VIA Rail

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Locals know they can book separate legs with accommodation in between if that is a trip they really want to take.

London and Warsaw are a series of trains that have frequent service. There is no layover of more than a few hours. Also, you are looking at a third party website. If you go to the Eurostar website it won’t offer Warsaw as a destination.

Also, London and Warsaw are 1600 km apart, Vancouver and Halifax are 6000 km. An equivalent 6000 km trip from London would be Tashkent, Mecca or Dakar.

Ok. Nearest decent Via station to me is Capreol. Capreol to Halifax is just under 2000km. So,lets use Moncton. It is about 1600km away.

The difference between Europe and Canada is that the same distance here is is one company - Via. Whereas there are a number of companies in the same distance Via covers, so they have worked together to make it easier.

My hope for the new system is that I can book from any Via station to any Via station and it will tell me what is needed to get there, including alternative transportation and an overnight layover.

If I were to make it the dream system, not only would it do the above, it would also give you information for what is available, for example, what transportation does connect the 2 stations, or what hotels are nearby. Also, full integration with Amtrak.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

My hope for the new system is that I can book from any Via station to any Via station and it will tell me what is needed to get there, including alternative transportation and an overnight layover.

If I were to make it the dream system, not only would it do the above, it would also give you information for what is available, for example, what transportation does connect the 2 stations, or what hotels are nearby. Also, full integration with Amtrak.

I believe Via services are listed in Sabre. There is nothing stopping a third party from creating such an app for rail enthusiasts.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Ok. Nearest decent Via station to me is Capreol. Capreol to Halifax is just under 2000km. So,lets use Moncton. It is about 1600km away.

And two of the three trains you need to take run twice a week. If the Chunnel had only two trains a week and Berlin-Warsaw ran twice a week you wouldn’t find that route in a third party travel planner either.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I believe Via services are listed in Sabre. There is nothing stopping a third party from creating such an app for rail enthusiasts.

They should be on sites like Expedia. You know, well known, popular travel websites.

Because you are feeding it, a fantasy would be that I could book train travel between here and anywhere on the continental Americas. So, if one day I wanted to travel by rail from here to Santiago, popular travel websites would be able to give me all the rail options on top of the flights. I know most people see traveling as the destination, but sometimes it is the journey you took.

Reality is, as I said, is a website that is intuitive for most people who don't know the system but know where they are coming from and where they are going.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by acottawa

And two of the three trains you need to take run twice a week. If the Chunnel had only two trains a week and Berlin-Warsaw ran twice a week you wouldn’t find that route in a third party travel planner either.

I thought during the summer, the Canadian and Ocean are thrice a week.

Regardless, if it is part of the same system, it should not require you to know anything more than the place you are leaving from and the place you are going to.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by acottawa

And two of the three trains you need to take run twice a week. If the Chunnel had only two trains a week and Berlin-Warsaw ran twice a week you wouldn’t find that route in a third party travel planner either.

Any Halifax train connection example is going to be impractical unless you're going back and forth from New Brunswick or some other NS town and you happen to want to go on one of the days the train runs. Somebody in the Halifax section posted that the train actually worked to go to an event in Moncton then back to Halifax, which is surprising.

If you're going to Boston there are direct flights that take 1 hour and 50 minutes, while the train journey via Montreal and Rimouski would be multiple days and probably costs a lot more.

[thewave46]

It's less the distance per se, and if the itinerary makes sense.

Google Flights is an aggregator that allows one to book with a number of travel sites (like Expedia). You can kludge together weird itineraries and it will let you, with hugely long layovers and options that include changing airports and separate tickets.

I think some of the options are downright ludicrous, but hey, as long as you know what you're doing. One can book a Sudbury-Edmonton itinerary on Air Canada that includes 3 airports and a manual airport-to-airport connection (YYZ-YTZ). If you don't, well, you're going to learn a life lesson.

If you try and book the same itinerary with an airline directly, it actually might not let you. This is because the internal logic of the airline booking system prevents the most oddball connections because they're on the hook for dealing with you if you buy from them directly. So, separately ticketed legs, or extremely long layovers, or changing airports are generally no bueno there. Sure, it's not listing all the options possible, but the options are so bad as to be non-starters for the not insane traveller.

VIA's internal logic probably has something similar. I am curious if their system wholescale prevents connections between the Canadian and Corridor lines/eastern lines (or perhaps also lines that would require a change of station) because the on-time performance of some lines is so poor that building a connecting itinerary is a fool's errand regardless of the actual supposed scheduling of the trains. It is sort of weird that one can't take a Sudbury-Montreal train regardless, yet a Prince Rupert, BC (or Churchill, MB)-Toronto one, but I suspect that might be the reason.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by someone123

Any Halifax train connection example is going to be impractical unless you're going back and forth from New Brunswick and you happen to want to go on one of the days the train runs. Somebody in the Halifax section posted that the train actually worked to go to an event in Moncton then back to Halifax, which is surprising.

If you're going to Boston there are direct flights that take 1 hour and 50 minutes, while the train journey would be multiple days.

What if you are retired and would rather not fly unless you need to? What if you don't mind if the journey takes a few days to get there vs a few hours? Remember, we have an aging population with disposable income.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by thewave46

It's less the distance per se, and if the itinerary makes sense.

Google Flights is an aggregator that allows one to book with a number of travel sites (like Expedia). You can kludge together weird itineraries and it will let you, with hugely long layovers and options that include changing airports and separate tickets.

I think some of the options are downright ludicrous, but hey, as long as you know what you're doing. One can book a Sudbury-Edmonton itinerary on Air Canada that includes 3 airports and a manual airport-to-airport connection (YYZ-YTZ). If you don't, well, you're going to learn a life lesson.

If you try and book the same itinerary with an airline directly, it actually might not let you. This is because the internal logic of the airline booking system prevents the most oddball connections because they're on the hook for dealing with you if you buy from them directly. So, separately ticketed legs, or extremely long layovers, or changing airports are generally no bueno there. Sure, it's not listing all the options possible, but the options are so bad as to be non-starters for the not insane traveller.

VIA's internal logic probably has something similar. I am curious if their system wholescale prevents connections between the Canadian and Corridor lines/eastern lines (or perhaps also lines that would require a change of station) because the on-time performance of some lines is so poor that building a connecting itinerary is a fool's errand regardless of the actual supposed scheduling of the trains. It is sort of weird that one can't take a Sudbury-Montreal train regardless, yet a Prince Rupert, BC (or Churchill, MB)-Toronto one, but I suspect that might be the reason.

I fully think that the current system is one that is designed for travel along the route, not along the system. The Multi City allows for you to do as you did with Google. Hearing from @urbansky that it is changing is positive news.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

I fully think that the current system is one that is designed for travel along the route, not along the system. The Multi City allows for you to do as you did with Google. Hearing from @urbansky that it is changing is positive news.

VIA's system will let you book a trip from Toronto-Halifax (Corridor-Ocean) without using the multi-city option, so some connectivity between routes is possible.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

What if you are retired and would rather not fly unless you need to? What if you don't mind if the journey takes a few days to get there vs a few hours? Remember, we have an aging population with disposable income.

I believe that is the exact target audience of travel agencies.

[someone123]

I assumed there is a Boston to Montreal train but it looks like you have to go via NYC. Here's the approximate Boston to Halifax train route. You would start off that trip by travelling 300 km in the wrong direction:

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by thewave46

VIA's system will let you book a trip from Toronto-Halifax (Corridor-Ocean) without using the multi-city option, so some connectivity between routes is possible.

Of course it is. The algorithm just won’t book some crazy layover.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by thewave46

VIA's system will let you book a trip from Toronto-Halifax (Corridor-Ocean) without using the multi-city option, so some connectivity between routes is possible.

I tried it. It seems this booking system is Corridor focused.
At least I am less than a day out from Toronto. Imagine being more than 24 hours and trying to do it. It is almost as though we are back in the days of paper timetables and planning your trip with them.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by someone123

I assumed there is a Boston to Montreal train but it looks like you have to go via NYC. Here's the approximate Boston to Halifax train route. You would start off that trip by travelling 300 km in the wrong direction:

There is also a ferry from Yarmouth to Maine, for those who don’t want to fly.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

I tried it. It seems this booking system is Corridor focused.
At least I am less than a day out from Toronto. Imagine being more than 24 hours and trying to do it. It is almost as though we are back in the days of paper timetables and planning your trip with them.

Seems to work for me.

Toronto-Halifax

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I believe that is the exact target audience of travel agencies.

With the older generation heading out for leisure for the next few decades, one would think there would also be better travel websites too.

Originally Posted by someone123

I assumed there is a Boston to Montreal train but it looks like you have to go via NYC. Here's the approximate Boston to Halifax train route. You would start off that trip by travelling 300 km in the wrong direction:

Yes, that would be the route. However, on their accessible timetable, there is no listing for the Montreal Amtrak connection.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by acottawa

There is also a ferry from Yarmouth to Maine, for those who don’t want to fly.

I thought about the ferry but it turns out that Yarmouth doesn't have bus service anymore (long ago it had passenger rail). If it did have a bus, that would be the best non-flying route to Boston. There is also a Digby to Saint John ferry.

You can take a bus from Halifax to Saint John and Amtrak from Brunswick, ME to Boston. There is another gap there.

(The vast majority of travelers will go by private car or plane.)

Edit: there are shuttle services from Halifax to Yarmouth. So you can go by shuttle for 4 or 5 hours, then get on the CAT for 3.5 hours or so, then get on your bus in Bar Harbor for the 7.5 hour or so trip to Boston. Not sure if this is possible in a single day.

There also used to be cross-border Bangor shopping and gambling tours. I wonder if those still exist or if you can get some kind of Bangor tour bus. It is hard to imagine a more depressing trip than a long bus ride to Bangor for shopping at outlet malls.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by thewave46

Seems to work for me.

Toronto-Halifax

That is what I meant by Corridor focused.

[Urban_Sky]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

That is what I meant by Corridor focused.

The Corridor extends to Halifax now?