So far, there were 3 trains from May to October between Toronto and Vancouver
In 2019, the 3rd train will run only between Edmonton and Vancouver
The westbound Canadian timetable is about 12 hours later, compared to the current one: Departure in Toronto 09.30 am on Wed and Sun, Winnipeg in the evening, Edmonton midnight, Jasper in the early morning, arrival in Vancouver at 8.00 am. This means that after only a few months, the travel along Fraser river is during the night again.
The eastbound Canadian is similar to the current schedule, but 1-3 hours later. Hence, in general different streches will be during day / night, depending on whether you go east- or westbound. Departure from Vancouver at 15.00 instead of 12.00. During summer months, at least part of the travel along Fraser and Thomson river should be still during daylight.
The 3rd train runs with the same timetable, but only from Vancouver to Edmonton and back. The trains are not regularly spread over the week (so far 3-2-2), but 3-3-1.
The 3rd train remain in Edmonton for more than 24 hours and leaves at midnight, running during two nights and only one day back to Vancouver. In my view, the should have chosen a different timetable for the westbound train starting in Edmonton, so that it would run during 2 days and 1 night. E.g. departure the following day in a timetab
The faster schedule (70 hours) of The Canadian with fewer stops meant that only seven sets of equipment were required
between Montreal and Vancouver (2,881 miles) plus two smaller sets between Toronto and Sudbury. Thus, 18 cars.
There were no spare cars! Instead, an elaborate system of preventative maintenance was carried out
in segments during layovers at Montreal and Toronto. Vancouver doing only failures.
Canadian Pacific Railway
Stainless Steel equipment
The largest order of passenger equipment ever placed by the CPR (June 1953) was also the largest order
ever received by the Budd Company of Philadelphia for stainless steel passenger equipment, 173 cars.
Without being in the know, this would appear to be a result of both an equipment shortage, pressure to reduce losses, and one more cut on the long road to VIA’s eventual death (outside of the Corridor at least).
The Canadian loses money, just like all North American long-distance trains. But VIA’s current President claimed in an interview that it breaks even during the summer season west of Edmonton, if I recall correctly. Perhaps this was just an attempt to silence the criticism coming from Rocky Mountaineer, or perhaps the Canadian is actually profitable on that stretch.
Equipment shortages are becoming an issue, those stainless steel Budds aren’t getting any younger and VIA is about to overhaul a number of them once again, which will reduce the pool size temporarily. In addition, the Renaissance cars (which have never enjoyed good reliability) are starting to age as well, which leads to the use of Budd equipment on the Ocean and certain Corridor trains to cover for them.
It’s got to cost a small fortune to run equipment that old across Canada. Curious what the cost per type of car is. We’ll probaby never see that breakdown. I think that LD trains would do better if they had more than two classes of service like the Rocky Mountaineer OR if those traveling in Economy could upgrade various parts of their trip like on a cruise ship.
Also, would be really curious what the losses are on the Skeena which has no real dining car or sleeping car but is still a fairly decent Long Distance train. Then compare the per mile losses on the Skena with per mile loses on the Canadian.
As to the Skeena, when I rode it four years ago, riding Tourist to Prince Rupert and coach coming back, the meal servicre westbound was comparable to that which my wife and I experienced when we rode VIA 1 in prior years, in all of the Quebec-Windsor Corridor. Coming back, the service was sandwiches and drinks. (On the second day, I wanted a hamburger; they had all been sold and the lady in charge gave me one of the Tourist class meals–and did not charge me for it.)
On the same trip, I rode in sleepers between Vancouver and Edmonton, and the diner service did not seem to be as excellent as it had been when my wife and I last rode from Vancouver to Toronto five years earlier. On that last trip across Canada, we also went as far east as Moncton, sleeping in a drawing room eastbound; the diner service was good, but not quite as good as that on the Canadian. It was, however, better than anything that Amtrak offered. I will not comment on the service back to Montreal in Renaissance equipment.
I would guess that the lengthening of the Canadian scedule would lower the utilization of equipment so that 2 1/2 trips per week might be all they could cover.
