VIA Rail Canada Bewertungen 

I got excellent help from customer service booking my train trips for early Oct. After trying myself numerous times, I apprec the "real" person over tel, patiently completing this for me.

Used the Canada strong pass to travel with the kids for a train experience. The employee doesn’t ask my 13 year old for id but does ask my almost 16 year old. And because he didn’t have a government photo id (I mean what kids have photo id??) they charged him the full ticket cost. Even though he is clearly under 18 and my daughter was never asked. This wasn’t about anything other than getting an extra fare out of our family and a general lack of logic and common sense. It’s so easy for them to say “well, those are the rules” and wipe their hands of it, rather than using some reasoning. That was the last VIA trip we will be taking. You lost future customers. We used to take the train a
Couple times a year and now we will be driving. It’s cheaper anyway!!

Horrible experience at large. All trains were delayed, to and from Montreal.

The first train was fine minus the 40 minute delay on arrival.

The second train was awful. It was dirty, noisy as heck and the wobbliest, most nauseating ride ever experienced. The train back to toronto was SO late that it caused my husband and I to miss the last two trains back home to Niagara. Due to those missed trains, we had to extend our trip by 2 hours, take a bus transfer and an uber from the bus station drop off.

If you’re thinking about the train, think less. VIA Train is the worst way to travel if time is an interest or importance to you— even if you leave 1-2 hrs buffer to accommodate delays.

terrible. rude attendents. Will profile you, and hostile to young female travellers very pretentious, they overcharged me despite me double they would for a simple ride less than an hour despite me clearly being a student, $70 for ECONOMY/coach class, unbelievable. the customer service phone number is also rude and extremely unhelpful will put you on hold for minutes at a time consistently and can’t do anything without a booking # and if you don’t have a booking but a receipt because you bought on the train ? they can’t do squat and will make up excuses. For such a “luxurious” travel corporation, they like to make you feel guilty for having concerns when the attendant is rude by guilt tripping you that it’s a hard job you know what then ? hire more people to ease the workload and invest more in customer service ! I have a right to want to be treated with respect and decency . it’s not the customer or consumers job to accommodate for the workload and to just accept whatever attitude or treatment simply because they are understaffed or something. I understand such a job may be demanding but you know what ? that doesn’t i’ve you the right to just be hostile towards passengers.

VIA RAIL likes to scam people and not hold up their end of the bargain with customer service which is so distasteful and insulting to every passenger that travels with them. DONT travel with them !! they also told me after transferring me on the phone to another another branch of customer service and time wasted to just email, it’s been almost two full days and i’m still waiting on a response. 0/10. Redirecting customers to send an email so you don’t have to place the effort to try to resolve or provide customer service is just so lazy and cheap!!

Vraiment quand tu as aucun autre choix ! certains train sont trop désuets et certaines place sont mal propres. Connection internet digne de 1997.....sa prend 20 secondes faire afficher une photo. Très bas de gammes pour le prix qu'on paye! Extraordinairement mieux en autobus et moins cher !!!! C'était la première fois et la dernière.

First experience with my 3 kids. We paid extra for the sleeper cabin. Thinking this would be such an enjoyable experience.
The worst experience with staff who are rude, unprofessional and like to insult you. I did not go and pay big money to be treated in such manner.

Save your money and fly business or first class if your going across Canada.. you will be treated with respect and dignity.

I reached out to via rail customer support and was given an.. "oh well".

The staff in games car and dining were rude to us. Until I asked to speak to the manager Denis, thry kinda changed their attitude. Our porter for our cabin was nowhere to be seen for 2 days. Made the beds early on last day which we were late 4 hours resulted in missing our car rental. My kid slept on the floor cause the porter would not bring the bunk bed down cause he said he wanted to get ahead of cleaning duties before they stopped in Toronto.

Never again would we take the train. It's not a nice adventure fun trip. Staff are not kind or considerate of others. They surely bragged on how via rail pays them high wages and gives them hotel rooms but passangers are treated like dogs.

It's not comfortable riding with bumping around and trains whistling every minute through the night. Thankfully they had earplugs plugs.

Pay lots of money to be insulted by staff. The staff said she speaks 4 languages and her facial expressions make her look mean. Hmm nah, you just rude and mean.

Amenities on the train lack, especially when your riding 3 days. This should be a priority. One little 19 inch tv for movie night with no popcorn or movie snacks. They have alcohol tasting every 2nd hour if you are a drinker but if not nothing else to do is see drunks and this is a flag cause some of them try to come in your car, so lock up. For puzzles and 1 crib game with no deck of cards. Yeah, the failed on entertainment.

Very disappointing Business Class experience on my Ottawa–Toronto round trip on August 11–12.

The train was old and extremely shaky, and the staff were not very accommodating. On my return trip, I explained that I cannot comfortably sit facing backwards and asked to change my seat. Although an empty four-seat section was available, I was directed to another single seat instead.

The meal service was also disappointing. I was assigned pasta without choosing it, and when I explained that I am sensitive to spicy food, the only alternative offered was ginger meat.

On top of that, the train was delayed by about an hour, and even when it arrived, the Business Class coach was not ready.

When you pay extra for Business Class, you expect comfort and better service. Unfortunately, this experience did not justify the additional cost.

Expensive, not on time (an HOUR LATE!) someone was sitting in my seat - Canada, do better

Je suis a bord du train 35 entre Québec et Ottawa, et on GÈLE a bord.
On me répond qu'on n'y peut rien!
Et pas de couverture a offrir.

Surreal experience at the business lounge before boarding. I’m travelling with my husband and son on a tour across Canada and we have 3 suitcases, two of which are smallish and are well under 23 kg. The person at the business lounge check in desk weighed the largest suitcase which was 23.5 kg and asked us to remove half a kilo. We were stunned. After verifying that she really wanted us to take something out of one bag that only we would lift and move it to one of the other bags that were all travelling on the same train, she insisted. She could not justify this decision other than saying the baggage policy was very strict. Hence we were forced to open bags and move items from one bag to another on the station floor for no good reason. This insane lack of rationality or common sense does not make a good business class experience. We will avoid this railway in future and fly.

Mixed bag experience. First time on VIA from Toronto to Ottawa.
We’re from the UK so I did do some research. Several mentioned delays and that was what we had.
Up to an hour ago all was fine and the food, service and check in for first class were great. All employees were really polite and helpful from check-in through to food service.
Then we hit a delay with a broken down freight train apparently. So this had added 45 mins and counting. As I said we’re English so our train service baseline is quite low! Having said that this is annoying and I’m now wondering if our other VIA trips are all going to experience the delays many people seem to mention.
One more thing to mention. The air con is vicious! Dress for a winter’s day in Scandinavia - then add another two layers.

My experience with VIA Rail’s reservation service was extremely disappointing.

A reservation specialist named Denham Jones booked my ticket on June 10, 2026. The reservation was later cancelled without my consent, and I received no notification at all. There was no email, phone call, or other communication informing me of the cancellation.

I only discovered what had happened when I checked the reservation online using my confirmation code and received an error. After calling VIA Rail, I was told that my ticket had been cancelled.

The cancellation was already frustrating, but the worst part was that VIA Rail refused to provide a refund for the reservation they had cancelled. I eventually had to contact my credit card company and file a dispute to recover my money. I did receive the money back, but no customer should have to go through a credit card dispute to receive a refund for a ticket cancelled by the company.

I also found Denham Jones’s communication during this matter to be misleading and unprofessional. Based on my experience, I would be very cautious when booking with VIA Rail and would strongly recommend regularly checking your reservation, even if you have received no notice that anything is wrong.

My wife and I recently travelled to Montreal on July 13 and from Montreal on July 15 by Via Rail. We treated ourselves by going business class. We received first class treatment. Alexandra, Jin, Inra and Walleed made our little excursion very memorable. They were all very personable, very courteous and very professional. They are all excellent ambassadors for Via Rail. Many thanks, Judy and Robert Erwin. Ottawa.

Booked a train, it was 2.5 hours late and told me 6 hours before it got to me. I have a flight out of the country that depended on the train being on time. Have had to rebook on a bus.

Will never book on via rail ever again. 5-15 minutes would have been acceptable, but 2.5 hours (and counting) is not.

I just don’t know why Canada can’t get trains to run on time. It’s really embarrassing to have such expensive unreliable service- I think they still use steam power?

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

via rails is extremely unreliable not only with timing but updates too. I had booked a trip from Sioux lookout to Winnipeg with my family thinking it would be a fun experience and memory to have. the way to Winnipeg was honestly not the worst, but the train was delayed by 4 hours and their tracking site was incapable of informing passengers that the train was going to be delayed, coming to the point where I called to ask what was going on, the lady I spoke to was very professional and kind but had NO CLUE that the train was delayed and wasn’t able to tell me an estimated time of when the train would come. Once I had boarded the train everything was fine and made it to Winnipeg. The way back to Sioux lookout was absolutely terrible. I was supposed to board a train on a Sunday at 11:55pm and didnt end getting onto the train till 7:30am on a Monday, as I got onto the train and settled into my seat I noticed that we weren’t moving all though all passengers had boarded, I didn’t think much of it thinking that they were just running through everything making sure everything was good to go but no, I ended up stay on this train not moving till 12:00pm, mind you they staff hadn’t said anything to passengers till 11:00 am, it turns out they were having problems with their Air conditioning, problems with the fans in the kitchen area and to put the cherry on top they said they had to change the train engine. By 12:00pm we started moving, relieving me and lots of other passengers. By now we’re about 5 hours into the ride and the air conditioning in one of the sleeping carts stops working, by this, staff had to move a whole sleeping cart full of people into another which happened to the one I was staying in, and I was horrified by the scene staff were making people move out of their seats into different seat, making people sit with strangers and the air conditioning in the sleeping cart I was staying in was also not the strongest, so heat quickly accumulated. By this point hours pasted everything seemed to be running smoother till the train came to a stop just a little past kenora and staff had informed the whole train that we could no longer proceed because of wild fires, and of course the fires are not their faults but they told us they were bringing us back all the way to Winnipeg after being on the train for 10 hours+, people were very upset bringing some people to tears, everyone had questions and were finding staff only to find one staff member and it got to the point where this staff member got Overwhelmed and started crying, and there was no other staff members to be in sight except for this one. My family and I have had enough at this point and asked if there was any where we could get off, and thankfully we were able to get off in Reddit, by the time we got into Reddit it was dark and we needed to get a cab so the staff helped us which I am very greatful for and they called us a cab which and we thankfully got to Kenora and stayed the night then making it to sioux look out the next day. Via rails has denied my family reimbursement for the trip back after being told we would be reimbursed from multiple staff members, I WOULD DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMEND . Another note to take is they also charge for food and drinks which is fine but for all the people who decide to stay on that train after me and my family got off, I hope they all got free meals and drinks, to simply not get sick from not eating or not staying hydrated. Via rails you need either fix the way you operate or go out of business because this experience was horrifying and from other reviews I can see this is not the first time something similar to this has happened.

On my first time taking a train, Fazley made the experience amazing. The service was incredible and he went above and beyond to ensure we were satisfied. Awesome sense of humor, definitely taking a train again!!

Sorry for the long post, but everything needs to be mentioned.

I will never go back on Via Rail Canadian again, or any multiple day trips! Maybe a train for a few hours, but even then that is iffy. This trip was a complete nightmare! The only thing I liked on the train was the staff that I got to talk to, they were super friendly!

My daughter and I booked our trip on The Canadian back in May and we had it for July 13th-17th. There was no news of wildfires until the day before we got on the train and it was mentioned there Might be a cancellation. When we boarded, we heard nothing about the news, we weren't told to leave the train when we arrived in Jasper and Edmonton, and I thought we were all good to go. Sometime after leaving Edmonton is when we got an announcement about possible cancellation and they would monitor it.

I know no one plans for wildfires to happen, but when I heard that Via Rail already had multiple trains either just make it through the fires or cancel trains because of them, they should have given us more warning, not just under 24 hours notice.

Once we got the official cancellation, I called Via Rail customer service and the nice lady on the phone spoke to her supervisor for me and said I would get a FULL refund in a cheque, and I explained to her that I paid in GC's, but needed the money to book a flight. Knowing I was going to get money back eventually, I asked a family member to borrow money. I booked the 7am flight from Saskatoon (we were supposed to arrive by 6am). Of course Saskatoon had to be the one stop we didn't arrive at on time.

My daughter and I got stranded in Winnipeg as that was the final stop. We had to stay for 2 days until we could get a flight home from there and I had to borrow even more money for hotel and flight.

While in Winnipeg I get an email from Via Rail saying that the lady on the phone earlier wasn't supposed to give me a cheque and that I will be getting partial refund by GC. Honestly that devastated me further. The amount of money I have to pay back to people now, when this could have been avoided all together. I wouldn't have booked this trip at all if I knew sooner. Via Rail makes millions a year, and they can't as a ONE TIME courtesy help out the little people.

For context, I took 4 trips on this rail way. It would be one thing if one or even two of these train rides was slightly delayed, but this was not the case. All 4 of these train rides were late, some of them up to an hour. Isn’t the whole point of traveling by train to avoid traffic and delays. Additionally, the conditions in the train were sub par. Trains were extremely bumpy, loud, rickety, or freezing cold. Overall, my experience with Via Rail Canada was greatly unpleasant. I do no recommend travelling with this company.

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!!