Train no longer stopping at Charny?

So I am planning my vacations as we speak. Me and my Girlfriend are taking the train to Halifax. However, something struck me as odd.

When I went to Moncton in 2009 and Halifax in 2010, I'm pretty sure I took a shuttle from Quebec' "Gare du Palais" to the Charny Train station, on the south coast of the St Lawrence River.

But when my GF went to check the price of the trains, she noticed that the shuttle send us to Ste-Foy instead
I checked to make sure she has made no mistake, and it indeed tells me that the shuttle is headed to Ste-Foy.

Why is that? And how the heck would such a train ride work? Do the train go past Charny to take the Quebec Bridge only to cross it again after going to Ste-Foy? Has anyone here taken the Ocean lately ( not in full but at least from Between Montreal-Drummondville to at least past Charny)?

That said. If the shuttle goes indeed on to Ste-Foy, I'm just gonna get a city bus ride instead. More hassle, but 30$ less expencive for a round trip.

Oh and also, when I checked a Ste-Foy - Halifax ride, it showed me a single train to take, rather than the usualy shuttle + train.

Yes, on January 7, 2014 the Ocean began stopping at Sainte-Foy in suburban Quebec City instead of Charny on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.

The Halifax to Montreal Ocean used to back-up about a mile from West Jct. to Charny Station. Now to reach Sainte-Foy, it just continues backing an additional 3 miles across the St. Lawrence on the Quebec Bridge. After the stop in Sainte-Foy, it pulls forward to West Jct and continues onto Montreal.

The eastbound Ocean just does the opposite....first pulling into Sainte-Foy then backing out to West Jct before continuing onto Halifax.

I knew their intention of unstaffing the Charny station, but I wasn't aware they were going to compketely get rid of it o.O

The Montreal-Quebec trains #23 and #24 still stop at Charny.

I just took the Ocean Halifax-Montreal and return last week, so I can confirm the new practice. The train does indeed cross the Quebec bridge over to Ste-Foy, but it actually goes across the bridge forwards both ways, and backs out across the bridge to return to the main.

The eastbound train goes in through Charny and continues over to Ste-Foy, then after the stop backs out and proceeds onwards through Joffre yard. The westbound Ocean, however, actually takes a switch near the east end of Joffre yard, which then connects with the track just past the Charny station. It's a very very tight curve (lots of squealing!), but it allows them to go into the station forwards and reverse out.

This means the stops are consistent in the eastbound and westbound directions, with the train always coming into the Ste-Foy station forwards.

The run across the bridge is really cool, and looks amazing at night on the eastbound trip. It's an early morning coming westbound, but I got up at 5am to see it! Takes longer than the Charny stop, but the schedule has been adjusted to allow for it. Makes a cool backing move too, especially at night....they have one engineer come back to the Park, and turn on the tail light to see. It's not very bright though, and I heard that one of the engineers on a previous trip had the rear door open and was using a flashlight as well!

One of the pluses of the Ste-Foy stop is that on weekdays, passengers travelling through to Ottawa can now book a connection on Train 33 from Ste-Foy to Ottawa. This means you have to get up and off the train at 5am, but it also means you're in Ottawa by 10:55am. Given that the new schedule offers only one other connection to Ottawa from Montreal (at 4pm!), this is a pretty reasonable deal. Only major downside is you lose any sleep in and you miss breakfast on the train, but if you book Business then I suppose you'd get that on the leg to Ottawa.

How does the westbound Ocean access the bridge? Does it now use the east leg of the wye track between Joffre and Charny?......then backs out through the wye into Triage Joffre before continuing west?

If so, I believe the Ocean would be the first passenger train to regularly use the east leg of the wye since the old Monk Subdivision RDC to Edmundston came off in Oct 1979.

NS VIA FAN wrote:How does the westbound Ocean access the bridge? Does it now use the east leg of the wye track between Joffre and Charny?......then backs out through the wye into Triage Joffre before continuing west?

If so, I believe the Ocean would be the first passenger train to regularly use the east leg of the wye since the old Monk Subdivision RDC to Edmundston came off in Oct 1979.

Yes, it actually does use the east leg of the wye, allowing it to run in forward across the bridge and then back out after the stop. As I said, it's a crazy sharp curve! I was told by someone on board (who works for VIA in Montreal) that they had to do an engineering study on that curve first to determine if it could handle the stresses of a full length Ocean (and possibly combined Chaleur and Ocean). It seems they at least decided that it was okay right now, because that's what we did westbound on the 18th of April.