Bag Storage at Toronto and Vancouver

I will be traveling on the Canadian (westbound) in just a few weeks and have a few questions.

1) Is there a place inside Toronto's Union Station to store my bags for the day?

2) I have heard that the redcaps will place your bag in your room on the Canadian before you board. Is this true and how reliable is their service?

3) I will have all day in Vancouver before my connection to the late afternoon connection to the Amtrak Cascades train. Where is the bag storage located at Pacific Central Station?

I just completed the same trip and will try to partially answer your questions.

1. Yes, there is luggage storage in the Toronto station. I stored my luggage at my hotel across the street, so i did not use the service. There was a couple on my train that were doing a round trip and they stored their luggage during the day while the went shopping, ate, etc. The wife informed me that they were not charged for the service, however a VIA agent informed me that there is a $3 per bag charge.

2. I do not know if redcaps take your luggage to your room. I would assume that if you need assistance, the would provide it. I carried my own bags.

3. I had planned to store my bags in VAC, however the Canadian arrived at 4pm instead of 9:42am, so I did not have that opportunity. In fact, I was very happy that i made my Cascades train to SEA. I do not know where in the station the bags are stored - I would ask around - there were plenty of helpful people around.

#1 Yes! They will store your bags, and my experience (and this is across the board on the VIA system) is some follow the rules and ask for a charge while others will "look the other way" and give you a smile and a wink instead. All you need is to prove you are traveling on a train that day, such as show them the ticket for your train.

#2 Another yes! The Red Cap will be happy to take your bag(s) to your room, and the service is not only reliable, but is absolutely fantastic. I've used VIA Red Cap service both for sleeper and coach travel, and they even made sure to ensure both me and my wife would be seated together on the train without having to stand in the ticket agent line. Remember to tip well!!

#3 Vancouver is a little different, but they will store your bags (with the same rules as cited above.) The only thing that is different is the Red Caps cannot place your bags on the connecting train due to the Customs process.

Enjoy your trip (I am beyond certain you will!!) It is incredibly awesome, and remember to have plenty of camera film/card space!!

I'll add my voice to the choir above:

1) Yes, the baggage services desk will check your bag in Toronto. While traveling in the Corridor (Windsor-Montreal in my case) with a layover, I used the baggage room to hold my luggage for $3 per bag. A second time I used the service was departing Toronto on The Canadian. The agents offered to day check my bags for free after identifying I had a room booked on The Canadian.

2) Don't have experience with Red Caps at any VIA Rail station.

3) I'll be testing the ability to day check my bag at the Vancouver station at the end of this month. Hopefully I'll remember to report back my experience of trying to day-check from Noon to The Canadian's departure time.

Thanks for all the information. It is greatly appreciated.

I've not tried things on the Toronto side, but I have done the Vancouver side so I can shed some light on that end.

We were in sleeper class, so I assume that may have had something to do with our not being charged to store our bags for the day. We checked 2 bags for the trip, and we day checked two bags. Our checked bags showed up in Toronto with no problems. And we were assured that we would not need to reclaim our day checked bags (aka our onboard overnight bags), and sure enough they were placed in our room for us. We never saw them again after dropping them off in the morning until we got onto the train and into our room.

The day check is in the same place as the baggage check, which is to the right of the VIA rail counter. That area in turn is to your right as you exit the gates leading to the trains.

As noted by another, since you're headed to the US, you will have to reclaim all bags from the VIA staff and first go through US customs. Then I believe you can check bags if you like with the Amtrak crew or just carry everything on.

One more question:

How strict is VIA with the carry-on size policy?

Reason:

I have a suitcase at my home that is right at 9" deep, maybe a centimeter or two over.