Overlapping VIA Rail GO Transit and AMT Rail Lines

Hello All,
This summer, I'm planning on taking a trip to Eastern Canada to introduce myself to VIA Rail, the commuter railroads, subways, and trolleys.
Which GO Transit and AMT Commuter Rail lines does VIA traverse in their entirety? Thanks.

Since I'm located in the Toronto area I'll answer this for AMT's commuter train routes. Perhaps someone from the Montreal area will provide some answers for GO Transit

The only AMT route which shares the same lracks with VIA for the entire way is the Mont-St-Hilaire line which is on the VIA Montréal - Québec City corridor and is also used by the Halifax Ocean and Gaspé trains. The planned Repentigny/Mascouche line, which is not yet running, will share some, but not all, of it's route with VIA's northern Québec services to Jonquière and Senneterre,

Although it doesn't share the same tracks, the Vaudreuil/Hudson (CPR) line parallels the VIA (CN) corridor route for Montreal - Toronto and Montreal - Ottawa between Lachine and Dorion.

Living in Winnipeg, I feel it is my duty to cover GO transit.

Let's see

-The Sarnia train travels the same route as the Georgetown line.
-The Niagara and Windsor trains follow the Lakeshore west line all the way to Aldershot, and the Niagara train follows the same route as the seasonal Niagara Falls GO train.
-The Montréal and Ottawa trains cover the entire Lakeshore East line.
-The Canadian covers a small part of the Georgetown line, but uses none of its stops beside Union Station.

bitf wrote:Living in Winnipeg, I feel it is my duty to cover GO transit.

That's pretty close bitf but there are a few adjustments to your list.

- The Georgetown line is correct as is the seasonal Niagara Falls service.
- There are three daily trains each way to Hamilton on the Lakeshore West line that diverge from the VIA route at Bayview (a bit west of Aldershot).
- The Lakeshore East line has its own right of way parallel to the VIA/CN tracks east from Pickering to Oshawa
- The Canadian actually has two routes in and out of Union Station. Eastbound it enters Toronto following the same tracks as the Richmond Hill line all the way, and westbound it leaves Toronto following the Bradford/Barrie route and then switches over to the Richmond Hill line north of the city.

Thanks for the info! Why do the westbound and eastbound Canadians have different routings once in the Toronto area?

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:Why do the westbound and eastbound Canadians have different routings once in the Toronto area?

The Canadian is too long to turn around on the short wye track in VIA's Toronto (Mimico) yard so it goes forward out of Union facing the same direction it came in and does a sort of loop around the city.

If you're up for an adventure, and you're taking the Canadian from Winnipeg, you might be able to squeeze in a trip on the Northlander (within the same day) if that interests you. At Washago (around 150 km north of Toronto), you'll arrive at 7:05 am coming from Winnipeg. The Northlander by the Ontario Northland overlaps the same track between Washago & Toronto. Even if you arrived an hour or so late, the Northlander heading towards North Bay & Cochrane arrives at Washago at 10:25 am. You'd be able to take as far North as South River (arriving at 12:35 pm) & then catch the Southbound Northlander in South River at 14:40. You'd arrive at Union Station for 19:15. The Northlander runs on every day except Saturdays.

When I was returning from Winnipeg, given there's no passenger rail service between Sudbury & North Bay, I took the Canadien all the way to Washago & caught the Northlander to North Bay later that morning.

I know this isn't in GO Transit/AMT territoire, but another train that you'll cross paths with (if you're on the Canadien) is the Algoma Central train at Oba. I don't recommend the correspondence simply because the train times do not align well. Oba is also smack dab in the middle of nowhere (literally). There's also the White River train at Sudbury if you want to venture off the Canadien. Yet again though, the train times don't align well & you would get off in an industrial area of Sudbury Jct, so you'd have to take a cab to get downtown to catch the #185.

Ken V wrote:

bitf wrote:Living in Winnipeg, I feel it is my duty to cover GO transit.

That's pretty close bitf but there are a few adjustments to your list.

- The Georgetown line is correct as is the seasonal Niagara Falls service.
- There are three daily trains each way to Hamilton on the Lakeshore West line that diverge from the VIA route at Bayview (a bit west of Aldershot).
- The Lakeshore East line has its own right of way parallel to the VIA/CN tracks east from Pickering to Oshawa
- The Canadian actually has two routes in and out of Union Station. Eastbound it enters Toronto following the same tracks as the Richmond Hill line all the way, and westbound it leaves Toronto following the Bradford/Barrie route and then switches over to the Richmond Hill line north of the city.

I confess it was a lot of guessing on my part based off CTA info and Maps, haven't been to toronto (aside from Pearson airport) in a long time sadly.

Is it true that much of VIA's Montreal to Toronto Corridor Line runs on the same tracks as AMT's line to Hudson, like as far as Dorian?
This question is off topic, but are there public buses from at or near the Hudson Station of AMT to other AMT or VIA Rail Stations with more service to Montreal. I see that if you ride to Hudson, you could only go there during the p.m. rush, but getting back to Montreal is impossible by train from there. Thanks.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:Is it true that much of VIA's Montreal to Toronto Corridor Line runs on the same tracks as AMT's line to Hudson, like as far as Dorian?

Technically, no. As I wrote here earlier, the AMT tracks run parallel to (beside) the VIA route.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:This question is off topic, but are there public buses from at or near the Hudson Station of AMT to other AMT or VIA Rail Stations with more service to Montreal. I see that if you ride to Hudson, you could only go there during the p.m. rush, but getting back to Montreal is impossible by train from there. Thanks.

As far as I know there is nothing really in the way of bus service in Hudson. You'd probably have to take a taxi, at least part way. The Société de Transport de Montréal has frequent bus connections at most of the AMT stations in the immediate Montreal area which can get you downtown quickly. However, once you leave the Island of Montreal proper, local buses are operated by a number of different regional authorities and service can be quite sparse.

While this isn't related to VIA Rail, does anyone know if Amtrak's Adirondack run on the same tracks as the AMT Line to Cantic? thanks.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:does anyone know if Amtrak's Adirondack run on the same tracks as the AMT Line to Cantic?

Amtrak's Adirondack runs on the same track as the AMT Mont-St-Hilaire route to a point mid way between Saint-Lambert and Saint-Hubert stations where it heads south. Decades ago the Adirondack did take the same tracks as the Candiac line but that was long before AMT started its service there.

The Adirondack does go through Cantic QC (30 miles south of Candiac) but AMT does not go that far.