation cars
Nice video
VIA was a good thing, like Amtrak, the coaches are so unique, and they are currently getting new equipment.
Via rail is going to have Chargers/Venture coaches.
0:53 what do you mean unlike the NEC? The NEC also has branches to Newport, Richmond, Norfolk, Springfield, and arguably Harrisburg. Or do you mean different segments (since none of the trains actually run all the way from Quebec to Windsor?
1:20 FYI vaccination is no longer required on VIA as of 20 June 2022. Which is good because the process for checking vaccine proofs was causing tons of delays at stations.
2:10 Nice job on the French! Correctly translating 'attention please', and pronouncing it pretty well too!
3:07 The speed limit between Aldershot and Toronto is 95 mph (153 km/h). Yes Canadian railways still use mile per hour, to simplify cross-border operations. Very confusing for Canadian railfans such as myself. 95 mph is pretty typical for the Corridor, and there are a few segments of 100 mph running (Windsor-Chatham, Brockville-Ottawa, Ottawa-Alexandria).
4:52 The integration between VIA and GO is extremely poor. Only about half of GO trains show up on the VIA website, and if you buy a GO ticket on the VIA website, it's the highest possible price (cash fare), and you must take that particular train. But if you buy directly from GO or use your Presto card, you can ride train or bus within 3h of your ticket time, and you can often get cheaper tickets (always 10% off using Presto, or sometimes deals on e-tickets). Combining these limitations means that the VIA website sometimes forces you to wait for over an hour at Aldershot when transferring from VIA to GO, even though the Lakeshore West line runs every 30 minutes or better (note that most of the GO trains departing :25 past the hour are missing in your search results, and the rush hour trains departing at :10 and :50 past are also missing).
6:00 Yes, the Acela coaches are actually derived from the LRC coaches, making use of their tilting system. Bombardier primarily focused on the Acela coaches, while Alstom primarily focused on the power cars (derived from TGV power cars). VIA has since removed the tilting system from the LRC cars because it was unreliable and heavy, which has reduced speeds by about 5-10 mph along much of the corridor.
6:49 The seat pushes forward while reclining so that reclining it doesn't rob kneeroom from the person behind you. People are often reluctant to recline seats which lack that feature, because it feels inconsiderate to the person behind.
Thanks for enlightening me with all those details! And you're too generous to my French :P
Had no idea Virginia is considered part of the NEC... Is the downeaster also part of the NEC?
@@wavesnbikes The branch to Niagara Falls is also not part of the Corridor, but it is grouped into the Corridor services for administrative purposes, similar to the NER Virginia and Keystone services
@@wavesnbikesThe Downeaster isn't really considered part of the NEC, there's a gap between it and the rest of the system. If we would just connect North Station and South Station already it could become an extension of the NEC, but as it is it's a different service.
3:19 🎵Caleb didn’t do his research
I wonder when via will start going back to the USA
The Maple Leaf is back in service.
Fun fact, the track for this trip owns by go trian not by via. While the track from Oshawa(last stop for go trian) to Ottawa is owned by private firms. That is where major delays occur
The Alberta Edmonton/Calgary corridor much like the Windsor-Quebec City line has been studied to death over the years. They just need to go ahead and pull the trigger and invest in either upgrading the existing corridor with new tracks/electrification or go for broke and build a Greenfield line much like Alberta will almost certainly be doing starting next spring with the 350 km/h P3 Ellis-Don financed/designed/built like running Bombardier now CRRC Zefiro A380 trains between the cities in under and hour... FINALLY! I'm a 4G Albertan and the last Edmonton-Calgary service stopped a year before I was born after a fatal switching error sent a high-speed Budd Dayliner into a parked grain train at full force killing 6 I believe. After that we talked and talked and talked about restoring service but Alberta being Alberta (The Texas of the North) nothing has happened until this P3 project sprung up in a very discreet but SERIOUS way which makes me think it's gonna happen. The current provincial government is needing a flashy distraction from a series of botched COVID-19 issues so this would be a gamechanger. Even if I'm a 100% NDP backer! Go Rachel Notley! ;-)
Yeah, it's embarrassing there is no service on that pairing, especially since the tracks have always been there. The new service sounds exciting - if it happens.
🎶 Caleb didn’t do his research🎶
Trust me VIA is so much worse than Amtrak, especially outside of the corridor.
Oh, I trust you - this was purely a corridor comparison! But I def want to take the Sudbury-White River or Ocean at some point!
@@ClassyWhale despite via being shit, I do believe that they have so many bucket list experiences. Both of those are on my list as well.
This Albertan is like WHUT VIA? We only get 3X a week via the crap trainshed outside the dead downtown airport so it might as well not even be a thing... And that's the best service Alberta has in a province 4.4 million people that mostly (75-80%) live in a long railroad city along the CP line between Edmonton and Calgary... So much wasted potential!!!
@@Token_Nerd Mine is the Churchill run or the Moose Factory train to James Bay from Toronto, if that's even running these days... I've even lost track of that one!
@@Token_Nerd If our government supported VIA like the US government supports Amtrak, we'd have a vast network and trains would be on time more often or at the very least, less delayed
Anyone else notice the purposeful Canadian pronunciation of “about”?
VIA also uses a lot of HEP-2 cars which are not great. I’d rather ride in an LRC over a HEP-2.
7:08 “Menu shot,Menu shot Right now your looking at the menu Shot
When taking video of the great hall, did you notice the spelling mistake in one of the names of Canadian city's engraved on the upper wall?
No I didn't! Which one?
@@ClassyWhale we have Saint John N.B. and St. John's NF.
On the wall one was mixed up with the other. All to do with the word Saint vs St. and the o the end.
@@ClassyWhale They also spelled "Sault Ste Marie" wrong. They wrote "St Marie" (Saint Marie), but since Marie is feminine, it needs to be "Ste Marie" (Sainte Marie).
Sadly masks and proof of vaccination are no longer mandatory and the provinces are really lax about it too, despite overflowing and understaffed hospitals. Riding VIA in a few days, initially thinking those were still the rules, but I'm quite nervous about it now
I think VIA is much more better than Amtrak
No menu shot music when looking at the menu? Unwatchable, 0/10 >:(
www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/menus/111140657-1_VIA_Economy_Menu_Change-Cosmetique.pdf
Note that, unlike nearly every other retail sales in Canada, the prices include all taxes. What you see is what you pay. Because dealing with different tax rates / policies in different provinces would be to confusing, the price is standardized nationwide.
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