VIA Rail Canada Head Office

May 2023
Good value for the money spent. My tickets were for the Ottawa-Montreal (Pierre Elliott Trudeau stop) route.
Seats were comfortable and spacious in economy class. You can bring your own food and drinks, yet a snack and beverage service is offered. The staff come by with a trolley of items.
There is a free shuttle from the train station to the airport every 15 minutes. Fast service, easy to use, and only steps away from exiting the train. The driver was great and helpful. The gate used at the airport is Gate 8 for arrivals and departures using this shuttle service. This service is not well advertised, and for us, we found out by accident when leaving Canada. If using this service, remember the gate number, as it is nowhere to be found once at the airport.

Please get rid of the forced covid injection requirement for staff and job offers! If the Via Rail passengers and all people can now travel without a vaccine (including flight attendants) there is no reason why Via Rail should still be making it mandatory for staff members

I am Japanese and was discriminated by the crew. Even though we had tickets that included meals, our meals were not served. Other white people's meals were served.

I got the impression that VIA Rail is a company that affirms and promotes discrimination.

When we later protested about the discrimination, the crew member was not happy about it and served our meals.

VIA started using 50+ year old trains in the Corridor. For people with a little extra weight the tray does not come down in order to eat, drink or use your devices. I tried to rectify the situation at Boarding. They took 1.5 hours to address this. The solution was followed by virtually no service. It took 3 hours to be offered coffee, and I was never offered the chance to get food. I mailed a letter to the President of Via, and after 1 month have had no reply from anyone at Via Canada! And they wonder why their ridership has not picked up since the Covid shutdowns.

Went on the flagship 'The Canadian' from Vancouver to Toronto, in a sleeper berth. An enjoyable experience overall, though due to massive delays a lot of people were getting cabin fever. There was very little time at any of the scheduled stops. The staff and food were good. Lots of interesting activities in the observation carriage.

Busy train station but lines clear quickly. Good location downtown Toronto, although Union Station is a little confusing.

Directly links to Montreal's underground shopping district, and easily access the subway, busses and US bound trains. VIA staff are helpful. The porter took our luggage hours ahead of departure and ensured it was loaded on our train car for a small tip.

J'ai porté plainte contre le seul employé en poste sur la ligne Montreal-Jonquiere car il a à été très agressif verbalement avec moi tout le long du trajet. La plainte n'a pas été traité convenablement, on m'a rappelé et laissé un message sur ma boite vocale (donc l'agent responsable du dossier ne m'as jamais parlé en personne ni de correspondance email) pour me dire que pas de suite à ma plainte et que le dossier est clos. D'après ce message, il était clair que mes propos n'ont pas été bien rapporté et plusieurs éléments occultés.
J'ai voyagé avec Via plusieurs fois par années, autant comme transport affaire que pour des vacances. Plus jamais! Je ne m'y sens pas en sécurité dans l'intégrité de ma personne. On m'a traité d'un bout à l'autre avec un paternaliste flagrant: j'ai eu droit, entre autre, à des "petite madame".
Je ne recommande pas cette compagnie et je vois que je ne suis pas la seule dans les commentaires à avoir subit des comportements agressifs ce que fait penser que je ne suis pas un cas isolé.

J aime la gare surtout pour les restaurants et l'affichage est très adéquat on peut s y retrouvé facilement

J'ai été reçu le comportement raciste de leur équipage. Le VIA Rail tolère-t-il le racisme?

I was received racist behavior from their crew. Is VIA Rail tolerant of racism?

Train Montréal-Québec en retard de 1h. Avoir su j’aurais pris mon auto, même avec le trafic ça aurait été moins long.
Un responsable m’a dit que ça arrivait souvent. Je ne prendrai plus jamais le train. En plus d’être cher, c’est aucunement fiable.

Special needs & Accessibility
I recently embarked on a short adventure with my mother aboard Via Rail and I cannot express well enough in words what an amazing Team all of these dedicated professionals are. I am a frequent train traveller with Via Rial, but travelling with my mother who's needs are total support care with special needs assistance, this was going to be, I presumed, an overwhelming feat of worry and concern. NOT THE CASE! Every
Via Rail Team member we met along our short 4 day journey exceeded expectations rolling out 'Red Carpet' service.

Not happy my train was 30 minutes late which made me miss the last transport to Qc city. Called customer service and no discount was offered to help get back home the next even though I asked politely and explained the situation. I love the train but your customer service policies lost me as a customer.

Les trains sont vraiment sales et vieux. Il y avait encore les verres et bouteilles des derniers passagers. J'ai payé beaucoup trop cher pour l'état des wagons.

Traveling from Montreal to Ottowa - The coach looks clean, but is rather smelly and and stuffy inside. It feels like no fresh air has entered it since it was built.

Via rail.une histoire d'amour-haine.
Trajet Québec-Mtl:
Vendredi soir en classe économie, nous avions un wagon qu'ils nomment (je crois) "le renaissance"; chaque rangée comporte 3 sièges de large (2 collés, l'allée centrale et un seul de l'autre côté).
Un total confort, siège baquet confortable, beaucpup d'espace, lumières tamisées, grande tablette pour l'ordinateur et même y mettre mon café. Que du bonheur!

Trajet du retour (Mtl-Québec) :
Dimanche soir en classe économie toujours.
Ce fut atroce. Un cauchemar.
Nous avions un wagon dont chaque rangée comporte 4 sièges de large (2 collés, allée centrale et 2 collés).
Sièges très inconfortables, une toute petite tablette pour y mettre l'ordinateur (qui passe près de tomber régulièrement).
Les grosses lumières allumées en permanence (j'ai demandé pour les tamiser, mais on me répond que ça ne se fait pas) ; bref impossible de me reposer! Voyage Totalement inconfortable.
Via Rail qui fait de la pub pour voyager confortablement et se reposer.on va oublier ça!

I use Viarail often and I would say about the half the trips are unpleasant for one reason or another. Please note that the Wifi is completely inadequate for most purposes and the "foward/rear-facing" note on your ticket may be completely meaningless.

Je prends souvent le train pour faire Québec-Montreal et par inadvertance ce soir je n'étais pas dans la bonne file, je parlais au téléphone et j'ai manqué mon train. C''est mon erreur et je l'accepte mais l'employé à qui j'ai parlé pour m'informer a été bête au plus haut point, aucun respect et me retourne du dos de la main en me disant de me débrouiller. La personne qui était au guichet n'était pas vraiment plus serviable, aucun sourire, pas le goût de travailler, bref à la gare centrale de Montréal ça fait dur! J'attends l'autobus, je pense que mes prochains trajets ne seront pas en train. Très très décevant.

I have to use VIA fairly often as they have a monopoly on a lot of transport routes. The prices are definitely way too high for what it is. Wi-fi is essentially unusable, and more often than not the train will experience significant delays, because they prioritize freight trains rather than passenger trains. Also, no complimentary anything is given, and food items are basically pre-packaged items bought from a store and marked up 500% in price. Honestly you're better off taking the bus for half of the price.

Expérience service horrible!

Je suis allé au petit coin alors que cette petite gare était bondée. Après 2-3 minutes je suis ressorti de la salle de bain et à ma grande stupéfaction, j'ai vu le train passé devant mes yeux.

Aucun message à l'intercom pour informer les gens que le train était sur le point de partir. Je n'avais pas le temps d'attendre le prochain train, j'ai donc dû m'organiser autrement.

Aucune sympathie de la part de l'employé sur place. J'ai appelé le service à la clientèle Via Rail: ils n'ont même pas offert un remboursement partiel.

Conseil d'ami: n'utiliser pas les toilettes pendant que vous y êtes.

Canrailing was one of the best experiences of my life. Especially helpful was leaving your rucksack with a member of staff in a red T shirt, who would then put the rucksack on the train for you, instead of using the left luggage lockers. The Canadian people really made the trip: they were warm, friendly and helpful. Prince Rupert and the Rocky Mountains, especially Athabasca Falls and Lake Louise were such an awesome experience, as was seeing a black bear running along a farmer's field from the safety of the train. I had lots of fun and it was well worth the effort. Huge appreciation to all the Canadians who made such a special trip possible.