VIA Rail Canada Reviews 297

I have purchased the discount card for nothing, it ended up being more expensive. Now I have changed the ticket for another date and the "earned" went back to them. The worse transportation system within Canada. I rather to take the bus. How come that in Canada, one of the richest countries in the world and we are not able to take the train in a fair fee???

Absolutely ridiculous. I have travelled 5 times with Via over 3 months. Not once has the train been remotely on time. The best was 30 minutes late. Additionally they usually have about half of their snack menu available. Most of the trains are old and tired, one was new. I am switching to Porter.

What the hell is wrong with Canadian railway.

It cost way more than gas on a car and takes longer than a car to arrive.

What’s the point.

Delays because there is a problem with the sensors at the intersections so the train is forced to slow down A LOT when approaching them.
There was no warning that this was going to be the case and even though it’s going. To be like for at least 6 months (!) the page doesn’t tell you that your trip is going to have at least 40 minutes of delay. More than 1 hour in my case

They simply ruined trains.
The new luggage requirements are a cynical cash grab.

Same old, same old. Premium member, business class, pretty much twice a week Montréal-Ottawa. Now charging for seat selection and smart serve alcohol limit. Delays, bad food, no hand wipes, no chocolate, no service. Your taxes at work.

Garbage operation. They prioritize cargo over people, leave people to wonder why they are stopped or moving slow with no announcements. Constantly late. You will NEVER be on time with this shoddy service. At least I want stuck for 10 hrs. But if you can walk, bus, drive, hitchhike... anything to avoid this overpriced trash heap of a business, please do. The government gave via rail 30 days to clean up their act after the 10 hr fiasco. They are guaranteed to fail. Lateness and incompetence is their motto

The train fares are crazy expensive considering you're travelling in Canada. It's like where is there to go within Canada worth paying those fares? Family or friends but not anywhere as a tourist.

Travelled from Toronto to Montreal and it was so freaking cold on the train that despite my sweater I also had to put on my raincoat and still shivered. Didn’t help that the journey took one hour longer than expected.

They charge for seat selection but cannot guarantee they won't change the train configuration. If you pay to avoid a backward facing seat they cannot guarantee the seat you choose. They will keep your money despite putting you in the exact seat you paid to avoid.

Price gouged for $40 for mine and my wife’s ‘large’ baggage despite them being within the weight limit on top of the $300 already paid for tickets!?!?
Little wonder rail travel is going the way of the dinosaur with scams like this in place…

The staff are very rude .they never care even about passengers review .actually the staff dont be supervised properly and dont afraid of people opinion about their behaviour

The new website Via Rail has introduced is so full of bugs it makes booking difficult. The wait time for speaking to a representative on the phone has increased significantly.
Via Rail used to offer the option of trading in points based on distance travelled to cover expensive trips but they've done away with that.
They are still sharing a track with CN and CN trains get priority, leading to very frequent, exhausting delays.
I was delayed for one hour on a two-hour trip yesterday. I was next to five children, aged 4 to 8. They had boarded at Dorval airport, so it was a long day for them. The children were very good for the first two hours but in the last hour of the trip, two of the children were crying hysterically. It was heart-rending.
The train was supposed to arrive at 6:30 and arrived at 7:22 pm, so passengers didn't even get the one-hour late travel voucher.

No info when booking that there is NO Wi-Fi on board. Major disappointment. There is very spotty cell service.
I had a single cabin, very small and a very uncomfortable bench seat during the day!
The train is always late cause freight owns the rails and via must give easy to them.
I started in Toronto and exited the train in Winnipeg, not wanting to go any further as the experience was not good and being out of touch without Wi-Fi in 2024 is a BIG MISTAKE, since my mom is 95 and unable to get in touch and carry out daily business work..
Amtrak is far superior to anything via rail had to offer. I will never travel with the Canadian company again. Big waste on money!

Last year in 2023, I decided to do one of my frequent Toronto - Montreal trips with this company. I went online, signed up for their reward program and purchased a return trip, (one way in business). Trip was ok, lengthy as expected. I then forgot all about that trip until I decided this year at the beginning of July 2024 to use them only for a one way trip (again in business class) at the end of July 2024. But when I logged into my profile, I realized my points from the previous trip were never awarded. I contacted them, spent more than half an hour on a call and was confirmed the points would be added to my account. A little over 3 weeks despite following up, nothing was added while I received points for my most recent trip in July 2024. Upon contacting them one final time in August, they carelessly informed me that even though I was promised the missing points, they would not honor that promise, because my previous trip was more than 6 months ago (information they knew from my first call with them). When pressed on why they refuse to honor their promise especially since as a customer I'm not at fault, they came up with the lame excuse that I should have ensured my account number was on my tickets....this organization is a scam, trying to lure customer with their program yet not completely fulfilling their end of the agreement. (Business class ticket give more points which is why I chose this higher fare)...They fooled me once, but I told them I would NEVER use them again and asked that all of my information be wiped from their system. Given the speed, I'm better off driving and flying when pressed for time. VIA RAIL is nothing but a crooked, corrupt, petty organization who will stop at nothing just to have an immediate gain from their customer. Now your one time gain, VIA Rail is a loss of what could have been a lifelong customer. ADIOS

I took the train from Montreal to Ottawa, and the trip was fine, but there were so many delays. On top of that I was in business class and the breakfast they served was awful. The omlette wasn't hot and I'm sorry but who puts mozzarella cheese in an omlette, and the hasbrowns were shredded potatoes. The breakfast used to be pretty good but has changed for the worst. I'm super disappointed. For the price of the ticket, please rethink and update your breakfast menu.

We arrived an hour late. The staff is bitchy at best and the whole thing is over priced given they provide you with less than the bar minimum (if that).

I've been travelling regularly on VIA for many years and am a premium member. VIA trains are almost always late and often by an hour or more on a 3 to 5 hour trip. Yet somehow VIA has the temerity to increase its fare and add new charges for luggage and seat selection. The points program has also been modified and is much worse than before. Too bad there are so few options for people who cannot or do not want to drive. Any normal company would be out of business by now but VIA operates in a virtual monopoly. I'm a big supporter of train travel but VIA is simply the pits.

Horrible experience travelling from Toronto to Fallowfield On July 11th! One of the VIA rail representatives was so rude and condescending. She also touched my shoulder and my arm in a condescending way! We booked all forward facing seats, because we all get sick if we are rear facing. They changed the cars on the train, which meant the layout of our car was now different from the one we booked our seats. They had us all rear facing. One of the youth we were with became extremely sick very quickly because the VIA representative told us that we had to keep these seats until the manager comes out. She brushed off our concern completely and was extemely rude to us. The worst part of our experience was that I sent 2 emails to VIA to let them know what had happened. 2 weeks later they finally responded. They responded that there was nothing they could do to help me. I do not recommend traveling with VIA. We will no longer be travelling with VIA.

I had booked tickets months before my travel date. Leading up to the day of travel I decided to change the date of my travel by changing my booking online which was easy enough. However, the information on the website is misleading. Before committing to changing the booking, the website prompts you to tick a box to say that you understand the the charges/ fees associated with changing the booking. I had read these rules which stated that you will be ‘refunded’ for the original booking minus any booking fee. When it came time to pay I assumed that I would later be refunded for the original ticket minus any booking fee. However, the grand total for changing the booking had already taken into account the amount to be refunded for the original booking. This is very misleading information, as the word that needed to be used, rather than ‘refunded’ should have been ‘discounted’. The day after I changed the booking and paid (before the transaction was even processed) I called VIA Rail to try and change back my booking to the original date I intended to travel because I could not justify paying the extra for the change. I argued on the grounds that the information on their website was misleading. I was told there was nothing they could do due to it being against their policy, and that instead of changing the booking online I should have called them (and waited nearly an hour on call waiting) to make sure I understood the fees etc. Why are we paying a ‘booking fee’ (which, by the way, is not per booking, but is for per person per trip) if not for occasions like this where misleading information that they have published has lead to dissatisfied customers? In the end I had to pay nearly $800 CAD for a trip from Montreal to Quebec City and back for two people.

Policy is not made to be inflexible, particularly for circumstances like this. If we get down to the root of the issue, I would say that it is important for your officers to read critically, the information you put out to the public. This way information should be interpreted correctly and scenarios like the one I experienced can be avoided. This is an important part of being a transparent government body.