VIA Rail Canada Reviews 

Very bad at following schedule. So far, I took the train twice over a month and it was never on time. Once by more than 1h30 mins late which made me miss the last métro in Montreal. Second time an hour late to go to Ottawa. Also, we were freezing on the train the first time. Sadly Canada doesn't have much reliable transportation system, wether its internal flights, train or buses.

Friendly services from start to finish. Food was grate. Require special aids and staff were great. Upcoming to help.

Job well done all

Canada, like USA is a car-oriented country with terrible public transport. Anyone taking a long distance train in Canada should bear in mind that timetables and reliability are of a 3rd world standard ..... We had a terrible experience with our Prince George - Jasper train being cancelled with no alternative means offered to get us to Jasper. It was due to a derailment and I later learnt that this is not that unusual.
In our case this affected us adversely with VIA refusing to take responsibility for getting us to Jasper with no buses or anything - And Prince George is not a great place to be stuck. In the end we had to take a Uride car to Jasper costing us CAD460 with no help from VIA Rail - they would not pay. This was my worst experience during a 3 week visit to Canada.

I have never experienced a train ride with this service that was on time, and it is highly unacceptable. I regularly travel from Quebec to Kitchener, and due to constant delays, I repeatedly miss my GO train connection.

This situation is extremely frustrating and has caused significant inconvenience in my travels. Reliable timing is essential for passengers who depend on connections, and this service consistently fails to meet that basic expectation.

At this point, I am seriously considering not taking the train anymore.

Terrible experience from start to finish. VIA Rail changed my seats to worse ones than the ones I originally selected and handled it as if it were no big deal. That alone was frustrating, but the service in the business lounge made it even worse. The attendant was rude, dismissive, and clearly uninterested in helping.

For a company selling a supposedly premium experience, this was embarrassingly poor service. Worse seats, rude staff, and zero sense of customer care. Completely unacceptable. I would not recommend VIA Rail to anyone, especially if you expect basic professionalism and respect.

I decided to use via rail to travel from Toronto Guildwood to Ottawa Fallowfield. The train was on time at the time of departure and also on our return. The experience was great with WiFi and plug charging. The food and drinks on the train were reasonably priced. My friend who travelled with me was a senior citizen and the girls on the train were very helpful and helped with our baggage and also helped her to use the washroom when the train stopped at the stations.
The service was great and it was a great way to travel to Ottawa.

Train had constant delays so if you have to be somewhere on time do not take the train.

Let’s start with the great. Once you have a ticket you will have an excellent experience. I was fortunate to have Alan as a conductor, it is obvious that he loves his job. What is unfortunate is how difficult it is to get tickets. Their online service is kindly a failure, that cost me money, and a day of travel. Love Via rail, just wish they could do better, there staff deserve better.

Absolute garbage. Once again, my 4 hour train ride took 9 hours. They think a refund makes up for this. Toronto to Ottawa is the absolute worst route. Via and CN clearly think we're all idiots. No transparency. No urgency. No apology. No compensation. It's embarassing. This is why Canadians never travel in Canada. Air Canada, VIA, CN. You're all disgraceful. I happen to also see your compensation at my job. You're overpaid, clearly.

Train # 53 on March 2nd from Ottawa to Windsor.
The server obviously doesn’t enjoy his job. He raced by us with the food/beverage cart. When I asked for a diet beverage he blurted out, “We don’t have anymore”. He didn’t even give me any eye-contact, How rude…. He wasn’t sociable at all. He could have been nicer. Taking the train is not cheap. I was disappointed.
I take Via often. The servers are usually kind and friendly. 👎

I would give no stars of possible. They do not take cash on the train. Rude staff. They changed the baggage policy just before my trip but months after I booked it so they now have charged me extra for a bag 2 inches taller than what they changed the height to.

On February 10th I departed Brockville on train#52.When I finally arrived in Ottawa Melissa was at my train with the wheel chair and she took me right out to the taxi .A very pleasant and considerate young lady. I always appreciate such great employees and the great service they provide for me. Melissa is for sure an asset to Via Rail. Many Thanks Melissa.Take care and stay safe.Sincerely Carole K.

sleeper class +, tor to vancover everything was first class, food was excellent, service was great, remember its a train so space is limited but acceptable. after leaving in Vancouver i found i had left a valuable personal item on board, Via contacted me i couriered item to my home, now thats service

Fell asleep on via rail only to be awakened by a staff member telling me that im snoring very loudly,well i have no control over my snoring when i sleep,what a stupid idiot!!!!!!

Sore ass! Ottawa to Quebec.
67 yrs old, and I find the seats hard and uncomfortable after a couple hours.
Otherwise, an enjoyable experience.

I bought a round trip ticket from Toronto to Ottawa. The departure trip went fine, minus a minor delay. It was relatively comfortable.

The return trip was cancelled last minute and we had to rent a car to get back to Toronto. The refund process was relatively straight forward to be fair. It would’ve been nice if we’d been given a bit more notice.

So overall, a mediocre trip experience from a company that excels at mediocrity.

Tried 25 times to book on line and each time won't follow through with credit card payment. So frustrating and keep changing pricing which is also frustrating

Late, late and late this summarize their crap service.

Garbage the trains are always late and unreliable. It's actually almost funny at how shit the trains are compared to trains in Europe

We left Toronto Dec 14,2025 and enjoyed a great experience to Winnipeg with Haley, Jake and Colleen all excellent doing their best to host us Prestige passengers. The crew change in Winnipeg changed the experience into a nightmare with Lilly in the bar and Whaibi in the dining car and the service manager being totally inept and indifferent. We would have got off the train and flew back to Vancouver if we could. Via has responded to my concerns with thanks for your input but will not take any responsibility. There are many options to spend 3000 a day on a vacation look elsewhere!