VIA Rail Canada Reviews 

I am been taking the train for 50 plus years. I used to love taking the train. Over the last four years, service standards have crumbled; the trains are often an hour or more late, there appears to be no interest in punctuality any longer; apologies for lateness are perfunctory, if given at all; fares have doubled and tripled; unstaffed stations have been locked with no access for passengers. However, two days ago on Thursday April 25th, while on my way to board a train from London station, I was subjected to the worse experience in over 50 years of taking the train. I was first stopped by a security guard nonchalantly lounging on a chair, who demanded to see my boarding pass to scan it. When I showed it to him, he announced I had one bag too many and sent me to the ticket counter to discuss this with an agent. Recently Via has severely tightened its baggage regulations. I was an offender as in addition to a small backpack I use as a purse, a small, carry-on size rolley, and a small bag of groceries, I had a second small bag of groceries. Three items is now the temporary limit; soon it will be two. My four small bags together were less than one medium to large sized suitcase. I admitted I was over the limit, and asked politely how we could resolve this. The woman at the ticket counter, who claimed she was the shift supervisor, proceeded to treat me as a criminal, excoriating me for not following the rules. She was officious, condescending, hard, cold, reprimanding, and to say she was also cruel is no exaggeration. I asked that I be allowed to pay an additional fee for the offending small bag of groceries. She first refused, and kept me standing at the ticket counter for nearly 15 minutes while she checked my bookings to see whether I had discussed with the booking agent an extra bag of groceries! Finally she relented and allowed me to pay $25.00 plus tax for the offending extra grocery bag. She announced, with apparent satisfaction, that in a few months we would be allowed only two items, a purse counting as one. Her behaviour was abhorrent, unfriendly, and demeaning. I am quite a sturdy person, although an elder, but I was reduced to shaking with agitation at being thus abyssymally treated. I had arrived at the station 25 minutes early, but had to run to board the train, which by now was already boarding. I will be writing a formal letter of complaint to Via, and requesting an apology.

They have terrible customer service and no compassion. They should go to Disney and take some courses on customer service.
Their prices are all over the place and it’s always more reasonable to drive.
They would rather leave seats empty than accommodate someone that’s in trouble to get home. I had already paid the penalty to change my ticket in the first place.
I won’t be using VIA going forward and will be spreading the word

On our trip from Montreal to toronto we experienced a trip that was so far from the 2 previous trips that we had just taken days before.
The staff spoke to us in French even though it was quite obvious that we were not from there. We had just minutes before spoken English to them.
A rather loud party of business men sat right next to us talking loudly the whole time there.
And also the train was supposed to arrive at 16:18. It arrives 45 minutes late.
Which brings me to my next point: how come that on a 4 hour trip from toronto to Ottowa we were served food twice. But on this 6 hour trip, we were only served once???
And when it comes to the food, we were served lastly out of everybody onboard. We were just served a plate of disgusting pasta med too much cheese. It was inedible! The gentlemen sitting right next to us were given 3 choices though. All of which were available.
And excuse me, but in what world are men served before women? First of all, my mother is elderly! We felt so poorly treated and our guess is that it was because the gentlemen spoke French and we didn't!
The staff came and took away our full plates of food (because we didn't eat it), and asked us how the pasta was, - we Saud it was horrendous and inedible! Ahe just said "sorry" and took it away

When I asked the service manager when the second meal would be served, he said there would no more servings. Then I took it up with him that zi found it incredibly rude that no effort was put in trying to ask us or find out why we didn't eat the pasta and why we were not even as much as asked if we wanted more bread and butter since we obviously would be hungry from not eating more than a roll of bread for 6 h! He was rude and said that the other passengers on board had more points and therefore were served first and had first choice in food.
I paid just as much as everyone else.
We paid over 300CAD for this trip from montreal to toronto and the only reason we even chose business class is because we had large luggage that we wanted in the car with us. But you pay for service as well. There was none of that!
I told the service manager, that I work in service myself and there is no way I would allow to paying customers to leave my shift as unsatisfied as we were left.
He came back and offered us something from the meny that cost around 6-10 CAD . We chose a bagley with cream cheese. It was dry as can be. We ended up throwing it away.

I'm shocked at viarailcanada! And just so disappointed.
We come from Sweden and here we treat every paying customer the same regardless of the amount of points they have!!!
Unacceptable!

4 hour delay that was listed as a 50 minute delay (on a 2 hour trip). And they had the nerve to try and charge everyone for food. If you need to make a trip around find any other option. Try the union megabus.

the new seats are soo uncomfortable,not ergenomic at all... Ive ridden the train my whole life and didn't have a problem until the new seats. i like to go to toronto often from chatham but won't be going on the train any more as im in so much pain from the seats.... the lower back and across sciatic plus no where to lift your feet at all.. horrible...

The dilapidated train car that I was seated in should have only been made available to travelers on a "pay what you can" basis. There's no justification for charging over $100 for seats that are so worn filthy, faded, stained, frayed, etc. And apparently since November 2023 you have to pay for at least 3 tickets in order to sit in one of the quads, even if they are unoccupied. My train car was at less than 20% capacity yet under the "new policy" I was asked to move to my assigned seat or pay for 2 more tickets. That shameless cash grab made me wish I hadn't recommended taking the train over flying from Toronto to Montreal. It was an uncomfortable and off-putting experience and I did not feel treated like a valued customer. Never again.

Terrible. Would never do again. Trip was cancelled (by them!) and we were only offered a third of our full payment. We were on the train for 7 hours of a 4 night trip. It’s a money rort. They definitely made money out of us. You know how professional an organisation is by how they handle situations when things go wrong. Don’t trust this organisation. Very unprofessional.

Business class Apr9/24 and Apr 11/24, Ottawa Toronto corridor. New train 45 to Toronto beautiful and comfortable, love larger washrooms. Older train 46 on return but clean. Amazing service, friendly and upbeat staff. Very surprised by quality of meals, both salmon and cannelloni were excellent. Worth the cost of traveling business class!

My wife and I just returned from Ottawa and we used VIA Rail from Ottawa to Union Station. We took the Go Train fr Hamilton to Union to go and then connected to Via Rail. Coming home we took VIA Rail from Ottawa to Union Station and connected to Go Train to Hamilton at Union. The
trip with VIA was comfortable and smooth. I have a disability and they couldn't do more for me and my wife. They had a wheelchair ready upon arrival in Ottawa and back at Union! We were very impressed! Great job and we will use it again!

Business is a joke. I had to rearrange everyone's luggage to fit mine in on three consecutive journeys. Was told to take mine to another car when there was plenty of room in the business car.
Was told there was no food for me on two trips when there should have been and I was only offered one type meal on the other, which I'm allergic to.
Constant delays. Always late arriving. Internet is atrocious. Drops out frequently.
For all the money you pay for business, you'd think you'd get better food and service.
I'm so disappointed. It used to be much better. I've chosen via rail 4 times in the last few weeks and now I wonder why.

Get rid of economy as it’s the worst experience in every aspect. Seats uncomfortable, food is atrocious, staff are not pleasant,

They won’t negotiate an upgrade even if you are ill.

I always enjoy travelling with Via, in spite of the erratic schedules.
My last trip from Winnipeg to Saskatoon was 2 hours late arriving in Saskatoon. My concern on this trip was the food. I had a coffee and breakfast sandwich that tasted terrible, I had two bites and threw the rest away.

I haven’t taken Via Rail in years. I always remember it as a positive experience. That is a thing of the past.
To start, the CS, over the phone, are amazing and extremely helpful. Kudos to telephone CS!!!! They appear to be the only happy employees.
The employees that stand by the cars to direct you to the proper car, need a serious lesson in manners. Not once, but twice, I experienced unacceptable comments while trying to find the proper car. The first incident was a trip to Toronto, when I experienced one of the employees being extremely abrupt and rude to a patron, innocently asking for assistance with her bag. Instead of explaining politely that Via Rail no longer assists with bags, the employee tells the passenger that we don’t do that anymore. Can you imagine me having to lift 200 bags every day? Her tone was rude and unnecessary. The lady passenger was offended. Rightfully so. She said she was going to file a complaint and the employee told her to go right ahead. She could’ve handled it in a professional manner but chose to be rude.
Then my 2nd trip, in over 30yrs, I experienced something similar.
As we all proceeded to the train to board, a Via Rail employee at the top of the escalator is hollering, supposedly directing people to their cars. Everyone is wandering around, confused, as her so called directions seemed to baffle everyone. She is not assisting anyone except for the hollering of, trains 1, 3 and 4 are this way. There is no one standing by proposterous door to the car I entered, assuming it was car 4. I asked the passengers on the train if it was car 4. They said no. It was car 3. No cars were numbered and not sure what even happened to car 2.
People are standing outside, expecting me to point them in the right direction. Sorry, I don’t get a pay check from
Via Rail nor did I have the answers, as I had no idea what was going on, either.
Finally a female Via Rail employee comes walking towards the car. I said, with a laugh, oh, there you are! She replies in a very snide tone, there is only one of me and 2 cars. Then she mumbled something under her breath, in French. No, I do not speak fluent French so I can only imagine what I missed. Again, very rude, for someone dealing with the public. Either you need to give your crew a crash course on CS, or select your employees more carefully.
Aside from the rude interactions, the trip the first time around was a joke.
We all had the choice of waiting an hour, or more, on the train, at Belleville stn, while a broken down train was full of patrons that now had to board our train. Now I get it but when someone is on a schedule and my spouse is on their way to pick me up in Kingston, this is a major problem. I’m sure it inconvenienced many.
Luckily I contacted my spouse to redirect them to Belleville. In this case, another train should have been dispatched for these stranded passengers. Short of trains, then get more. For the price of a
ticket, which is proposterous, Via Rail can afford it.
My last trip, after an extremely long day, was, stop, go, stop, go, the entire way home. There was a freight train in distress so they announce over the pa that they have to allow 2 trains to pass in order to proceed. Why she even announced that was beyond me. No one understood why. It didn’t make sense to the passengers. Weather was a bit rough which I took into account but once again, while running 45mins late, and paying over $200 to get to both destinations, is ridiculous.
I will not be recommending or using
Via Rail, again. A very unpleasant experience both times. Two thumbs down.
Ps..the two stars are for the two pleasant employees I dealt with on the phone.

Via rail did amazing today ! My partner has a brain injury and needs assistance to go up to the platform .
A young Asian man immediately got someone to take him up so he didn’t have to wait …the guy who took him up was fun with a stuffed animal in his pocket and was really nice and inclusive .I am sure that this made my boyfriends day !
It was the 11:30 train to Windsor on March 23rd !

Wrote to customer service to find out if I can take my ebike(pedal assist) on the train from TO to Montreal. I write to customer service because that info is not clear on the website, what is their answer? Visit website re baggage. Why does it take several emails to get a simple answer? The email just sprouts corporate non-answers. Last year VIA RAIL said that in 2024 new trains would come in and yes, ebike could go on the train. It is 2024 and NO, you cannot take an ebike on the train, not even a reguar bicycle, only a foldable one. Our train infrastructure is pathetic.

The train (train55 car 1, March 17, 2024 Ottawa to Oshawa) was spotless, comfortable and our waiter (concierge? Attendant?) was excellent and very courteous and attentive. Wish I could remember his name (Paizal? Faizal? Couldn't fully see the tag on his shirt) he was great. Will be travelling with Via more in the future.

Quite the gong show at the London station this morning. Going to exit the door, hearing no, no, no getting yelled at quite loudly, turn around and yelled at no exit, we’re working there. I said it should be blocked off then, not getting yelled at. Then the same person let a vehicle in with no “work” details on it and got a ride that’s blocked off with actual work trucks. Then I had to speak to the “person in charge” as if in all my 47 years there’s no manager or supervisor. I had too many bags and she said, did you not read the baggage instructions? My brain getting searched instead of an adult who has an education in customer service or supervision who says, if you go over there or pack everything into your bag you will be fine as long as it’s not over… I took the refund and and saved $43 on a ride to my destination.

What a HORRENDOUS site to navigate. I was trying to get information regarding a round trip from Ottawa to Edmonton. I tried getting information numerous times only to be advised there was no schedule available. I called the 800 number 3 times and after PAINFULLY long wait times I simply hung up and proceeded to book the trip via Porter Airlines in less than 3 minutes. Via sorry but you've lost a client and I will NEVER use your services

Customer Service Call: Answered the phone in 2 rings, answered my query immediately, and processed my request just as quickly. Didn't catch the representative's name, but was incredibly helpful in a moment of need.

I have never taken a train that was on time in all the time I’ve used Via rail. There are always random stops without explanation and you end up 30mins to an hour late. They should just add it to their travel time so you’ll be pleasantly surprised if they are on time. Driving from Ottawa to Montreal it always quicker