While I don't see a big announcement, and the PDF schedules have not been updated, new schedules have been loaded in the interactive schedule tool on the website, and also show when doing dummy bookings.
Effective on both the Vancouver and Toronto departures next Tuesday, 6/26, the Canadian will be running on a new schedule that is roughly 9 hours longer westbound and 13 hours longer eastbound. 1 will still leave Toronto at 10:00 pm but Vancouver arrival will be 6:00 pm. 2 will now leave Vancouver at 12 noon, and arrive Toronto at 2:00 pm. The schedule is 3 days, 23 hours in both directions.
Fraiser River Canyon will be in daylight both directions. Prime Rocky Mountain scenery between Valemount and Jasper will be basically at dawn and sunset in the summer months, in the winter it will be largely full dark in each direction.
For me, the big downside is that it breaks the connection with the morning Cascades (516) from Seattle, which is what I use to catch it. 15 minutes is way too tight, even if customs clearance was not a factor. So now an eastbound trip will involve laying over in Vancouver. I usually do not do the Canadian in both directions, so driving up doesn't make any sense for the parking fees alone, and then there's the fact that l'd have to go back to Canada to pick up my car.
Hopefully, CN can keep to this schedule, at least for awhile (they did okay with the last schedule extension at first).
Now I have to decide whether or not I want to trust CN to keep the new schedule and stay with my usual one night layover in Toronto before onward travel on my upcoming late October/November trip, or build in a 3 day buffer in Toronto like I was planning before I caught wind of the schedule change.
Effective on both the Vancouver and Toronto departures next Tuesday, 6/26, the Canadian will be running on a new schedule that is roughly 9 hours longer westbound and 13 hours longer eastbound. 1 will still leave Toronto at 10:00 pm but Vancouver arrival will be 6:00 pm. 2 will now leave Vancouver at 12 noon, and arrive Toronto at 2:00 pm. The schedule is 3 days, 23 hours in both directions.
Fraiser River Canyon will be in daylight both directions. Prime Rocky Mountain scenery between Valemount and Jasper will be basically at dawn and sunset in the summer months, in the winter it will be largely full dark in each direction.
For me, the big downside is that it breaks the connection with the morning Cascades (516) from Seattle, which is what I use to catch it. 15 minutes is way too tight, even if customs clearance was not a factor. So now an eastbound trip will involve laying over in Vancouver. I usually do not do the Canadian in both directions, so driving up doesn't make any sense for the parking fees alone, and then there's the fact that l'd have to go back to Canada to pick up my car.
Hopefully, CN can keep to this schedule, at least for awhile (they did okay with the last schedule extension at first).
Now I have to decide whether or not I want to trust CN to keep the new schedule and stay with my usual one night layover in Toronto before onward travel on my upcoming late October/November trip, or build in a 3 day buffer in Toronto like I was planning before I caught wind of the schedule change.