VIA Rail Canada Omdömen 

Trip to and from Toronto to Miriamichi NB July 2025. No checked baggage to & from Montreal - Toronto is absolutely ridiculous. I am 75years old with 40lb suitcase & no help from staff other than lifting bag onto the train. Train to NB was very late as usual & late on return as well. Considering cost of trip service is lousy & I will NOT BE TRAVELING VIA RAIL again. No
compensation for delays - not so much as a free coffee!!

Carolle delivered exceptional customer service on my trip from Ottawa to Toronto :)

She kept my hot water refilled, answered all of my questions with patience and kindness...mkst of all, she was great will all the kids on the train! She interacted with them in a respectful and professional manner, providing cute bingo cards and snacks :) I don't know the rest of the staffs names but I was happy with everyone's customer service :)

What an antiquated System via rail is. 12 hours to go from Toronto to Quebec and returning same time sitting on a train. I acknowledge that the weather was particularly hot so the train had to go slower but the technology should be present to deal with cold weather and extreme heat. There are newer trains which were quite pleasant but coming back from Montréal to Toronto we had an old train which was so dingy, dirty and disgusting. The staff are very pleasant and go well out of their way to accommodate people. Regardless, I wouldn’t take the rail again and I’m Canadian.

Pire compagnie de train au monde. TOUJOURS EN RETARD ! Quelle que soit la destination... Aujourd'hui, pour nous, Train Edmonton Vancouver en retard de trois heures TROIS HEURES ! (Mais aux dernières nouvelles, peut-être auront nous droit à 4,5 heures ?) ... Ce train est journalierement en retard. Mais ils continuent à s'obstiner, à penser qu'un jour il y arriverons. - toujours en retard de 2,3,4,... combien d'heures de retard voulez-vous ? La compagnie n'améliore rien. Le gouvernement ne les mets pas en demeure. Paye citoyen ! Cette compagnie est un scandale ambulant et personne ne fait rien. Un recours collectif leur ferait le plus grand bien.

Much improved train service with new cars that are smoother and quiet. Late arrivals and delays are attributable directly to Via sharing same track network as CP freight trains. They have new cars that are much quieter and smoother. Business class is excellent and worth the extra cost.

This review is strictly for the corporate office, whose administrative leadership has shown a complete absence of professional integrity.

Following identity-based misconduct by frontline staff at the Montréal station in May 2026, the corporate response has been an exercise in bureaucratic cowardice. Rather than correcting a clear failure in basic compliance, management chose to gaslight—insultingly dismissing a documented breach of service standards as nothing more than a customer’s "subjective feeling."

Let’s be entirely clear: passengers have a fundamental right to travel safely without being subjected to discrimination. As a federally regulated Crown corporation, providing a service free from discrimination based on gender identity or expression is not an optional customer service policy - it is federal law under the Canadian Human Rights Act. What should have been a straightforward corrective issue - a reasonable request for human rights compliance training - was instead met with institutional panic. Obeying the law is non-negotiable, and hiding behind corporate excuses to evade it is cowardice.

They had a golden opportunity to quietly and respectfully fix this at the ground level, yet they chose the worst possible optics. Turning a concrete legal breach into a debate about personal interpretation is a transparent defensive tactic used to evade accountability.

To completely exhaust this internal process, their Legal Services Department issued a final determination today, July 8, 2026. Senior Legal Counsel formally concluded that the evidence "does not support a finding of discrimination," dismissively cementing their front-line misconduct as an acceptable corporate standard and minimizing the incident as merely "perceived" distress.

VIA Rail is a publicly funded entity, yet its corporate leadership acts like a private fortress, hiding behind legal technicalities and minimizing systemic misconduct. Because this office completely refuses to self-correct or act with basic transparency, the internal grievance process is officially finished. This matter has now been escalated externally through formal applications to the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). They chose evasion over accountability, and they will now answer for it through official channels.

Train broke down, the young staff have no idea how to handle the situation, no food, still charging for drinks. Great job Via Rail. Busses arriving in 6 hours to take us to Destination, remember, no food, and charging for water!!

Very very angry at the rudeness of the staff today.
Our train into Ottawa was over an hour delayed today, which is honestly fine, these things happen. However as soon as we got off the train I realised that I'd left my hat on the train. My husband politely asked if he could go back and grab it. A $70 hat, mind you. Instead of just saying yes or no, the staff member decided to give my husband a massive dressing down, calling him an irresponsible person and accused him of delaying the trains "for just a hat". Like I honestly fail to see how we delayed the trains for immediately noticing our mistake after less than 1 minute, the passengers hadn't even all disembarked yet? Laughable considering our train was 90 minutes late in the first place and we were offered a 25% off voucher which we can't use because we don't live in Canada.
And if we were going to delay the train, just say "no, it's not possible, sorry". Like there was no need to be that rude and nasty. I'm actually disgusted. I get people can have bad days, but in what world is that acceptable?

Horrible,always late.. never on time.. .. only the boggies are good except that comparable to third world train

Unhappy with the service, delayed 5 hours !

Well,first my Middle Sister passed away at Xmas and we were unable to attend so we planned a trip on the train for her wake on Join 20th.The trip to Woodstock Ontario was flawless.The staff to care of my semi disabled Wife and we sat together the whole time as I'm her helper .Now,on the return trip ,it was not flawless.The staff were awesome etcc.However the 2nd hand party booking agent hadn't put down that my Wife needed help.So,there was no wheelchair for her and the long walk from train to train was almost to much for her and from Toronto to Montreal we were in different train cars.Appersntly our seating arrangement was changed because of someone with a service dog?Anyway,I just want to say we were not impressed with booking part of our trip .Alistair and Cindylou Irving ... Update:the personal on the train found us two seats that were unoccupied and gave them to us.Well down to all and thank you so much.Just and FYI,always use only via rail for booking.

Train stopped for now 1.5 hours after fire on tracks extinguished. It is 1.30 am and no communication from via rail as to what is happening or how long we are going to be stopped. Very poor communication. Train almost four hours late at this point.

Had an absolutely horrible experience with via rail the last trip I took, where the train was not only delayed 62 minutes but also the whole ride the train felt like it was going to derail. I’ve never had an experience with a train moving like this (there was no wind, just some rain). When contacting customer service, they inaccurately told me that the train had only been delayed for 49 minutes ( which is inaccurate as we were meant to be at the location for 10:13 and didn’t get off the train until 11:15). it was a train that was packed so I’m guessing they didn’t want to compensate so many people. They also gave me a very general answer for the train moving the way it did, which is concerning for safety reasons.
For a company that uses surge pricing and charged 3$ for a tea bag and hot water that they’d have the money to compensate for such a horrible trip but doesn’t seem so. Will likely not be using via rail in the future.

In December 2025, I bought tickets for my wife and I to travel to a show in Toronto on the weekend of January 9th and 10th from Montreal. We had to cancel our trip because my wife had Covid. Via Rail accommodated us by changing our reservation to this weekend, June 12th and 13th.

However, we have guests in from overseas who are staying with us until next week, thus not permitting us to travel to Toronto this weekend. I called Via to see if we can change our plans until September, but they refused to, based on our tickets. I realize companies don't want the hassle of frequent changes to plans, but you would hope they could make exceptions to their rules for unforeseen circumstances.

As a result, I am out of pocket for $500 and will not book another train trip with Via Rail ever again.

I hope many people read this review.

Rick

Horrible, premium price, for third world service. Whilst on train from Montreal-Toronto delayed over an hour. Avoid VIA, drive, fly, anything but VIA. Epically bad.

We booked the overnight sleeper plus cabin from Halifax to Québec. This was very expensive, but we felt it would be an amazing experience.
The train was very old and dated. We were meant to have an attendant to support us, but we barely saw her during the 20+ hours we were on the train.
She presented as disinterested and didn't come to explain things for over 3 hours from setting off.
We had to make the beds up ourselves, as she didn't offer to come and do it.
Our toilet stopped flushing twice during the trip.
The food was good at lunch but the evening meal was dry and felt reheated (we had an 8pm sitting)
The staff in the evening were disinterested and not at all attentive.
A group of 5 staff sat chatting near our table, including a manager. It felt like a youth/social club and not at all focused on the customers.
Staff seemed reluctant to offer more drinks and seemed keen to get you out of the dining car.
The only lounge area was small, dated and not at all welcoming. There were 2 flasks of hot water to make tea or coffee, but no soft drinks or water on offer.
We paid for breakfast on the morning we got off the train, but as we got off at 6.30am, we could not have breakfast!!
We were not offered a hot drink in the morning or provided with anything to eat.
The scenery is not very interesting and mostly wood/forests, so don't expect great views.
For such an expensive overnight trip, I do not feel it is worth the money

The staff on board were friendly. Parking at the station in Smiths Falls was ludicrous. The actual train service is inefficient with a 25-30 min delay because of signal issues. Not a timely service.

Taking the train, Economy, Ottawa to Toronto same-day return for a rally. Excellent service by Tyler on the way there and Farouk return. Right on time to Toronto, and comfortable seating with a table. Return trip was delayed due to a freight train derailment, but snacks and water were provided in the station and every effort was made to ensure our comfort.

Hi wish I could rate this lest than 1 star, the service is absolute shit, especially the Windsor to Toronto corridor is it late by more than 45 minutes every single time and other cases by 1.5 hours. This despite the ridiculous amounts they charge for the tickets.

If you have meetings or any time sensitive thing to do, do not use this service under any circumstance you will be very late.

Charged EXTRA for my purse!
Wow via!
Also separated my son and I EVEN. though there were extra seats!
My son is not an adult.
On the way from Toronto to London I was not charged for MY purse! The check in desk in London told me that they weren't doing their job in Toronto! And they should have charged me EXTRA!
Thankfully, when the individual taking our tickets saw that there was space he placed my son and I TOGETHER!
He wasn't bored and filling his days with ways to make customers' lives more difficult!
Seems that the 4 clerks sitting at a relatively idle desk had to think of ways to make their day MORE exciting! Why not when taxpayers subsidize their salaries.
Thanks to the caring employee, our trip was not horrible.
Hey Via! Have some respect for your paying customers! Maybe it's time for new blood???