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Have there been "forced retirements" of the HEP II cars due to structure or Mech failures?? None that I'm aware of. The whole 33 car fleet is currently being cycled through the MMC for refurbishment work - the cars are getting new interiors that match the latest LRC interiors, with 2+1 se...

These trains normally use HEP1 coaches, which do not have MU pass-through lines. So in order to have the second loco running and MU'd to the leader, they'd have to run cables through the cars (which doesn't make a lot of sense). They could keep the HEP generator running to power that part of the tra...

I've looked at two sets of diagrams, the ones posted earlier in this topic by chriskay and the ones on the VIA site at https://www.viarail.ca/en/resources/stainless-steel-sleeping-car" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and both seem to be accurate as far as bedroom window plac...

Ok, so I decided to upgrade to a cabin for 2 and have a bit more space. I asked the phone rep if they had an F cabin available. He said no but that cabin A is also a larger one. So I booked it in A and after the call I looked at the layout of the cabin. If I’m looking at it correctly, it appears th...

Assigned seating has been in place on the Ocean since October 10, 2018 (in place on both #14 and 15 departing that day). With the assigned seating line numbering for coaches is now consistently in place, and is consistent with the numbering for Corridor trains - since there is only Economy class, th...

From the Canrailpass conditions on VIA's website: "Upgrades to higher classes of service are permitted: credits may alternatively be applied towards a single-use 25% discount on the best available fare in Business, Touring or Sleeper class (excluding Prestige Sleeper class) on a one-way trip (w...

The bolded part is basically what happened to me, except I couldn't be sent home, I was already at my connecting flight city. About the travel insurance, I really don't remember, I'll be honest (booked the trip in august of last year for a trip to november)... So maybe it was actually my fault. Sti...

I would agree if I didn't have paid for inssurance. But isn't insurance exactly for stuff like that, since they tend to compensate anyways when it IS their fault. Did you pay for the travel insurance that Porter offers through RBC? Because if that's what you did, it's RBC that you need to take issu...

You may have issues if you're going to a smaller stop where they may not actually stop if noone is getting off, but at a large station like Montreal? You can most likely just get up when the train stops and get off with all of the other Montreal passengers. I did this before at Dorval on an Ottawa-M...

Regrettably there is not a single train on the Toronto – Ottawa route that has a baggage car. Some of the Ottawa-Quebec trains do have a baggage car, most likely the ones with Renaissance equipment. You're correct about that, however, that may not impede connecting passengers from checking bags. Fo...

Thank you good sir. I was like only 90% sure this would happen. Thanks for confirming. My girlfriemd is gonna be far less stressed out during the ride now. Also, if that does happen, do I just go to a ticket counter to esplain the situation, or do I tell the staff on the Halifax-Montreal train and ...

Thank you, Tim, for posting your blog and photos. I'm sure it takes a lot of effort to do so (I couldn't do it). It is indeed quite a bit of effort - on average, each post takes me about 2 hours to write up and get all the photos in, and that's even with working 90% from my detailed notes that I to...

Excellent Blog so far ! What are you waiting for ??? Click on the link !!!:):):) Thanks! Today I added Day 3, which is the first full day on the Canadian (through northern Ontario). The trip was 9 days in total, so I'm a third of the way through! Though I may have to split a couple more of those da...

For anyone interested, I have started a blog to document my cross-Canada trip from April. This includes the stainless steel Ocean in both directions. Here's part 1, which is all on the Ocean: http://timstraintravels.blogspot.ca/2017/07/cross-canada-trip-2017-day-1.html It continues in part 2, which ...

They really don't want to put in the time and effort, do they? Omnitrax hasn't gone out yet, but a pair of motorcyclists rode the whole line a week and a half ago... http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/churchill-motorcyle-riders-rail-line-1.4170059 ** Now I wouldn't necessarily trust their engin...