"The Ocean" is always a pleasure to travel between Montreal & Halifax. The greatest perk of the train, for years, was the end-of-train Park Dome & lounge car. Out of VIA's direct control, the Park Dome had to be removed a couple of years ago. It offered spectacular views, day & night. Still, it is always nice to travel through such beautiful scenery while eating tasty meals in a dining car with no plastic or Styrofoam in sight. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked your renaissance cabin! Only bad thing about leaving from Moncton to Montreal is that you miss Lunch. Make sure to grab any meals and snacks from the bar car before it closes at 11pm!
Not having lunch wasn't all that bad. I ended up chatting with some folks who rode the buses from Halifax to Moncton, and they said that lunch was just a prepackaged sandwich and chips. Hardly a suitable stand in for the fantastic meals in the dining car.
Thanks a ton for the kind words. It's always my goal to let people vicariously experience the wonder of travel through my videos. The future looks bright for North American rail travel. With Brightline West and CAHSR coming soon, plus the potential for 15 new sleeper routes as identified by the FRA, I'll bet we'll see a major resurgence of rail travel in the next decade.
Completely agreed. I really enjoyed my stay in the cabin, and seeing as it was price comparable to an Amtrak roomette, I would take it over pretty much any Amtrak accommodation any day.
The New Haven video is from an adventure a while back. I put it there mainly because I need something easier to produce for this week, as next week's video will take a lot of effort to get ready. I would love to make a video about the REM, but unfortunately I do not live in Canada, and thus cannot easily get footage for such a video.
Great report! One note on the menus - for the Ocean, they use a different menu on the eastbound train (14) and the westbound train (15). These tend to stay the same for several months at a time, but they always ensure that the corresponding trains are different so that passengers making a round trip won't end up with the same meal options both ways. For those who travel on this train frequently (like myself), you definitely encounter plenty of repeats! But that can also be nice if you're interested in trying out multiple options, or if you've found a favourite dish :)
I rode the Ocean from Halifax to Montreal in October 22 as the first part of a trans Canada rail journey. I was impressed with the food - you missed out on the excellent lunch of course - and the cabin which in my case had the shower in the en suite. The strange thing was I felt that the bed seemed to want to tip me onto the floor. I was ok sleeping on my right side but on my left I’d fall out of bed with the slightest motion, and there are plenty of slight motions on a train. That aside the cabin was a bit better than the roomette on The Canadian that took me from Toronto to Vancouver but not by much. The lavatory being behind a door and not under the footrest probably swung it for the Renaissance stock. The whole journey across Canada was incredible and I loved every second.
I recognise the Nova Scotia flag. They fly that flag in the town of Menstrie, in Scotland, as that was where Sir William Alexander (the founder of Nova Scotia) was born. I think that he was born in Menstrie Castle, part of which is still standing and lived in.
You rode backwards because Moncton doesn't have the required turning area so the train arrives there, they move the engines from the (now) back to the (now) front and go back to Montreal. I'd love to tell you "it would have been Ok if you left from Halifax" but, during the pandemic, VIA wasn't able to re-negotiate the use of the turning area there so.... if you ride Halifax to Montreal, it's backwards all the way.
That's actually not the case, at least not here. The rooms in the Ren Sleepers are laid out with half facing forward and half backwards, regardless of direction of travel. Additionally, the train had to be turned in Moncton in order to have the engines facing the correct direction. I believe they backed the consist out to the wye at CN Intermodal facility on the west side of town, though I'm not entirely sure.
@@LonestarTrips indeed, for the few trips that were short-turned at Moncton they turned the entire train at Gordon Yard, rather than doing the run around of the locomotives. The locos are run back to back, so in Halifax they just move them to the opposite end of the train for the return trip. Could have done that in Moncton too, but evidently decided it was simpler and quicker to turn the whole thing at the yard.
Yup! All of the footage is from my massive round of travel last summer. (yes I know this means the footage is kind of old, but it's still good!) I don't have any plans for riding GO transit again, nor do I have any SEPTA videos in the works. Is there any line you'd like to see if I was to make another SEPTA video?
Hi Noah! Yes, the footage is still great. I generally enjoy Canadian Rail. And if you were to ride SEPTA again, I would reccomend the Media/Wawa line! (Formerly Media/Elwyn) or the Trenton Line. It would be cool to see those! Thanks for getting back to me
Looks like others got to your question first! But yeah, service to Gaspe will likely resume in 2026, and when it does, I'll probably make a video on it😉
Interesting video, last time I saw inside these vehicles was in mid 90s while driving a class 90 on the east coast mainline doing high speed breaking tests at 110mph. Don't know why some weren't used on the Scottish service far nices than those CAF ones Cheers Russ
Canada's VIA rail is a horrible train service when compared to the American Trains. they're old, run down, small and no upper levels. plus it's very expensive.
Thank you! It’s such a beautiful route with some really special rolling stock. Wish I could’ve made it all the way to Halifax, but I guess that’s all the more reason to go back and do it again!
Great video, I actually did this very trip last summer with my daughter (although all the way from Halifax). Had the same supper and quite enjoyed it. At breakfast my daughter had the pancakes and I went for the Omelette. Fortunately for me she didn’t finish her breakfast so I got a taste of both 😀. The VIA service was top notch, and our car attendant Marc was fabulous 👍
FYI, Via Rail offers meals cooked on-board on The Canadian (Toronto-Vancouver). On the rare occasion when a fully Budd consists operates on the The Ocean, they will also cook meals in the dining car.
The reason the food is better westbound because it's prepared by one of the hotel restaurants near the station. The eastbound is prepared by a caterer that hauls it all over to the Montreal station. I've never had an excellent meal westbound but eastbound has always been better.
When traveling by train, I actually enjoy rear-facing seats. When I'm sightseeing out of the window, things of interest are easier for me to focus on for longer.
weren't there once a few ideas for lines between some places in Mexico to places in Canada. probably in the earlier days of long distance rail travel, at the time many ideas were floated not all got beyond proposal stage
whats the floor height on those? no stairs in an emergency? ive seen people trying to climb grabirons for the first time in a no stress environment and struggle with it. how are they going to climb down grabirons in an emergency?
@LonestarTrips I wanna do it myself for my bucket list cause I adore the train I just need cheep places to stay in Montreal till the trip home...was that one way or round trip?
