VIA Rail’s premier train, The Canadian, is a class operation. The classic equipment is wonderful and the onboard crew is excellent. Well, they had damn well better be! The on board service manager is a woman in her 60s who reminds me very much of my 5th grade teacher. Miss Jeanette carried a ruler around…
VIA Rail Train #1’s consist is two locomotives, a baggage car, one coach, a lounge/cafe car with a dome for the coach passengers, a dining car for sleeping car passengers, four standard sleepers, one Prestige class sleeper and, finally, the traditional bullet-ended Park car bringing up the rear and in which the bedrooms have been…
As advocates for passenger rail in the U.S., we look at VIA Rail up north and ask ourselves, How the hell do they do it? With the same lack of government support that shackles Amtrak, how does VIA manage to keep operating their premier train, The Canadian, at such a high standard? It is, after…
Here’s a thought … a trial balloon … a wild idea … and it sprang from a provocative question posed the other day: If VIA Rail has essentially the same financing and equipment issues that face Amtrak, how can they continue to operate the most spectacular train in North America—a train considered one of the…