Passenger rail needs to be competitive in time, cost and convenience to truly rival car dependancy. It would be really nice to see passenger rail priority and plans to make seperate dedicated tracks in busier areas.
Via Rail is a complete disaster imo. They take the bad from air travel and bring it to rail. They act like their service is a premium luxury one, with huge numbers of staff per train, multiple checks of your tickets, etc.
One example of how bad their operations are (not to get into reliability which is a whole other problem) is that when arriving at a station they ask that you remain seated until the train is fully stopped, and then slowly help people get off. Contrast this with trains in Japan as an example, where the announcement says a stop is coming up soon, please be ready to get off as soon as the train doors are open.
In my opinion we don’t just need politicians riding Canadian trains. I want them to travel to Europe and Asia and then come back and suffer on via rail. It’s not just new dedicated tracks that are needed, it’s a complete restructure of the passenger experience!
I want them to travel to Europe and Asia and then come back and suffer on via rail. It’s not just new dedicated tracks that are needed, it’s a complete restructure of the passenger experience!
FABULOUS idea. Have them ride transit too, and maybe ferries and ensure they take notes as they fly over, as long as it’s not a North American airline.
Um, but avoid Sweden. We had a bear of a time navigating the variable train system there at what we’re hearing is a very ‘cost-efficient’ time where passengers suffer for the experience.
Passenger rail needs to be competitive in time, cost and convenience to truly rival car dependancy. It would be really nice to see passenger rail priority and plans to make seperate dedicated tracks in busier areas.
Via Rail is a complete disaster imo. They take the bad from air travel and bring it to rail. They act like their service is a premium luxury one, with huge numbers of staff per train, multiple checks of your tickets, etc.
One example of how bad their operations are (not to get into reliability which is a whole other problem) is that when arriving at a station they ask that you remain seated until the train is fully stopped, and then slowly help people get off. Contrast this with trains in Japan as an example, where the announcement says a stop is coming up soon, please be ready to get off as soon as the train doors are open.
In my opinion we don’t just need politicians riding Canadian trains. I want them to travel to Europe and Asia and then come back and suffer on via rail. It’s not just new dedicated tracks that are needed, it’s a complete restructure of the passenger experience!
FABULOUS idea. Have them ride transit too, and maybe ferries and ensure they take notes as they fly over, as long as it’s not a North American airline.
Um, but avoid Sweden. We had a bear of a time navigating the variable train system there at what we’re hearing is a very ‘cost-efficient’ time where passengers suffer for the experience.