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VIA Rail

I thought ÖBB Nightjet was going to be a gamechanger and could maybe serve as a model for VIA long distance services. But then you see posts like this:


When my girlfriend and I took Nightjet from Utrecht NL to Vienna AT two years ago it cost us €120 each way for the whole room, so €60 per person. That's an 1100 km trip for less than a typical ticket from Toronto to Ottawa on Via.

I think that the ÖBB website is a more reputable source than Twitter for discussing the price of ÖBB services. Here are the prices for a single adult for a random day a few weeks from now:
Capture.PNG


The real gamechanger will be when the couchette class (the second option, for €119,90) gains the capsule-style mini-cabins. For older trains such as the one here, that class consists of a bed in a room shared with strangers.
 
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Ii‘m a bit suspcious of this because even the coach („Sitzwagen“) is quoted at the same 525€, whereas the Couchette („Liegewagen“) is slightly less expensive. Maybe a glitch in the system or just someone who wants to show full compartment prices for singlr occupation, which is of course the most promising way to trigger insane per-passenger prices, but achieves little else…
 
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The author of the above tweet wrote a full article. There's a lot more than the tweets I posted.


He also has this fare table:

nightjet-new-fare-table.jpg


That said I really like what ÖBB did with Nightjet and hope we can get that kind of fit out for any long haul fleet renewal.
 
I thought ÖBB Nightjet was going to be a gamechanger and could maybe serve as a model for VIA long distance services. But then you see posts like this:


I'm a bit skeptical of this. It's not that it's false, but rather that it's a bit misleading to compare the single most expensive option. Yeah, it's €525 for the single cabin for one person with WC. But it looks like he could reserve the cabin for 2 for €160 and a sleeping pod for €70.

It's like using Prestige Class as a price comparison; it feels like he's trying to make a point somewhat disingenuously.
 
Prices are all one-way including tax. It doesn't really help me if there's cheap tickets in January, since I'm travelling in December. Like I said, I always choose Via if the ticket is under $80, and yet I haven't ridden Via since my trip on the 4th of March, which cost $61.02.

Here were the advertised prices for when I was booking the intervening 3 trips I took to Toronto by bus or train:
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This comparison isn't as valid anymore since VIA modified its loyalty program. If you're a premier member, you consider points, and you value each point at $0.20. You're getting at least $0.60 back in points. The upcharge to a plus fare is less than what it was before. If you opt for a plus fare, it's $0.90 back in points. I've effectively gotten something better than the $25/ticket Toronto-Ottawa fares I wanted a few months back.
 
Here is an interesting proposal...https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/saskatchewan-mayors-seek-to-shift-route-of-vias-canadian/
 
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Here is an interesting proposal...https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/saskatchewan-mayors-seek-to-shift-route-of-vias-canadian/
We’ve already discussed this proposal at lengths over on Groups.io:

Basically (and as with so many rail fantasies discussed on forums like this here), it’s a solution which ignores the actual problems and makes questionable trade-offs (like sacrificing Saskatoon to serve Loydsminster and Warman instead):

IMG_3797.jpeg
 
Here is an interesting proposal...https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/saskatchewan-mayors-seek-to-shift-route-of-vias-canadian/
What this speaks to is the growing desire to more service outside of the Corridor.
This is where we try to talk about it:
 
We’ve already discussed this proposal at lengths over on Groups.io:

Basically (and as with so many rail fantasies discussed on forums like this here), it’s a solution which ignores the actual problems and makes questionable trade-offs (like sacrificing Saskatoon to serve Loydsminster and Warman instead):

View attachment 527393
You could go north from Saskatoon on the Warman Sub. As more local governments demand more service than what exists, eventually Via/the federal government will need to make a substantial investment There will come a day where even you cannot ignore that anymore.
 
Here is an interesting proposal...https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/saskatchewan-mayors-seek-to-shift-route-of-vias-canadian/

Let them pony up. Chasing such dreams is massively expensive. Especially, if the service results in loss of high revenue tourism.

There's zero interest nationally in pouring money into services that would serve handfuls of people. It's poor value for money from an economic or policy perspective. And from a straight up political perspective won't move any needles at all.
 
Let them pony up. Chasing such dreams is massively expensive. Especially, if the service results in loss of high revenue tourism.

There's zero interest nationally in pouring money into services that would serve handfuls of people. It's poor value for money from an economic or policy perspective. And from a straight up political perspective won't move any needles at all.
Maybe each province should pay a portion of the passenger rail that runs through their province. However,I doubt ON or QC would be happy with the amount they would have to pay.
 
As I keep saying: the main motivation for demanding (additional) non-corridor intercity passenger rail services seems to always be that “the feds” would pay for it. Anyone concerned about actually providing value-for-money by targeting the actual mobility gaps would propose subsidies to enhance intercity bus services rather than much-more-expensive and much-less-useful passenger rail, but heaven forbid if the only citizens who stand to benefit from such subsidies would be asked to pay fir it with their own tax dollars…
 

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