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VIA Rail

rbt said:
Training may have improved. They were very unhappy with just a health card on a Toronto to Grimsby trip ~5 years ago; let me go but barely (2 staff said no, but the conductor reluctantly allowed it after a few phone calls).
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It probably also has to do with the changes in the way they clear trains at the border. 5 years ago they were done on the train. Today everyone has to get off in Niagara Falls.
 
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Yay I'm so happy!
 
rbt said:
Training may have improved. They were very unhappy with just my normal wallet things (health card, credit cards, etc.) on a Toronto to Grimsby trip ~5 years ago; staff initially said no but the conductor reluctantly let me to after a few phone calls. Only time I've been frisked, had an entire car to myself, and been escorted off the train (they searched my seat and overhead space as I left).
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Maybe it was a US crew? I had a great train ride, the Amtrak cars are way nicer than VIA. Though I don't know how they pay for that Toronto to Niagara run with only ten of us. Though I wonder why Amtrak always has such small windows.

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Those are the 1970s-era Amfleet I coaches. They have small windows because the cars were designed to look like airliners. Amfleet II cars have larger windows, as do the double-decked Superliners, used in the Midwest and West Coast.
 
Reference to HFR in this Global News article:

Despite all of the challenges and risks Via has been highlighting, it has one proposal in the works that could dramatically change passenger rail service in Canada and provide an example to follow in other regions.

The plan calls for an estimated $4.4 billion to buy new tracks between Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City to improve the frequency and punctuality of service on Via Rail’s busiest routes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has not yet given final approval to this “High-Frequency Rail” plan. But in a mandate letter, the prime minister asked Transport Minister Marc Garneau to work with Via Rail on the project as well as on improving access and affordability of trips to Canada’s national parks.

Transport Canada told Global News that it is assessing a range of options through initial discussions with Via Rail and Parks Canada, but that it does not yet have a timeline for implementation.

Some experts say proposals such as these are essential for promoting passenger rail as a means of transportation that slashes greenhouse gas pollution and moves Canada toward the carbon-neutral future in 2050 that Trudeau has promised.

“Many of us are interested in the environment, but when you’re pressed by other things, [such as when] you have needs you need to meet, you have something due for work, it’s hard to put the environment first,” said Shoshanna Saxe, an assistant professor of civil and mining engineering at the University of Toronto.

“So, if we want people to travel by train, it needs to be the easiest, cheapest, fastest option.”
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littlewill1166 said:
We'll, there is a crew change right before crossing the actual border on either side...
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All Maple Leaf Trains I have seen crossing into Canada, the crew stay in the cab while the train been inspected in NF. Once inspection is done, the train continue to Toronto. Haven't been in NF to see what take place on either side for NY trains. The few times I have waited for the Maple Leaf to arrived in NF on the US side from NY, its always been hours late and didn't have the time to hang around.

With a crew change in NF US, it means VIA crew must cross the US boarder and inspection to bring the Maple Leaf into Canada. Based on your comment, then Amtrak crew does the same as the VIA crew by coming into Canada to pickup the train. Since there is only a short stop going into the US and train must be clear by US Custom before proceeding, let alone loading US passengers, do you think the change over should be done in the US both direction????
 
drum118 said:
All Maple Leaf Trains I have seen crossing into Canada, the crew stay in the cab while the train been inspected in NF. Once inspection is done, the train continue to Toronto. Haven't been in NF to see what take place on either side for NY trains. The few times I have waited for the Maple Leaf to arrived in NF on the US side from NY, its always been hours late and didn't have the time to hang around.

With a crew change in NF US, it means VIA crew must cross the US boarder and inspection to bring the Maple Leaf into Canada. Based on your comment, then Amtrak crew does the same as the VIA crew by coming into Canada to pickup the train. Since there is only a short stop going into the US and train must be clear by US Custom before proceeding, let alone loading US passengers, do you think the change over should be done in the US both direction????
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The 2012 running manual for VIA loco crews says that they layover overnight in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Not sure if this is the case today, but I doubt that things have changed.
 
littlewill1166 said:
The 2012 running manual for VIA loco crews says that they layover overnight in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Not sure if this is the case today, but I doubt that things have changed.
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I saw a train back on Nov 26 in NF coming across the border and no crew change over took place.
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littlewill1166 said:
The 2012 running manual for VIA loco crews says that they layover overnight in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Not sure if this is the case today, but I doubt that things have changed.
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The federal government cancelled VIA’s morning trip to Toronto and afternoon return to Niagara Falls later that year, which were the only trains which required its crews to layover over night in Niagara Falls. I can assure you that VIA doesn’t have crews which pick up their train in the morning, hand it over before noon to their American counterparts and then sit around in Niagara Falls for 30 hours before taking over the return train in the late afternoon...
 
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