Gare Centrale, Québec, CanadaEach year our company will send us on an annual event to their offices in Montreal in January. Every year I have flown from the Toronto Island Airport which has good views of the city on take off an landing but is problematic with flight delays in winter. Last year our morning flight was delayed all day and we did not arrive in Montreal until 5pm
With the opening of the new REM suburban Metro line in Montreal which went to our event venue I wanted to take the VIA train as well to Montreal to try something new. We had $500 travel spending money and return on Business Class was only $342 which is still cheaper than Economy on the plane
I had to take the first train at 6.30am to be there for our event start at 1pm. This early I had to take a taxi to Union Station for $24. I had access to the Business Lounge but had to wait for them to open at 6am and could not stay long. It had nice seating, free tea, coffer, fruit juices, and canned drinks, but no snacks like cookies, muffins, chips.
Business Class boarding was same as an airplane. Business class passengers whizzed right thru while Economy passengers waited. We had the new Siemens model trains.
You have two seaters on one side, and single seaters on the other vs Economy which has two seaters on either side. As they had changed our train to the new Siemens model they rebooked me on a two seater. I had to show my reservation to the attendant who checked and moved me back to a single seater. Business class has more unsold seats than Economy
We were served a breakfast and had unlimited drinks though I'd already brought free cans and drinks from the lounge.
Typical speed was about 130km/hr which is still driving speed though it could reach as high as 150km/hr. High speed rail has been talked about in Canada since the 1970s but has never gone past discussions. Many other countries have trains in excess of 200km/hr.
I had taken Via Rail to Ottawa last summer which was mostly used by University Students and Federal Government workers on bilingual phone calls for most of the journey. See prior entry - http://v2.travelark.org/travel-blog-entry/londone7/46/1689194717
Despite being Business Class we had three "homeless people" on the carriage. They were three young people in hoodies and boots. After breakfast they took their boots off, each spread out across the two seaters, went to sleep snoring and stinking up the place with their socks. I had to complain to the attendant that they were stinking up the carriage and he asked them to put their shoes back on
It was nice watching the arrival into Quebec as we cross the St Lawrence river into the suburbs and then Montreal Island
There is a Dorval stop close to Montreal International Airport but not good walkable connection to the Airport itself
We were scheduled to arrive 11.50am but did not arrive until 12.40pm cutting it close for our 1pm event start so we had to just take a taxi to Brossard instead of trying the new REM light rail line
Coming back Saturday morning we could not take the REM light rail either as they were doing repair work until 1pm so we had to take a taxi again. Our return train was 1.32 pm departure.
This time we had lots of time to visit the Business Lounge in Montreal. However this station is much more dated than Toronto Union and the Business Lounge was much smaller. We stocked up on drinks again but no food is offered
Also coming back we did not have the new Siemens train but the older regular VIA carriages which had much darker interiors
This time we had meal options instead of breakfast. I chose the Salmon as it would be more filling than pasta and cheese. The sun went down and the second half of the trip was dark.
It was a nice alternative to the flight and I did not feel as tired so would take this again in future business trips to Montreal
2025-05-22