So VIA is offering a $150 system-wide pass for the month of July for people in the 12-25 age group (or older if you have a ISIC student card!).
Apparently they've sold a bunch of them. So many that their system has crashed.
A few questions I have to ponder:
1) Usually they only put 2 coaches into each train over the summer, 50 seats a piece. How many HEP-compatible coaches does VIA even have that they could put on these trains, while meeting all the other demand in the system? Bookings already seem to be heavy for the sleepers (can't get a room for 1 or even for 2 on many of the dates I tried!), so they'll probably be running at the limit -- 28 cars or something???
2) When I was aboard a few summers ago, with perhaps 50-55 people in Economy, they had an awfully hard time preparing meals when they were made complimentary due to severe lateness coming into Jasper. If Economy gets packed with 100 passengers, won't it be a disaster customer-service wise?
3) 100 younger passengers, maybe more if they throw more coaches at it. Full of youngsters, many of whom will smuggle alcohol and pot aboard. Can you imagine that that might be like? Lol. And how nasty some of the kids might get towards staff if the train is late, which it almost always is.
I'm almost tempted to book a mid-July Saskatoon-Edmonton, to see what kind of party they got going onboard, lol.
edit: they're limiting the number of passes to 1867. Lol.
Apparently they've sold a bunch of them. So many that their system has crashed.
A few questions I have to ponder:
1) Usually they only put 2 coaches into each train over the summer, 50 seats a piece. How many HEP-compatible coaches does VIA even have that they could put on these trains, while meeting all the other demand in the system? Bookings already seem to be heavy for the sleepers (can't get a room for 1 or even for 2 on many of the dates I tried!), so they'll probably be running at the limit -- 28 cars or something???
2) When I was aboard a few summers ago, with perhaps 50-55 people in Economy, they had an awfully hard time preparing meals when they were made complimentary due to severe lateness coming into Jasper. If Economy gets packed with 100 passengers, won't it be a disaster customer-service wise?
3) 100 younger passengers, maybe more if they throw more coaches at it. Full of youngsters, many of whom will smuggle alcohol and pot aboard. Can you imagine that that might be like? Lol. And how nasty some of the kids might get towards staff if the train is late, which it almost always is.
I'm almost tempted to book a mid-July Saskatoon-Edmonton, to see what kind of party they got going onboard, lol.
edit: they're limiting the number of passes to 1867. Lol.
