A Circle Trip on VIA

VIA 70 arriving in Toronto. I was able to get some photos on the platform before heading down to catch my next train.

On Monday I departed London on VIA 70 connecting in Toronto to Montreal. My good friend James who is high up in the Federal Government tax office had meeting in Montreal and Ottawa. He was flying to Montreal then taking the train to Ottawa the next day for a few days then flying home. We talked about meeting up in Montreal before when he would be there. I had mentioned it was around 1980 the last time I worked a train to Montreal and had not been back by rail since. This became a golden opportunity as he already booked suites in down town in both cities and he knows the good places to eat and visit. So while he was in meeting I just took in the towns and we would meet up for drinks before dinner. I was able to book the seat next to James for our ride to Ottawa and yesterday in some nasty weather in eastern Ontario headed home...a great experience as I had never been to Ottawa by rail and now I have been on two different routes. Now we are talking about Vancouver and Halifax as locations to meet up...George Dutka

Monday morning VIA 70 to Toronto.

Connections was pretty good with only about an hour wait at Union Station...a lot of stops

I was able to walk up to the head end of train 64 before we departed and get a few views...all with my phone. I did not take a camera on this trip. Although there was a few delays such as crossings needing flagging and a couple of freights in the way we arrived only 5 minutes late in Montreal.

The head end of our train to Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon. The train backs out of the station before departing. I found it very dark and not great for photos.

We arrived about 10 minutes late. I found the ride very rough. I don't know if it was the LRC coach which I never like the ride on or the trackage. We bounced around a lot more than on my sailboat in the chop. One could not drink a coffee without wearing most of it....so we didn't.

The Ottawa station is a new and impressive structure. I did not expect what I saw there. Note the models on display. The platform had three trains on it. There appears to be a lot of business for VIA in Ottawa. The rapid transit system which is brand new is found out in the parking lot. I had used that to get here from downtown.

Weather was not nice when I left Ottawa on Thursday, so not a lot of photos from there.

Looks like winter in Kingston one of two stops on the was to Toronto. By the time we got near Toronto there was no snow.

VIA 73 at Union Station. VIA 43 was late coming in from Ottawa so I just walked back on the same platform to get on the train. It departed about 10 minutes after our arrival leaving me no time for photos of 43's head end in Toronto. With all the snow in Ottawa I did not take any platform views there. It was snowing and dark and not a good combination for railfanning....another trip to Ottawa might be in the works.