VIA Rail Canada

[4seasonscentre]

Just got a new credit card in the mail today and to my surprise, the numbers were not embossed. In fact they are not even on the front of the card. They are just on the back. It is the new style.

Got me thinking. I know cards used to have to be embossed back in the day so that merchants could use their imprint machines, but in my adult life I have never had my card imprinted. Oh wait! I have!

VIA Rail does not have "proper" machines on board but would accept credit cards. I have seen the imprint machine on the trolley but in my experience the staff just rub the number out with a pen. I know VIA stopped accepting cash on board. Does this mean the only way to pay is manual slip method using a credit card?

[M. Parsons]

@smallspy and @ghYHZ thank you both very much! It was a great help! 

I've found the car sides I need in N scale, so, perhaps one day in the next decade or two I will maybe actually get one or two of them modeled. 

[Chris_the_traveller]

4 hours ago, 4seasonscentre said:

Just got a new credit card in the mail today and to my surprise, the numbers were not embossed. In fact they are not even on the front of the card. They are just on the back. It is the new style.

Got me thinking. I know cards used to have to be embossed back in the day so that merchants could use their imprint machines, but in my adult life I have never had my card imprinted. Oh wait! I have!

VIA Rail does not have "proper" machines on board but would accept credit cards. I have seen the imprint machine on the trolley but in my experience the staff just rub the number out with a pen. I know VIA stopped accepting cash on board. Does this mean the only way to pay is manual slip method using a credit card?

Last November they started using new tap readers. They accept Visa, Mastercard and Amex. So not to worry, you can tap your card on-board.

[InfiNorth]

11 hours ago, Chris_the_traveller said:

Last November they started using new tap readers. They accept Visa, Mastercard and Amex. So not to worry, you can tap your card on-board.

How does this work on the Canadian, the Jasper-Prince Rupert and Winnipeg-Churchill? Most of those routes don't have the cell service needed for handheld POS devices. 

[ghYHZ]

1 hour ago, InfiNorth said:

How does this work on the Canadian, the Jasper-Prince Rupert and Winnipeg-Churchill? Most of those routes don't have the cell service needed for handheld POS devices. 

Only on the Ocean, Corridor, Maple Leaf, White River and Senneterre/Jonquiere  trains. See here:

https://www.viarail.ca/en/travel-info/onboard-train/methods-payment

 

[Flalex72]

6 hours ago, InfiNorth said:

How does this work on the Canadian, the Jasper-Prince Rupert and Winnipeg-Churchill? Most of those routes don't have the cell service needed for handheld POS devices. 

I believe the machines they are using are "airline style" asynchronous, basically a digital imprint machine. Transactions are batch processed when the machine has a connection. This is why they aren't taking Interac, as it does require a connection.

I actually had a card imprinted for the second time ever last week, a specialty merchant I frequent had lost power earlier knocking out their internal network and was taking carbon copies until it was repaired.

[Dane]

4 hours ago, Flalex72 said:

I believe the machines they are using are "airline style" asynchronous, basically a digital imprint machine. Transactions are batch processed when the machine has a connection. This is why they aren't taking Interac, as it does require a connection.

I actually had a card imprinted for the second time ever last week, a specialty merchant I frequent had lost power earlier knocking out their internal network and was taking carbon copies until it was repaired.

Random digital imprint story... Air Canada must have misplaced one, I'm sure it happens from time to time. In December 2018 I was on a really stressful course. On the last day I did the exam, passed, and then had to boot it to YVR to fly to Edmonton for a different job. I ordered what was probably the best beer I've ever had on that flight, so relieved to be done the course. It was mid-December. In February the charge appeared on my credit card

[smallspy]

VIA is reactivating a number of additional trains in the Corridor starting September 1st.

 

https://media.viarail.ca/en/press-releases/2020/rail-announces-new-daily-frequencies-quebec-windsor-corridor

https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan-your-trip/service-status

 

Reportedly, VIA1 service will resume at that date as well.

 

Dan

[InfiNorth]

45 minutes ago, smallspy said:

Reportedly, VIA1 service will resume at that date as well.

VIA1 as in the Canadian? That seems like an odd decision - local travel is what makes sense these days, not transcontinental, predominantly unecessary tourist transportation.

[John Oke]

9 minutes ago, InfiNorth said:

VIA1 as in the Canadian? That seems like an odd decision - local travel is what makes sense these days, not transcontinental, predominantly unecessary tourist transportation.

VIA1 was the former name for what is now Business Class 

[InfiNorth]

43 minutes ago, John Oke said:

VIA1 was the former name for what is now Business Class 

I thought that's what they might be referring to but it hasn't been used in, what, ten years now? 

[cprted]

6 hours ago, InfiNorth said:

VIA1 as in the Canadian? That seems like an odd decision - local travel is what makes sense these days, not transcontinental, predominantly unecessary tourist transportation.

The VIA site still show The Canadian service cancelled until Nov 1. 

[smallspy]

23 hours ago, InfiNorth said:

I thought that's what they might be referring to but it hasn't been used in, what, ten years now? 

Sorry, but a lot of us "old timers" still refer to it as such.

 

Much as many of the really old timers still talk about Club 52.

 

Dan

[InfiNorth]

1 hour ago, smallspy said:

Sorry, but a lot of us "old timers" still refer to it as such.

 

Much as many of the really old timers still talk about Club 52.

As long as you don't start talking about Red, White and Blue fares.

[John Oke]

I saw a pretty strange consist today at about 2:00 EDT today leaving Oshawa, 3 F40’s leading 5 coaches with business in the back and a P42 as the trailing loco 

[InfiNorth]

1 minute ago, John Oke said:

I saw a pretty strange consist today at about 2:00 EDT today leaving Oshawa, 3 F40’s leading 5 coaches with business in the back and a P42 as the trailing loco 

When you want that acceleration but all you have is VIA Rail equipment.

[InfiNorth]

VIA Rail is no longer hosting a PDF version of the bilingual network timetable online - end of an era. Paging @Urban Sky since you not only are likely to know but you also have a somewhat vested interest in the apparent discontinuation of schedules... any ideas what's going on? All they have now is a "Train Departures and Arrivals Schedules." What happened to timetables? 

Edit: Nope, I'm just stupid... but so is VIA Rail's web design. They've hidden it in a secondary drop-down section of a page.

[Urban Sky]

4 hours ago, InfiNorth said:

VIA Rail is no longer hosting a PDF version of the bilingual network timetable online - end of an era. Paging @Urban Sky since you not only are likely to know but you also have a somewhat vested interest in the apparent discontinuation of schedules... any ideas what's going on? All they have now is a "Train Departures and Arrivals Schedules." What happened to timetables? 

Edit: Nope, I'm just stupid... but so is VIA Rail's web design. They've hidden it in a secondary drop-down section of a page.

Yes, it’s a bit hidden, but we’ve been publishing a new PDF timetable every time we changed our schedules since March 23 and we are currently at our tenth temporary CoVid schedule:

1) March 17: Suspension of Ocean, Canadian and Maple Leaf, reduction of Corridor services to 50% of regular schedule and of JONQ/SENN/WHTR services to once per week (no PDF schedule published)

2) March 23: reduced Corridor services to twice per day on all routes (TRTO-SARN: once per day

3) March 31: reduced Corridor services to once per day

4) June 3: MTRL-TRTO and OTTW-TRTO increased to twice per day

5) July 5: Skeena resumes once per week (was suspended since February due to the aftermaths of the blockades)

6) July 14: QBEC-MTRL-OTTW increased to twice per day

7) August 1: temporary schedule for train 185 (until end of September)

8) August 23: temporary schedule for train 186 (until end of September)

9) September 1: TRTO-WDON increased to twice per day and QBEC-MTRL-OTTW, MTRL-TRTO and OTTW-TRTO increased to three frequencies per day

10) September 11: fourth frequency added on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays only to the MTRL-TRTO and OTTW-TRTO routes

[Chris W]

15 hours ago, Urban Sky said:

Yes, it’s a bit hidden, but we’ve been publishing a new PDF timetable every time we changed our schedules since March 23 and we are currently at our tenth temporary CoVid schedule:

1) March 17: Suspension of Ocean, Canadian and Maple Leaf, reduction of Corridor services to 50% of regular schedule and of JONQ/SENN/WHTR services to once per week (no PDF schedule published)

2) March 23: reduced Corridor services to twice per day on all routes (TRTO-SARN: once per day

3) March 31: reduced Corridor services to once per day

4) June 3: MTRL-TRTO and OTTW-TRTO increased to twice per day

5) July 5: Skeena resumes once per week (was suspended since February due to the aftermaths of the blockades)

6) July 14: QBEC-MTRL-OTTW increased to twice per day

7) August 1: temporary schedule for train 185 (until end of September)

8) August 23: temporary schedule for train 186 (until end of September)

9) September 1: TRTO-WDON increased to twice per day and QBEC-MTRL-OTTW, MTRL-TRTO and OTTW-TRTO increased to three frequencies per day

10) September 11: fourth frequency added on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays only to the MTRL-TRTO and OTTW-TRTO routes

Will 185/186 see increased service at the end of September? And when will the Windsor/London-Toronto side get increased? I'm also wondering if the Kitchener-Stratford-London milk run will also be double ended to prepare 85/88 for the Chargers or if that'll be the only HEP run along that part since the train usually consisted of two cars (usually L-HEP2-LRC).

[InfiNorth]

17 hours ago, Urban Sky said:

5) July 5: Skeena resumes once per week (was suspended since February due to the aftermaths of the blockades)

I'm surprised to hear a VIA employee using a disused name - internally, is it still generally referred to by name? I've always been curious why the named branding was dropped. The only thing I can think of is the cultural implications of using an indigenous name on a government service, but why were trains like the Hudson Bay, Abitibi, and all the named corridor services (like Champlain, Frontenac, Trillium, and so on) dropped? 

[John Oke]

2 hours ago, Chris W said:

I'm also wondering if the Kitchener-Stratford-London milk run will also be double ended to prepare 85/88 for the Chargers or if that'll be the only HEP run along that part since the train usually consisted of two cars (usually L-HEP2-LRC).

Chargers won’t enter service until 2022, so we probably won’t see double ended locos until probably Q1-Q3 2021

[Chris W]

16 minutes ago, John Oke said:

Chargers won’t enter service until 2022, so we probably won’t see double ended locos until probably Q1-Q3 2021

You say that but most of the trains running on the Corridor have been double ended for some time. For instance, 84 on Friday morning was led by 6402 at the head end and 907 trailed. I think it's acclimatization for operators for the new sets.

[Shaun]

1 hour ago, Chris W said:

You say that but most of the trains running on the Corridor have been double ended for some time. For instance, 84 on Friday morning was led by 6402 at the head end and 907 trailed. I think it's acclimatization for operators for the new sets.

The double ended trains are so save time without the requirement to WYE the train at the terminal. 

Too bad there are no used surplus cab cars.  What happened to the Metrolink ones out of California? Did someone lease them?

[Urban Sky]

On 9/7/2020 at 5:15 PM, InfiNorth said:

I'm surprised to hear a VIA employee using a disused name - internally, is it still generally referred to by name? I've always been curious why the named branding was dropped. The only thing I can think of is the cultural implications of using an indigenous name on a government service, but why were trains like the Hudson Bay, Abitibi, and all the named corridor services (like Champlain, Frontenac, Trillium, and so on) dropped? 

I’ve never heard any colleague of mine call trains 185/186 “Lake Superior”, trains 600/601/602 “Saguenay”, trains 603/604/606 “Abitibi” or trains 690/691/692/693 “Hudson Bay”, but I regularly hear trains 5/6 referred to by their old train name.

So why are these names no longer used? Maybe they lacked the relevance (recognition value) for tourists which the Canadian and Ocean have? 

Concerning the train names in the Corridor (e.g. 60/61 were “York”, 62/63 “LaSalle”, 64/65 “Median”, 66/67 “Renaissance”, 68/69 “Metropolis and 668/669 “Bonaventure”), I assume that these train names had even less recognition value. I recall that when I grew up in Germany in the 90s, all InterCity, EuroCity, ICEs and night trains had names (usually the family name of a famous person, like “Goethe”, “Mozart”, “Beethoven”), but that practice was dropped at roughly the same time as it was here in Canada.

My best guess is that the branding of individual trains might confuse customers, as it suggests a product differentiation between different trains, which doesn’t exist - and this goes against a long-term trend of product standardization, where the customer can expect the same kind of equipment, amenities and services on board the train...

[InfiNorth]

2 hours ago, Urban Sky said:

My best guess is that the branding of individual trains might confuse customers, as it suggests a product differentiation between different trains, which doesn’t exist - and this goes against a long-term trend of product standardization, where the customer can expect the same kind of equipment, amenities and services on board the train...

That's a really logical answer - especially since the Canadian and the Ocean have very distinct consists (well, maybe not the Ocean) and services so it makes sense for theme to continue to have names. I would much more agree that would be the case for the corridor trains, but the recent rebranding that puts tacky names like "The Maritime Way" and "The Great Western Way" (where do they think we're going, Penzance?) and the almost cringeworthy "The Adventure Routes" would suggest that it would be smarter to start attaching train names to trains with distinct and infrequent routes, like the Skeena and especially the Hudson Bay. On another note, you have inspired me to put together a map of every single named service that VIA has ever operated, as usual made possible by your collection.

I also just realized that the Sudbury-White River train is currently advertised as "And best of all, you can experience it all from your comfortable cabin." Not once in VIA Rail's history has the Sudbury-White River daytime service ever run with anything other than RDCs... which are distinctly cabinless. Makes me wonder who is coming up with all this weird fresh marketing material.