1 May 2010 01:30
Re: New Electronic Versions of Canrailpass and 6-Pak now online at viarail.ca
As Tom Box quotes the New Canrail Pass is no longer available for Upgrades to Sleeper Touring Class. In the past if you were to book a Canrail Pass, & also Book Sleeper Touring Class you would receive a Discount for Upgrading. That Discount is no longer available with the New Canrail Pass. I think the New Canrail Policy Stinks, & it's just another way VIA chases away Ridership for people who like to Travel, & who cannot make Last Minute Bookings. The cheapest way to go is now to look for the Express Deals, & save up to 75% off Regular Fares providing you can make last Minute Arrangements. Example Vancouver-Toronto on VIA #2 on Friday May 14 Upper Birth $341, compared to $1023. There are a ton of Deals out there is you search the Express Deals. Remember it's for last minute Travel. Alan Switzer wrote: > Big change - the number of Canrailpass and 6-Pak seats are > now limited Another big change: the Canrailpass page says "Canrailpasses are valid for travel only in the class of service for which they are issued. Upgrades to different classes are not allowed." and "When booking online, you must select « Economy - supersaver fare ». Your Canrailpass is not valid for travel in any other fare class." Whenever I used a Canrailpass, it always involved travel on the Ocean, Chaleur and Canadian, for which I bought upgrades to sleeper. I'm unlikely to use the new version of the pass, since I dislike overnight travel in coach.(Continue reading)
Probably the biggest #2 that we will ever see for quite some time is
due to
Depart Vancouver Pacific Central Station if everything goes well at
8:30pm.
Walter, I was lucky to ride and experience one of these giant consists May 29, 2007 on a Toronto - Winnipeg
trip. 30 cars in the consist, 3 locos, 4 skylines, 3 diners and Banff Park bringing up the rear. Backing into
Union Station from Toronto MC there was a loco attached to the Park car 'pulling' the consist east. I
remember the servicing of the train was difficult at Capreol, Hornepayne, Sioux Lookout etc, based on
watering and fueling the front cars at these stops, followed by the train moving up for servicing of the
rear cars. Very time consuming. We arrived quite late into Winnipeg ( 5+ hrs on the old schedule ). At the
time there were a number of U.S., German and Asian tour groups necessitating the large number of sleepers.
I think the general consensus was the staff wasn't thrilled
to work such a giant.
A funny side point - I timed myself walking the entire consist from the first coach to the Park, and it took 13
minutes at a regular pace to complete the task. ( doing my best to avoid some of the older-folk between cars )
I have a number of photos in northern ON <at> Longlac etc where terrain allowed for almost entire front or rear
shots of the complete train. As you can imagine, most of the time the head end was well out of site. ( I was in a
Chateau near the rear). I have to admit, I'm sure as the train travelled thru the prairies the photo
opportunities would have been awesome. Never the less, I departed in Winnipeg and missed the rest of the
photo opps.
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