The Island of Newfoundland narrow gauge system had full passenger service until 1969. Afterwards had varying mixed train services on the mainline, then just certain "remote" portions, and infrequent services on various branch lines. All came to an end in late 1988 when all pax and freight service stopped and the entire rail system scrapped.
It'll be interesting as the original route had to deal with the French Shore, and thus ended at Halls Bay (Springdale) instead of Channel-Port Aux Basques.
I took the train from Halifax to Montreal in 2016 and while not the most convenient trip (20 hours or so?) It was very unique and memorable. It was bright out until we hit Quebec where the train didn't make any stops. The bar car was full of friendly Maritimers playing music and it was very easy to meet people and make some new friends. The views of NS and NB were also very cool
Fascinating. It’s something to see this changes in an almost “time lapse” format. I struggle to reconcile the transformative evolutionary expansion of local metro systems (especially in Montréal and Vancouver) with the disinvestment and abandonment of regional rail. I once rode the train from Montréal to the Burlington area of Vermont, and I recall the former rail service to Trois-Rivières. Both are sadly discontinued today...but am I correct in understanding that there are efforts to restore these two lines?
Correct. VIA rail has proposed to purchase the Montréal to Québec line via Trois-Rivières and reintroduce service as part of its High Frequency Rail plan. Amtrak is planning to extend the Vermonter train up to Montréal, assisted by a new customs pre-clearance facility to be built by Canada in gare centrale.
Levis lost its service in 1998 due to CN wanting to get rid of trackage. It was extended by a few months due to the Ice Storm, but otherwise, from summer or fall of 1998 onwards, the Ocean/Chaleur stopped at Charny instead of Levis. Also strictly speaking the Ocean goes to St. Foy, the "suburban"/"secondary" stop of Quebec City. It has to back up. This was done due to studies showing St Foy would be a more popular stop than Charny for the Quebec City area, but it adds an hour to the trip.
The points on the map show the present day municipality, not necessarily the station name itself. Charny is located in Levis, which is why that change wasn’t mentioned - similar to how Quebec City doesn’t specify St Foy for the Ocean.
At least, Eastern Canada does still have regular daily bus service, unlike Western Canada. Also, shortly after the 2012 reduction, the Montreal to Halifax train was reverted back to daily service during the December holiday season as available equipment permitted. Ridership (prior to 2020 of course) held stable on this route as, unlike Western Canada, it still is the least expensive option to travel between Montreal and Halifax. The Gaspé service is technically suspended, not officially cut for good. Via does intend to reintroduce this once the Province of Quebec finishes track repairs, which would allow the resurrection of daily service between Montreal and Matapedia. A few years ago, Via toyed about reintroducing a RDC service between Matapedia and Moncton that would interchange with the Montreal to Gaspé train, but nothing came of that. Funny. Canadian Pacific just reintroduced freight service over the very line they abandoned in 1994.
I'm just waiting for some poor European soul to see this thinking "oh god there's no passenger lines to the provincial capital!" only for five minutes later to say "oh god there's no passenger lines!" (Fredericton did have passenger rail for much of this time, an RDC serviced the Fredericton train station located fairly close to the downtown core. Until 1991 at the latest, that is, when they *ripped up the entire damn track at once.* All they managed to preserve was some critical ROW and a few bridges.. and with a lot of effort, the rail station. Which will be inaccessible by trains for sure now, since redevelopment plans for the railyard area were drawn up.
The map shows the municipalities that the train stops in, not necessarily the station name itself. Charny station is in Levis, so that’s why the stop is still shown until 2014. There’s a more detailed explanation in the video description box.
The population has only gone up, now being over 100,000 for the area around it. It's a shame because now many bigger cities use rail systems and people will use rail more.
@@dylanc9174 It's even got a plan to densify quite a bit (great for transit!) and yet still no mention of how they'd go about restoring the line/anticipating restoration by the municipality, nor the province, nor private corporations.. only 35km of rail lines would be needed to connect, and it has a preserved ROW, and bridges have been preserved but not even the inklings of a consideration can be found..
Definitely agree. It even still has the station! And well-maintained lines due to the freight! The fact that it doesn't have a dayliner connection and instead has just a bus is a little sad.
This is just depressing. Meanwhile in Switzerland, less than hourly is generally seen as inadequate service and only found on forgotten provincial branch lines. Unfortunately Austria still has some lines only served once every two hours. Every country should look at best practice in the world and make important cities hourly taktknotens (why is that untranslatable?) Just imagine trains coming in from all directions every hour, departing to all directions again, easy connections, no need to memorize anything because you always have a train to everywhere ...
The population of Eastern CA voted to use their cars over rail. Eastern CA is the size of Western Europe, not Switzerland with the population density of that of only Greater London. Just not conducive for passanger rail.
This is a joke! In Europe most towns with more than 5000 inhabitants have rail service. Most lines with at least one train/h. It's sad how bad the train service is in north america...
I agree. In The Netherlands we have already one route between major cities where the trains ride timetableless. That means at least one train every ten minutes. The next line is ready end of this year. The program of high frequency rail lasts until 2028. At that moment all our major cities are connected like metros, at least every 10 minutes a train. That’s the only way to get people out of their car and into a train and improve the environment. And in a well developed country as Canada they have trains that run only a once or a few times a week? It’s a joke!
In Europe, in general, governments highly subsidize rail service so the availability of service is a function of investment. You can find rail schedules from the 1960's in Ontario and see the vast number of towns that had rail service. Now, there are some communities that have no service at all - not even buses. It's sad.
Even with declining passenger rail service I’m still looking into Amtrak and Via trains on my next trip to Quebec City when I’m allowed to, mostly because bus and airplane service have become stuffy and really don’t seem to improve service during a pandemic.😑
The depiction of the route through Quebec City isn't entirely accurate. Corridor services go into Quebec City proper, but the Ocean never did. There was a time it would service a station on the outskirts, which barely constituted Quebec City.
I'm impressed with the quality of your videos, but you might benefit from recording with a better mic. Enjoying the videos just the same, keep it coming.
One of VIA's problems is that, in contrast to (some) European countries, it doesn't own the tracks that it runs on. There are some (a few) who think that we should invest in new rail infrastructure. It sounds like a good idea, but given the vast distances between population centres in Canada, it's not economically feasible. The Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa triangle contains upwards of nine million people. It is the only area that could support high-speed rail. No other part of the country comes close.
New rail infrastructure doesn't necessarily have to be HSR. Conventional rail is perfectly adequate in a lot of cases: the Maritimes being one such example.
What an ugly "devolution". It makes Amtrak's service cuts seem paltry by comparison. VIA needs to restore service to all of New Brunswick's major cities as well as to Gaspe.
This is depressing seeing all these services being cut :(
It's evolving, just backwards
I love these style of rail map animations. Keep up the good work!
I would like to see your take of the "evolution" of Newfoundland's passenger rail, as the rest of the country is included with your Via rail videos.
I’ll see what I can do in the new year!
@@VanishingUnderground gotta do it for newfoundland
@@rsanuda yes, Newfoundland would be awesome and very close to home for me
The Island of Newfoundland narrow gauge system had full passenger service until 1969. Afterwards had varying mixed train services on the mainline, then just certain "remote" portions, and infrequent services on various branch lines. All came to an end in late 1988 when all pax and freight service stopped and the entire rail system scrapped.
It'll be interesting as the original route had to deal with the French Shore, and thus ended at Halls Bay (Springdale) instead of Channel-Port Aux Basques.
JFC and I thought the rail reductions with Amtrak were drastic O.o
Not even close.
& Amtrak trying to restore & Start new routes
I took the train from Halifax to Montreal in 2016 and while not the most convenient trip (20 hours or so?) It was very unique and memorable. It was bright out until we hit Quebec where the train didn't make any stops. The bar car was full of friendly Maritimers playing music and it was very easy to meet people and make some new friends. The views of NS and NB were also very cool
Lol "Evolution"
Read: Reduction
Fascinating. It’s something to see this changes in an almost “time lapse” format. I struggle to reconcile the transformative evolutionary expansion of local metro systems (especially in Montréal and Vancouver) with the disinvestment and abandonment of regional rail. I once rode the train from Montréal to the Burlington area of Vermont, and I recall the former rail service to Trois-Rivières. Both are sadly discontinued today...but am I correct in understanding that there are efforts to restore these two lines?
Correct. VIA rail has proposed to purchase the Montréal to Québec line via Trois-Rivières and reintroduce service as part of its High Frequency Rail plan.
Amtrak is planning to extend the Vermonter train up to Montréal, assisted by a new customs pre-clearance facility to be built by Canada in gare centrale.
Levis lost its service in 1998 due to CN wanting to get rid of trackage. It was extended by a few months due to the Ice Storm, but otherwise, from summer or fall of 1998 onwards, the Ocean/Chaleur stopped at Charny instead of Levis. Also strictly speaking the Ocean goes to St. Foy, the "suburban"/"secondary" stop of Quebec City. It has to back up. This was done due to studies showing St Foy would be a more popular stop than Charny for the Quebec City area, but it adds an hour to the trip.
The points on the map show the present day municipality, not necessarily the station name itself. Charny is located in Levis, which is why that change wasn’t mentioned - similar to how Quebec City doesn’t specify St Foy for the Ocean.
At least, Eastern Canada does still have regular daily bus service, unlike Western Canada. Also, shortly after the 2012 reduction, the Montreal to Halifax train was reverted back to daily service during the December holiday season as available equipment permitted. Ridership (prior to 2020 of course) held stable on this route as, unlike Western Canada, it still is the least expensive option to travel between Montreal and Halifax.
The Gaspé service is technically suspended, not officially cut for good. Via does intend to reintroduce this once the Province of Quebec finishes track repairs, which would allow the resurrection of daily service between Montreal and Matapedia. A few years ago, Via toyed about reintroducing a RDC service between Matapedia and Moncton that would interchange with the Montreal to Gaspé train, but nothing came of that.
Funny. Canadian Pacific just reintroduced freight service over the very line they abandoned in 1994.
What is the background music you used for this
Video?
Why are we here, Only to SUFFER?!
Wait, I just noticed Baltimore's Metro in included in your intro! Any chance of a combined Baltimore/DC rail evolution video?
It’s on my list to do! Hopefully sometime this year, probably after the DC silver line extension opens.
I'm just waiting for some poor European soul to see this thinking "oh god there's no passenger lines to the provincial capital!" only for five minutes later to say "oh god there's no passenger lines!"
(Fredericton did have passenger rail for much of this time, an RDC serviced the Fredericton train station located fairly close to the downtown core. Until 1991 at the latest, that is, when they *ripped up the entire damn track at once.* All they managed to preserve was some critical ROW and a few bridges.. and with a lot of effort, the rail station. Which will be inaccessible by trains for sure now, since redevelopment plans for the railyard area were drawn up.
Honestly sad because of the HUGE possibilities. Especially regional network wise.
Are the stations you showed on the map all the stations?
I only showed municipalities with a population over 25,000, as well as major stops identified on the timetables.
Ok cool😎
Levis station closed 24 October 1998 and not 2014 as you said
The map shows the municipalities that the train stops in, not necessarily the station name itself. Charny station is in Levis, so that’s why the stop is still shown until 2014. There’s a more detailed explanation in the video description box.
Are you going to do the video on Quebec/Ontario at some point?
Fredericton, the capital of nb don't have a rail service while every other city does(frieght rail in st.john)
The population has only gone up, now being over 100,000 for the area around it. It's a shame because now many bigger cities use rail systems and people will use rail more.
@@dylanc9174 It's even got a plan to densify quite a bit (great for transit!) and yet still no mention of how they'd go about restoring the line/anticipating restoration by the municipality, nor the province, nor private corporations.. only 35km of rail lines would be needed to connect, and it has a preserved ROW, and bridges have been preserved but not even the inklings of a consideration can be found..
What about the lines to Saguenay and Senneterre?
Don't you mean devolved? A Moncton NB- St John would work so well with a connection to the Ocean between Montreal and Halifax
Definitely agree. It even still has the station! And well-maintained lines due to the freight! The fact that it doesn't have a dayliner connection and instead has just a bus is a little sad.
This is just depressing.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, less than hourly is generally seen as inadequate service and only found on forgotten provincial branch lines.
Unfortunately Austria still has some lines only served once every two hours.
Every country should look at best practice in the world and make important cities hourly taktknotens (why is that untranslatable?) Just imagine trains coming in from all directions every hour, departing to all directions again, easy connections, no need to memorize anything because you always have a train to everywhere ...
The population of Eastern CA voted to use their cars over rail. Eastern CA is the size of Western Europe, not Switzerland with the population density of that of only Greater London. Just not conducive for passanger rail.
@@briangasser973 We chose incorrectly. I wish Saint John and Fredericton had connections still as these are important areas.
Petition to rename this video to “De-evolution of the VIA rail” lol
This is a joke! In Europe most towns with more than 5000 inhabitants have rail service. Most lines with at least one train/h. It's sad how bad the train service is in north america...
I agree. In The Netherlands we have already one route between major cities where the trains ride timetableless. That means at least one train every ten minutes. The next line is ready end of this year. The program of high frequency rail lasts until 2028. At that moment all our major cities are connected like metros, at least every 10 minutes a train. That’s the only way to get people out of their car and into a train and improve the environment. And in a well developed country as Canada they have trains that run only a once or a few times a week? It’s a joke!
In Europe, in general, governments highly subsidize rail service so the availability of service is a function of investment. You can find rail schedules from the 1960's in Ontario and see the vast number of towns that had rail service. Now, there are some communities that have no service at all - not even buses. It's sad.
Hello from the USA this is just sad
Even with declining passenger rail service I’m still looking into Amtrak and Via trains on my next trip to Quebec City when I’m allowed to, mostly because bus and airplane service have become stuffy and really don’t seem to improve service during a pandemic.😑
The depiction of the route through Quebec City isn't entirely accurate. Corridor services go into Quebec City proper, but the Ocean never did. There was a time it would service a station on the outskirts, which barely constituted Quebec City.
I'm impressed with the quality of your videos, but you might benefit from recording with a better mic. Enjoying the videos just the same, keep it coming.
Thanks! I’ve adjusted the audio settings on some of my newer videos. Do you find them any better?
@@VanishingUnderground They are a bit better, yes, thanks.
The service is a shell of what it used to be.
:((
Man I would like to ride this train 🚂
this is a devolution not a evolution
So sad
Sad.
One of VIA's problems is that, in contrast to (some) European countries, it doesn't own the tracks that it runs on. There are some (a few) who think that we should invest in new rail infrastructure. It sounds like a good idea, but given the vast distances between population centres in Canada, it's not economically feasible. The Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa triangle contains upwards of nine million people. It is the only area that could support high-speed rail. No other part of the country comes close.
Edmonton-Calgary
New rail infrastructure doesn't necessarily have to be HSR. Conventional rail is perfectly adequate in a lot of cases: the Maritimes being one such example.
What an ugly "devolution". It makes Amtrak's service cuts seem paltry by comparison. VIA needs to restore service to all of New Brunswick's major cities as well as to Gaspe.
Totally shit, deplorable service.
And politics, don't forget politics.