Good evening from Toronto, Ontario!
My name is Alex, and welcome back to the channel.
Today’s trip report will be slightly different.
You may notice that I am, in fact, not standing in an airport.
I’m actually on the Union Pearson Express, heading towards Union Station in downtown Toronto.
From there, I’ll be taking a train to London, Ontario, with Via Rail Canada,
in their Business Class car!
In my hometown of Calgary, Alberta, we don’t have any kind of scheduled train service beyond
public transit, so this is a completely new experience for me!
Plus, as you can tell by my channel name, trains are not exactly my normal subject matter.
This ticket cost me about $120 Canadian dollars, and it also included the fare here on the
UP Express.
Compared to the usual $170-ish you’d normally pay for a flight on a tiny Dash 8 with WestJet
or Air Canada, I thought this was worth a try!
This trip to London would take about two hours, and given that a Business Class flight of
a similar length would cost...
4 to 5 times that amount here in Canada, I’m kinda curious to see what it’s like.
Union Station is Canada’s largest railway station.
It’s also the busiest transportation hub in the entire country,
with an average of 250,000 people passing through daily, and 65 million annually!
For comparison’s sake, Canada’s busiest airport, obviously Pearson International Airport
right here in Toronto,
served 50 million passengers in 2019.
Construction on the station started in 1914, but was delayed by a few years due to World War 1.
with the station eventually opening in 1927.
In 1976, the station was declared a National Historic Site by Parks Canada, and was sold
to the City of Toronto in 2000.
The city maintains the station to this day, including
an ongoing revitalization and restoration project.
What you’re seeing is only a small part of the station though.
It’s served by Via Rail between provinces, GO Transit within Ontario, the UP Express
to Pearson, and the Toronto subway, as well as an Amtrak service to New York City.
There is some amazing history here, and coming from a “newer” part of Canada,
for lack of a better term, it’s kinda cool to be a part of it today.
I’ll be on Train number 79 heading to Windsor, but only going as far as London.
We’ll also be boarding from Gate 20.
Business Class passengers on Via Rail are given access to the Business Class Lounge
here at Union Station.
Being an inexperienced train traveler, I arrived much too early, so I spent most of my time here.
It’s a really nice place to wait around and have a drink or two, and there’s also free wifi.
I will say, for such a nice space, it was surprisingly empty.
Nonetheless, it was clean, quiet, and there was a good selection of drinks, as well as
tons of seating.
In the back, there’s also a business centre, some magazines, and more space to sit.
And, for a bit of an aviation crossover, they had Canadian North’s inflight magazine
on the rack!
One thing that surprised me was the lack of hot food.
Maybe I’ve gotten a bit used to airport lounges,
or maybe there’s not enough foot traffic to justify having it.
Either way, a slight downside, but not really that bad
since I knew I’d be getting a meal on the train.
Once again, I really liked the lounge here. It's bright, clean,
and an excellent perk of this already very inexpensive ticket.
On my way to the gate, there was a sign tucked away in a corner that caught my eye,
and it was a check-in sign for The Canadian.
The Canadian is Via’s flagship and longest route, connecting Toronto and Vancouver through
Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Jasper, a 4-day journey spanning over 4,000 kilometres!
While certainly not inexpensive, it’s one of those bucket-list items that I’d love
to do someday.
Soon enough, it was time to board, and we made our way up to the platform.
As we started boarding, they told Business Class passengers to wait a moment since their
car wasn’t ready yet,
except I was already halfway up the escalator when they said that.
However, that seemed like the perfect opportunity to walk up front and grab this video’s thumbnail!
This locomotive is a General Electric P42DC, with a top speed of 160km/h,
and Via has 21 of these units in their fleet.
Shortly afterwards, the Business Class car was ready for boarding.
My seat for this fli-
*ahem*
train ride,
is 10S, a single forward facing seat on the right side of the car.
The legroom here is excellent for someone who’s 6’8” like myself, and there’s
also a movable footrest.
The headrests for these seats are fixed, but the seats are pretty tall to begin with so
there’s lots of support.
There are also two power ports available, as well as two indents for cups and some storage
space on the right side.
In the seatback pocket, Via Rail has a brochure promoting their modernization efforts,
… as well as a safety card,
… and this conveniently placed trash bag.
There’s also a coat hook on the side of the seat, as well as this large tray table.
In addition, there’s a personal reading light for every passenger.
Once everyone in Business Class had boarded, I was greeted by a very friendly crew member
who gave me a brief personalized safety briefing as we pulled out of Union Station.
Now ideally, I would’ve taken this trip in daylight so you could actually see things outside,
but this was the only time that worked with my inbound flight.
Plus, the super short days of January in Canada don’t help at all!
This trip is just a small part of Via Rail’s Quebec City to Windsor Corridor, which is
also the most densely populated region of Canada,
containing half of the entire country’s population in a 1200-kilometre stretch.
As a result, it’s also the busiest route that Via serves, by far.
Our travel time to London today is scheduled to be 2 hours and 7 minutes.
From Union Station, we would be stopping in Oakville, Aldershot, Brantford, Woodstock,
and Ingersoll, before disembarking in London.
Via Rail offers complimentary wifi, as well as some on-train entertainment
available through their website.
The selection isn’t bad by any means, but it is exclusively Canadian content, which…
makes sense, given that Via Rail is still a Crown Corporation.
The wifi was also quick enough, for being free to use, and
it was good for mindless scrolling and keeping in touch with friends.
After stopping in Oakville, I received a cup of Coke, as well as a small snack bag.
By the time we got to Aldershot, the crew had handed out hot towels to us as well,
and later made an announcement with our choices for the meal service.
"Again, your three options are portabello pasta, a pan-braised cod, or a roasted chicken."
For supper tonight, I opted for a roasted chicken dish, which came with a cheese plate,
pudding for dessert, a glass of water, and this bread roll.
Now, unlike the bread rolls in Business on...
a certain Canadian airline, this one was very
warm and easy to cut open.
With some butter, it was delicious.
The main course consisted of a chicken breast over rice and some broccoli.
The chicken was…
The chicken was very good, as was the broccoli, although the rice left a bit to be desired.
The cheese plate was very tasty as well, as was the dessert, which I polished off in seconds.
Overall, this was a fantastic meal for the price of the ticket,
I was very impressed both with the overall quality and taste.
Thumbs up to Via Rail!
Shortly afterwards, a crew member came by to take the meal tray, and offered more drinks.
This time, I went for a cup of coffee, before I got up to get a better look around the car.
These Business Class LRC cars are arranged in a 1-2 configuration, with 44 seats total.
That also includes 6 tables, and lots of headroom while standing up!
The lavatory in the back of the Business class car is very spacious,
although the ceiling was a bit on the short side.
Regardless, it was bright, and very clean too.
I will say, with free wifi and wide seats like this, this is a very nice way to travel.
It’s something I never got to experience growing up in Western Canada, and it really
makes me wish we had more travel options.
As we approached London, individual chocolates were given out to everyone, and...
I think here’s where I’ll wrap things up.
I know the view outside really wasn’t great, but inside the car, I had a wonderful trip
with Via Rail!
While doing my research for this video, I read that one common complaint was how frequently
trains could be delayed,
and that’s mostly because Via shares the lines with freight operators.
Either I got lucky on this trip, or it’s more common on the other half of the Corridor
between Quebec City and Toronto,
but we were right on schedule the whole time, with no delays whatsoever.
"Votre attention, s'il vous plait, nous arrivons a la gare de London.
Last call, London Station, dernier appele la gare de London."
It was a lot of fun trying out a completely different mode of transportation, and especially
for the price that I paid, Business Class was excellent.
The lounge was spotless, the service was great throughout, and the food on board was delicious.
I just wish I didn’t have to fly to the other side of the country to experience it.
Regardless, after this trip, I… kinda wanna ride more trains!
This was a great taste of the Via Rail experience, and I’ll definitely travel with them again
in the future.
As always, thank you very much for watching this trip report!
This video was very much me trying something new, so do tell me what you thought of this
special rail video in the comments below.
I had a lot of fun on this trip, so if you do want to see more like this, let me know,
and maybe someday I’ll try another Via Rail route.
Otherwise, leave a like if you enjoyed, subscribe if you’re new, and I will see you next time.