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My wife and I are planning our 40th anniversary trip, and we are thinking about taking Via Rail's Canadian in late October, getting off at Jasper for three days, then going on to Vancouver.
Has anyone on this forum ridden this train recently -- and if so, how was the experience?
I rode the old Canadian Pacific's Canadian back in 1988, when it followed CPR rails. It was a magnificent experience, and I wonder how today's train compares with the old.
4020North Member # 4081
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I would also be curious to hear about the Canadian. It has to be an awesome journey. There is a book by Terry Pindell about riding the train across Canada back when there were two routes.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Posted at the Amtrak Forum because "that's where the action is". Posted here as this is where it belongs:
TRAINS Newswire has a report by Bob Johnston regarding "Canadian's" less than stellar timekeeping of late. The instance Mr. Gaspe' notes appears to be one of many.
Fair Use:
VANCOUVER, B.C. — If you had any doubt that VIA Rail Canada trains are suffering schedule setbacks, look no further than the Aug. 6 Canadian that arrived in Vancouver nearly 24 hours late.
The VIA Rail transcontinental flagship was scheduled to arrive Saturday morning at 9:42 a.m., instead showed up at 8:15 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 7.
Although this is the most extreme instance of running “off the advertised” since Trains News Wire began logging every Vancouver and Toronto tri-weekly arrival on May 23, it illustrates a worst-case scenario of what can happen when neither government statute nor financial incentives and penalties compel a host railroad to prioritize passenger trains and run them on-time.
In Canada, contractual agreements between VIA and its principle host railroad, Canadian National, are proprietary (as are Amtrak’s pacts with U.S. lines) and aren’t available for public scrutiny. But Toronto transportation consultant Greg Gormick says that former CN president and CEO Claude Mongeau told readers of the London, Ont., Free Press in May, 2016, that VIA pays CN “less than $25,000” for each Canadian.
Attaining a goal of 80 percent on-time performance, Mongeau argues, “would require public investments of a few billion dollars to add many more sidings and some large sections of double-track. Or it would require CN to impede Canada’s trading economy to give way to VIA’s transcontinental passenger trains.”
So if it can’t be 80 percent, what kind of on-time percentage does CN handling of the Canadian deliver for the $5.1 million (in U.S. dollars at current exchange rates) that Mongeau says the railroad gets from VIA annually?
Try 7.7 percent. The number represents the five of 65 trains that were early or on-time between May 23 and Aug. 6 arriving into Toronto or Vancouver. Schedules were lengthened by 12 hours several years ago — padded to better mesh with slower freight train speeds and add recovery time at major intermediate stations in a valiant attempt by VIA to improve reliability.
Mr. Johnston suggests it is time to consider a reroute over the CP - more population, more scenery, and, if CP's handling of the Amtrak Builder is a guide, better timekeeping.
Wonder what the "poohbahs" in Calgary reaction was to that?
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