Upbeat American reviewer checks out VIA's new train:
VIA New Corridor Trains - 2021 - 2023 Updates
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I wonder if the Business Class lounge in the Ottawa station is also available to sleeping car passengers on the Ocean?
Access to the Business lounges is available to the following travellers:
Passengers travelling in Business class, Sleeper Plus class, Prestige class, and VIA Préférence Premier members travelling with an Economy Plus fare ticket (exclusions apply).
Passengers travelling in Business class, Sleeper Plus class, Prestige class, and VIA Préférence Premier members travelling with an Economy Plus fare ticket (exclusions apply).
There's an unclear question as to whether an Ottawa-Montreal-Halifax (or v-v) passenger traveling in a sleeper Montreal-Halifax would have access in Ottawa.
That being said, I once got access to the lounge in Montreal after traveling Ottawa-Montreal in Business while connecting to the Adirondack - I was a Premier member at the time, and they agreed that between the Business ticket and my status (which would give me access on E+, which is all they offer on the Maple Leaf), it was enough to let me grab coffee while waiting for Amtrak.
The new equipment is running between Ottawa and Quebec City via Montreal, so unless you are connecting to the Ocean from either of those directions you are unlikely to be on one.
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Question about business class on the Corridor trains. I’ll be riding from Toronto to Montreal in December. From their description it seems business is sort of equivalent to Acela first class as far as amenities. Is that an accurate assessment or is it more airline Cart style?
It can be either, however recently the cart model is preferred. The sum total of amenities roughly equals Amtrak FC. It's not unlike Amtrak (or the airlines) where staff make their own rules. Some examples of the service range from my own experience: A nice tray presentation with the entree brought separately vs. the entire tray plunked down with the entree still in the foil heating pan. Sometimes it's the latter with entree plated. Then there's drink service... sometimes cocktails are served - sometimes in glass, other times in plastic. Same for wine, even when there's already a glass glass on the tray. Sometimes "they didn't load the wine". As with all things travel these days, your mileage may vary.
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Thanks. Will report back on my experience.
VIA's new trains have put in an appearance in Ontario. Previously they were limited to runs between Quebec City and Montreal/Ottawa.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/travel/ne..._&cvid=48f7f9fc03b644b09c24635ac9088661&ei=28
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/travel/ne..._&cvid=48f7f9fc03b644b09c24635ac9088661&ei=28
All details of the Corridor deployment can now be found directly on VIA‘s website (click on „See Train Schedule“ to expand the actual list of trains):
https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan/new-fleet
https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan/new-fleet
Maybe easier to read:
Very informative.
Just gotta say, it's kind-of funny that right now on the Corridir VIA is running the oldest stuff in North America alongside the newest stuff.
[There's like a 70-year gap between the Budd HP2s and the Brightliners. Gotta be close to a record for intercity equipment on a run.]
[There's like a 70-year gap between the Budd HP2s and the Brightliners. Gotta be close to a record for intercity equipment on a run.]
Well, Amfleet 1 has been pulled by GG1's, AEM-7's, ACS-64 Sprinters, and Chargers. What I'd really like to see is a string of Amfleet 1's pulled by a steam locomotive.
Don't forget FL-9's built for the New Haven RR in the 1950s. Or the 1950s era E8/E9 mostly former PRR that were used from New Haven to Boston before the F40's showed up.Well, Amfleet 1 has been pulled by GG1's, AEM-7's, ACS-64 Sprinters, and Chargers. What I'd really like to see is a string of Amfleet 1's pulled by a steam locomotive.
jis
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GG-1s were manufactured 1934-1943.
The Amfleet 1's were put into service in 1975, pulled by GG1s at first. That's only 40 years, so I guess that VIA does beat that in terms of old and new equipment running at the same time. Up until the Viewliner 2 bags and diners were put in service, the Silvers and the Crescent ran with a mix of Heritage bags, Heritage diners, Amflet 2 coaches and Viewliner 1 sleepers. I'm not sure if they put Amfleet in the consists of these trains while they were being pulled by GG1s in the NEC. They didn't retire the heritage diners until 2016, which means that consists on the Silvers and the Crescent had an age span of 50-60 years, so VIA still beats that.
Not sure what exactly “on a run” is intended to mean here, but I’d just like to point out that VIA does not and will not run a mix of Venture and legacy cars in the same consist or on the same train…
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They ran legacy and Renaissance cars on the same train (Ocean), but they don’t span nearly as many years…
So, I was thinking of "on the same route". It's really strange being in the Ottawa train station and seeing a Venture set and a Budd set sitting next to one another.
Marbleski
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Cool I am visiting Ottawa now. I might bike to the station one day this week to see some of the arrivals to and from Montreal and Toronto.
One thing to add: VIA hasn't run Budds and Brightliners together (though that sounds like the name of an RPG). They did run Budds and Rens together, and on a few occasions I saw them slap an LRC Business Class car onto a Budd set (and was sad, since I was in the Business Class car). This tended to show up as "MIX" instead of "REN", "LRC", or "HP2".
The Siemens trainsets are physically and technically incompatible with the legacy fleet, whereas the Renaissance cars just have couplers which are incompatible with the legacy fleet, unless you use „Baggage Transition“ cars. Therefore, the Siemens trainsets (and also the Renaissance trainsets in the Corridor) operate as „pure“ consists, whereas the Ocean is a mix of Renaissance and HEP-1 cars and the rest of the Corridor is indeed a happy mix of LRCs, HEP-1s and HEP-2s…
This cycling sheet gives you a good idea of what to expect:
Interesting list, but may already be out-of-date. Mixed consists east of Toronto have been even more random lately. The example by @Anderson above (LRC Business car on Budd consist) passed me on Thursday afternoon and the mix of LRC and all flavors of Budd coaches has been far more random lately. Also, videographer "Cool Trains of Montreal" captured a Renaissance set with an F40 yesterday rather than the expected GE. It suggests VIA is struggling with equipment much like Amtrak but is doing the best it can to meet demand until more of the new trains arrive. Fortunately they seem to be having fewer problems with the Siemens sets. I'd like to think this had something to do with the extensive testing of the first one.
Indirectly you foreshadowed some of this in a post some time ago regarding the diminishing relevance of the LRC coaches moving forward.
