While I do know VIA is often expensive last minute and holidays, for most destinations, I must remind you....
For advance bookings, VIA is now cheap Toronto-Ottawa nowadays thanks to the huge number of trains they added. There are more than double the number of trains Toronto-Ottawa now than there were in the 1970s.
VIA fares between Toronto-Ottawa are only $40 if you book a month in advance -- much easier to find than cheap airfares for a 1-month booking.
Go to
www.viarail.ca and search for train fares one month in advance. Avoid those vacation and weekend dates, like a Friday night - Monday morning roundtrip, and you can easily pay less than
$100 taxes included for a roundtrip Toronto-Ottawa on VIA train.
Especially if you book during one of those Tuesday sales, though the
$40 are non-sale prices if you book a month in advance. I've seen them go as low as
$29 during better annual sales, though
$34 and
$36 is more common during a Tuesday sale, and $40 to $49 everyday 1-month-advance prices.
I always can get sub-$50 VIA airfares reliably almost year-round on non-Holiday dates simply by doing my bookings on a Tuesday for any trips approximately one month in advance.
Just stop the mentality of searching at the last minute on common holiday dates like Good Friday and Ottawa-Toronto VIA is
reliably cheap about 350 days of the year provided you remember to book sufficiently (~5-6 weeks) in advance
Chrissakes. So few know how to book cheap Toronto-Ottawa VIA fares. People become experts at searching airfares but never bother to even learn the 101 basics of finding cheap VIA fares.
I get it. Yes. VIA isn't cheap for other city pairs, and it should become cheaper. And those cheap seats often sell out too quick on other routes. But hundreds of cheap seats now exist on VIA Toronto-Ottawa if you do 6 week advance searches, and they don't sell out until around 3-4 weeks prior. So it's kid's play to land those $33-$34-$36-$39-$40 seats for a sub $100 roundtrip.
Many don't realize how good we now have Toronto-Ottawa -- we've never had this much VIA train service ever in history between Ottawa and Toronto. That's how much VIA has climbed back for this specific city pair, unbeknownst to many, and how the volume in the last ten years has allowed VIA to offer reliably lower prices in the last decade for 5-6 month advance bookings of this popular corridor pair. People have given up on VIA but Toronto-Ottawa is now become almost price-competitive to 2 persons driving a SUV between Toronto-Ottawa, if you only do a little advance booking planning.