VIA Rail Canada's surprisingly good main corridor from Montréal to Toronto by train!

Today we are checking out the main rail link between Canadas largest cities Montréal and Toronto onboard Via Rail Canadas Windsor - Québec corridor.
Come along as i share my thoughts on rail travel in Canada from a european perspective. Is the train a good option for getting to Montréal and Toronto or should you just fly instead?

Train type: P42 912 VIA RAIL + 5 coaches
Route: Montréal Gare Centrale to Toronto Union Station
Train: 61
Distance: 540km
Journey time: 5h12m
Average speed: 103 km/h
Price: 59 CAD

Music:
Alexi Action - Synthwave 80's
EvgenyBardyuzha - Outstripping the light

[vicsams]

I have done every railway line in Canada except Churchill. All of VIA Rail Canada, Rocky Mountaineer (including Banff to Calgary), Ontario Northland (including the Toronto to Cochrane), Tshuietin, West Coast Express, Skytrain, GO Transit, AMT Montreal, White Pass and Yukon, and several heritage lines. My wife and I love Canadian trains, Canada and the Canadians. For long distance (3+ hours) it is worth upgrading to VIA1, just for the superb hot food and wines, beers and spirits. On one trip to Quebec City we had a few single malts, after the stewardess filled my glass to the brim. "Say when." I did not. So she kept filling it up to it was full ! Happy days ! Our first trip to Canada was for our honeymoon where we did The Canadian (Vancouver to Toronto). Kind regards from London, England.

[SuperalbsTravels]

05:47 Oh my good friend, those are the same seats as used in OeBB Railjet First Class, right down to the same colour scheme too! 😁

[pauly]

I believe the reason for the airport style boarding is the narrow train platforms. I know that Union Station in Toronto has just started to rebuild theirs to much wider platforms.

Also, Montreal-Toronto is limited to six trains per day because of freight rail traffic. The railway companies that operate the freight rail also own the tracks. The federal government has supposedly committed to separating passenger and freight rail between Toronto and Quebec City. Because of increasing freight traffic in this corridor, the federal government realizes that they can't put this off any longer.

[billhunter]

Great video! Brings back memories of trips from Ottawa to Toronto before the pandemic with the views of Lake Ontario (the line from Ottawa joins the main line to Toronto at Brockville). For your comment about the seats in Business Class at 7:12 minutes.... they use the same actual seats, but you'll see there's a bit of a gap between the seats on the double-seat side because there's a little table between the two seats in addition to the fold-down tray, and the single-seat side has a table between the window and the seat. The main advantage of Business Class is not the seat itselfe but rather it is access to the lounge, priority boarding, and an airline-style meal along with free beverage service (they typically do four services on the 4-hour run between Ottawa and Toronto) with beer, wine, spirits or non-alcoholic drinks.

[SuperalbsTravels]

What a lovely video Mr Simon, thanks for sharing.

[phil]

What we call the Quebec-Windsor corridor including Ottawa is really the only quick train route in Canada. The main benefit is downtown-to-downtown. Its main competitor is Toronto Island airport which is near downtown. No one goes to Pearson from Montreal to visit Toronto. A cheaper bus service also exists

[RickyLeong]

Great video, thanks for sharing! I think the reason for a galley/food preparation area in every car is because there were rarely fixed consists in historical North American railroading. Cars would be mixed and matched, or trains lengthened when needed.
Also, when the Montreal-Toronto route was operated with tilting trains, a nearly non-stop service ran once a day from Sunday to Friday that only took 3 hours 59 minutes! They departed both endpoints at 17:00. The car you were on used to have tilting capabilities but that was turned off when the matching locomotives were retired some years ago, IIRC. That entire series of cars was called LRC — short for light, rapid and comfortable.

[patriciadonovan]

This route is much as it was when I frequently used it in the 1980s. The real star in Ontario is the GO Train system of commuter train lines that is always expanding. Inter-city bus lines have died and local shuttle bus lines, with funding from counties and municipalities, are filling in some of the gap.

[davidlisowski]

Nice report. Gare Centrale’s terminal building used to be visible outside, and has some nice art deco designs. However, too many buildings have been added onto it over the years.

[brucekatkin]

Stated that 2+1 configuration is not worth the upgrade. Must be used to Amtrak where you get a free soft drink in Business class. He should try it out, meals and beverages included.

[andrewohare]

Please do the amtrak maple leaf soon. Im doing that journey on the 27th. Would love to watch.

[jeanbolduc]

In Montreal you have access to the underground city from the Central station ... shopping malls, hotels, restaurants etc

[mrangelini]

I finally upgrade worth it. You got your meal included which is fairly nice. Plus alcohol is included and there's no shortage of that. Especially when you go from the Montreal to Toronto route. You can be very tipsy by the time you arrive. So if you can get a deal on business class well worth it on VIA good meal good service and lots of free alcohol

[bencns]

You should try the new Venture trains Via got, I just rode them between Ottawa and Quebec City, and it was a very pleasant experience.

[journeyswithj]

Well put together video. Liked the map of the route

[SamEllens]

The look on my face while reading that title having lived in Toronto for 17 years with family in Ottawa 😂. At Christmas there was a train that was 25 hours late on a 4.5 hour journey and they didn't have water. I've taken the trip 20+ times and my average is probably 45 minutes late on a 4.5 hour trip.

[andjuhikari]

Well done; this can be an official PR video by VIA.
Q: are large luggage secure on the shelves?

[Voltaireooooo]

An antiquated train bumping along the rails...

[michaelvilleneuve]

Biz class is much more roomy (2+1 vs 2+2), delicious meals and all drinks included along with great service. Silly to say it's basically the same and not worth the upgrade - it's totally different from economy class. Do your homework.

[aloha_]

Believe it or not, Turbo did the run in 3 hours 59 minutes back in the sixties.