2023 Canadian Coach experience

[crescent-zephyr]

Rode the Canadian from Vancouver to Edmonton last week, had a great time. Wanted to mention a few things.

At the station (Vancouver) the Ticket Agent refused to print me a paper ticket because he "didn't want to waste his ticket stock" - I told him I wasn't sure if I had a good cell phone connection across Canada and he acted very rude and told me the only time I would ever have to show my ticket was in the station at Vancouver. That was a lie, I had to show it multiple times throughout the trip (On the train when departing, and when re-boarding in Jasper). I always request a paper ticket when traveling on Amtrak and also on airlines and I've never been refused.

On Board the train the coach attendants were VERY friendly, they assumed that all solo passengers would take up 2 seats - this along with the dome car definitely provides a premium coach experience. I was in a coach with refurbished seats, they seems a little more comfortable than amtrak coach seats, but very similar in terms of overall comfort and leg room.

The Dome car was of course fantastic and I enjoyed the fact that it was not policed... you could hang out as long as you wanted.

The Coach food options are VERY limited - the posted menus are not correct so you have to ask the attendant what he has and then he has to search to see what he has left. The attendant was very friendly, but the whole operation is very unorganized and looks like it was thrown together at the last minute, despite this train operating all the time.

Delays were the normal Canadian delays - several times we had to stop for 3+ freights to pass but CN is a busy railroad with long trains and lots of single track.

I was sad to see the old Searchlight signals are starting to be replaced..... sad

With so much daylight I got great views of the scenery, many of which I missed on my previous trip.

Hope this encourages someone to jump on the Canadian soon.. I'm sure glad I did!

 

[zephyr17]

Rode the Canadian from Vancouver to Edmonton last week, had a great time. Wanted to mention a few things.

At the station (Vancouver) the Ticket Agent refused to print me a paper ticket because he "didn't want to waste his ticket stock" - I told him I wasn't sure if I had a good cell phone connection across Canada and he acted very rude and told me the only time I would ever have to show my ticket was in the station at Vancouver. That was a lie, I had to show it multiple times throughout the trip (On the train when departing, and when re-boarding in Jasper). I always request a paper ticket when traveling on Amtrak and also on airlines and I've never been refused.

On Board the train the coach attendants were VERY friendly, they assumed that all solo passengers would take up 2 seats - this along with the dome car definitely provides a premium coach experience. I was in a coach with refurbished seats, they seems a little more comfortable than amtrak coach seats, but very similar in terms of overall comfort and leg room.

The Dome car was of course fantastic and I enjoyed the fact that it was not policed... you could hang out as long as you wanted.

The Coach food options are VERY limited - the posted menus are not correct so you have to ask the attendant what he has and then he has to search to see what he has left. The attendant was very friendly, but the whole operation is very unorganized and looks like it was thrown together at the last minute, despite this train operating all the time.

Delays were the normal Canadian delays - several times we had to stop for 3+ freights to pass but CN is a busy railroad with long trains and lots of single track.

I was sad to see the old Searchlight signals are starting to be replaced..... sad

With so much daylight I got great views of the scenery, many of which I missed on my previous trip.

Hope this encourages someone to jump on the Canadian soon.. I'm sure glad I did!

The last time I rode the Canadian, I overhead on my scanner on the VIA OBS frequency from the coach attendant to the Service Manager that passengers were requesting the lights be dimmed at night. The SM replied that no, a new Transport Canada directive required them to keep then fully on. That was last November.

My question to you is did they dim the lights overnight on your trip or not?

PS, I always print out my boarding pass PDF on both Amtrak and VIA, in addition to having it on my phone. You always have to show your ticket to reboard at Jasper and Winnipeg if you get off the train, although a copy on your phone, either as a PDF or through the VIA app works fine. I wonder why the agent at Vancouver was rude about it and was either misinformed or lied. The practice of requiring you show a ticket to reboard at Jasper and Winnipeg has been in force effectively forever.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

My question to you is did they dim the lights overnight on your trip or not?

The dome car lights were fully on, and the attendant apologized and said they weren't allowed to dim them anymore.

The Coach lights were definitely brighter than I would have preferred, but they were only half on so they were dimmed a bit I guess. (Meaning half of each strip was on, the other half was off).

PS, I always print out my boarding pass PDF on both Amtrak and VIA, in addition to having it on my phone.

After a missed flight because my AA app didn't actually check me in for the flight, the AA agent told me they always reccomend asking for a printed ticket when you arrive at the airport because that way you don't have anything to worry about, ever since I've always done that for my travels unless I'm running late and have to run for the track / gate (happens at least 50% of the time haha).

 

[Urban Sky]

The VIA App saves all Boarding Passes locally (keeping them accessible anytime) and you can always save them as a screenshot on your phone. Also, staff can look you up by name, though I’m not sure that works when without mobile phone reception…

 

[crescent-zephyr]

The VIA App saves all Boarding Passes locally (keeping them accessible anytime) and you can always save them as a screenshot on your phone. Also, staff can look you up by name, though I’m not sure that works when without mobile phone reception…

It's still terrible customer service to refuse to print a boarding pass.

 

[shanghaiamtrak]

you had me till you said they keep the lights on in the dome all night. wonder why they are able to dim the lights in the sleeper domes but not the coach one?

 

[crescent-zephyr]

you had me till you said they keep the lights on in the dome all night. wonder why they are able to dim the lights in the sleeper domes but not the coach one?

I don't think they can dim the lights in the sleeper domes anymore either, the staff said it was a new rule. But since I wasn't in the sleepers on this trip I can't say 100%

 

[MontanaJim]

its too bad that they cant find lights that provide some light but dont provide so much that pretty much ruins the experience of sitting in the dome at night.

 

[fdaley]

Say it isn't so. I mean, I have had many great pleasures in life, but one of them definitely was sitting in the darkened VIA Rail dome at night and watching the lights of the engine illuminating the tracks ahead and the signals changing from green to red as we passed each one.

 

[MontanaJim]

i wonder if one asks an attendant nicely to turn them off if they might do so? Seems in the spirit of "safety" theres always a way to ruin it. And if lights have to be on cant they find dimmer ones? Maybe just brighter lights below the seats or something. I really enjoyed getting up early in the morning, pre-dawn, and looking out from the dome. Might not get that experience again, any overhead lights really obscure the view. Its not even a question of being not as "nice"--with the lights on you can hardly see anything outside.

 

[Rasputin]

I wonder if the apparently new practice of keeping the lights on in the dome has something to do with preventing passenger misbehavior which seems to have taken place in the coach section of the Canadian in the past.

No one has yet answered the question of whether the dome lights are kept on in the sleeping car domes but hopefully we will have an answer to that soon.

 

[SubwayNut]

I remember when I road the Canadian back in 2012 Lights stayed on in the coach dome, were off in the only Sleeper (Parc Car) Dome (I rode the Canadian in March).

 

[Urban Sky]

No one has yet answered the question of whether the dome lights are kept on in the sleeping car domes but hopefully we will have an answer to that soon.

It has been answered in the meanwhile, just in a different thread:

I would like to expand on my last post. In addition to the stairway railings there are five footlights (2 on the right and 3 on the left) that are left on. They are the very base of some of the seats along the aisle to illuminate the depressed walkway. The 24 lights in the headliner of the dome were left off. While there are some reflections of the footlights on the dome windows, stars are clearly visible.

 

[Rasputin]

It has been answered in the meanwhile, just in a different thread:

Thanks for posting that. It has been standard practice for the footlights to be left on at night on every trip that I can think of. This includes the CP Canadian, VIA Canadian, CP Atlantic, VIA Atlantic, and VIA Ocean. The overhead lights in the dome on these trips have been generally (but not always) turned off at night.

If I am reading the recent posts correctly, it appears that the overhead dome lights for the coach dome of the Canadian are now fully on at night. Corrections would be welcome.

 

[railiner]

Recall riding heritage domes on early Amtrak…you’d find numerous cardboard or paper “shades” applied to offending aisle lights by those appreciating the night views…

 

[MontanaJim]

i guess we await a report from someone who has ridden in the sleepers recently. im planning to ride in february, hopefully. sure hoping overhead dome lights arent on all night long! (last winter when i rode, there was only the park car dome for sleeper passengers, and lights were turned off at night).

I just got back from a roundtrip on the Canadian, Toronto-Vancouver. I plan to post a trip report in a separate thread but I wanted to mention here that the dome lights in both park car and the sleeper dome were dimmed at night--thankfully (i was in sleeper). I was told the lights are kept on in the coach dorm though i never ventured up to that part of the train (and as normal policy these days, sleeper passengers were discouraged from going to the coach section). Having lights out in the dome makes it MUCH better, and i was happy to see that.