VIA Rail Canada Arvostelua 

Mathiw, the service manager in Quebec City, was absolutely amazing. He was incredibly helpful, kind, and friendly. He helped my friend when she lost her bag and went above and beyond to assist us. Thank you so much 10/10⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mathew the service manager on train 33 was absolutely amazing and extremely helpful . I left my purse at the via rail station and Mathew was quick to help me contact the other stations to get it back … life saver !!

VIA Rail has become completely unreliable. Trains are consistently late, with no meaningful communication, no accountability, and no concern for passengers who have planned their day around the schedule they advertise.
Traveling under these conditions is frustrating enough, but traveling with a child makes it almost unbearable. Long, unexplained delays, poor coordination, and a lack of basic consideration create unnecessary stress for families and anyone who depends on public transportation to function properly.
The level of incompetence is alarming. Delays appear to be treated as normal rather than a failure of service. There is no sense of urgency, no ownership of the problem, and no visible effort to improve. Excuses replace solutions, and passengers are left waiting, again and again.
For a service that positions itself as a national rail provider, this performance is unacceptable. Reliability should be the bare minimum. Instead, VIA Rail delivers chronic lateness, poor planning, and a travel experience that feels disorganized and careless.

This is not a one time issue. It is a pattern and a very bad one!

We had discounts as new citizens of canada but we were stopped by the via boarding agent and was checking our passport and made the scene more stressful. I do know that we were among the other white Canadian that boarded the business class in the train so i wonder if they were curious how we got the discounts for the business class. This feels like we were discriminated.

We took 4 trips with Via Rail and all 4 were full trains. 3 out of the 4 trips we were to put our luggage in the racks provided in the carriages. However our Quebec to Montreal leg we were told if our luggage would not fit in the overhead we should have to pay extra. We asked for an explanation but got nothing and we had to pay. This is a scam of the highest order.

Dirty. Do not travel with them.

As soon as we sat down in our seat it smelled like vomit and/or dirty diapers. The staff were not helpful and claimed they did not smell it (both my husband and I did).

We moved seats temporarily until another passenger boarded and it did not smell like puke, but there was garbage left in the seat pockets (we boarded at the very first stop so it clearly hadn't been cleaned since before that journey).

On top of all of this, none of the tray tables appeared to have been cleaned in days, there were crumbs all over them.

I'll give it 1 star instead of 0 only because the trains are newly renovated but it does not make up for their lack of cleanliness.

I’ve taken 15 trips with Via this year (out of necessity not choice). 14 were delayed for over an hour. One was only delayed for 35 minutes.
One was delayed for over 6 hours.
Via promises a partial discount off your next ticket if you encounter a delay but they don’t honour it, they have a phone line that is deliberately understaffed and require endless information which you definitely won’t have kept. You will also need to sign up for their rewards program and give them all of your information to sell indiscriminately. Truly an awful company that only exists because they have a monopoly. Fly, drive, walk, or swim and you will arrive faster.

Always late and always delayed every - single - time.

Moi j'ai trouvé un ange au bout du fil. Je devais me rendre d'urgence a Toronto pour des funérailles. Puis, l'agent a facilité le tout. Merci Daniel!
Bien sure que je compte voyager avec VIA RAIL lors de mon prochain déplacement !

Je voyage régulièrement sur Via Rail en classe Affaires. Le service est excellent mais les trains ne sont pas fiables car ils sont presque toujours en retard.
Hier soir, deux heures de retard sur un train Québec Montréal, sans intempéries. Un monopole qui manque vraiment de respect pour ses passagers.

Le personnel est à l'écoute de sa clientèle afin de la satisfaire pendant tout le trajet !

Trajet extrêmement décevant. Je déconseille vivement de prendre le train de Via Rail si vous avez des engagements, car chaque déplacement que j’ai effectué accumule du retard, rendant le respect des horaires tout simplement improbable.

I don’t understand how a round trip with Via, in exactly the same conditions, has different prices between go and return - return being more expensive. Same train, same class, same conditions, same line, same 2 cities (Toronto and Montreal), the return is $70 more expensive. I call this a scam.

I'll often take Via business class from Stratford to Toronto and return home. The service is always exceptional. I was served by Andre on December 4th and Catherine on December 5th. Both were very pleasant and attentive. I've never had a bad experience with the Via crew. Kudos to them! ~ Jacquie from Stratford

We have travelled on Via Rail a few times from Toronto to Fallowfield on Business Class .We found the meals were very good and hot. This last trip coming back to Toronto was excellent on Train 45. We had a steward called Peter. He was very polite and looked after us very well. He was extremely pleasant. The meal was one of the best we had. Peter is certainly an asset to Via Rail and maybe we will be lucky and get him on our next trip.

I went to Toronto on September 20, 2025 for the to see a musical. The train trip was great no issues. The staff that helped were Veronica & Kieran in the morning and Kimberly in the evening.

Started late and now we are stuck in Thompson for two days. We had tours paid for and via couldn’t care less they can’t even let us know if we can ride on the next train. I had a trip planned with my parents for a train to the Banff area but I’m cancelling. Crap train system

Very incompetitive transport service, shame on Canada to have this only inefficient via rail service, wish they take the european model and see how rail efficiency and competitiveness is. How it is beneficial for travellers in europe to leave their cars and use rail service, reducing carbon footprints and traffic issues, way behind in pricing and service.

The money you pay for business class train is totally not worth it. The food was bland and the train was very slow. Considering the price I would expect it to be better. Newer trains with the automatic button washrooms are terrible, the lock system is not clear to anyone using it and can result in an uncomfortable situation. Honestly Canada is super behind in giving good train service.