VIA Rail Canada Reviews 

I've been travelling regularly on VIA for many years and am a premium member. VIA trains are almost always late and often by an hour or more on a 3 to 5 hour trip. Yet somehow VIA has the temerity to increase its fare and add new charges for luggage and seat selection. The points program has also been modified and is much worse than before. Too bad there are so few options for people who cannot or do not want to drive. Any normal company would be out of business by now but VIA operates in a virtual monopoly. I'm a big supporter of train travel but VIA is simply the pits.

Horrible experience travelling from Toronto to Fallowfield On July 11th! One of the VIA rail representatives was so rude and condescending. She also touched my shoulder and my arm in a condescending way! We booked all forward facing seats, because we all get sick if we are rear facing. They changed the cars on the train, which meant the layout of our car was now different from the one we booked our seats. They had us all rear facing. One of the youth we were with became extremely sick very quickly because the VIA representative told us that we had to keep these seats until the manager comes out. She brushed off our concern completely and was extemely rude to us. The worst part of our experience was that I sent 2 emails to VIA to let them know what had happened. 2 weeks later they finally responded. They responded that there was nothing they could do to help me. I do not recommend traveling with VIA. We will no longer be travelling with VIA.

I had booked tickets months before my travel date. Leading up to the day of travel I decided to change the date of my travel by changing my booking online which was easy enough. However, the information on the website is misleading. Before committing to changing the booking, the website prompts you to tick a box to say that you understand the the charges/ fees associated with changing the booking. I had read these rules which stated that you will be ‘refunded’ for the original booking minus any booking fee. When it came time to pay I assumed that I would later be refunded for the original ticket minus any booking fee. However, the grand total for changing the booking had already taken into account the amount to be refunded for the original booking. This is very misleading information, as the word that needed to be used, rather than ‘refunded’ should have been ‘discounted’. The day after I changed the booking and paid (before the transaction was even processed) I called VIA Rail to try and change back my booking to the original date I intended to travel because I could not justify paying the extra for the change. I argued on the grounds that the information on their website was misleading. I was told there was nothing they could do due to it being against their policy, and that instead of changing the booking online I should have called them (and waited nearly an hour on call waiting) to make sure I understood the fees etc. Why are we paying a ‘booking fee’ (which, by the way, is not per booking, but is for per person per trip) if not for occasions like this where misleading information that they have published has lead to dissatisfied customers? In the end I had to pay nearly $800 CAD for a trip from Montreal to Quebec City and back for two people.

Policy is not made to be inflexible, particularly for circumstances like this. If we get down to the root of the issue, I would say that it is important for your officers to read critically, the information you put out to the public. This way information should be interpreted correctly and scenarios like the one I experienced can be avoided. This is an important part of being a transparent government body.

Trains are not reliable and should not be allowed to advertise scheduled times without giving a range instead of a specific end time considering some 50% of trips aren’t on time. Awful experience when every trip is an hour or two longer than advertised—honestly just start giving people a range when they book so they know what to expect and don’t run late to their appointments, it’s not like air travel where there’s a lot of force majeure, you share the tracks with freight trains so you already know when you’re going to miss which on average is 50% of the time. Decent customer service when needing changes.

Horrible experience. Always dissapointed. They charge you extra if you have a larger suit case, while the airlines do not. Almost the price of the train ticket. Their antiquated trains are always late and they nickle and dime you for everything in the stations and in the train. I'll pay extra to find alternate mode of transportation next time and avoid Via Rail at all costs.

I never thought I see the day when a train not aircraft charge you for luggage. Then you wonder why people don’t take the train nickel and dime you for everything. It’s a train on a 4 hr run not a transatlantic flight. The death of trains is decided by incompetent decision makers Sad sad day

Website can't even process a booking order. Triple checked if it was on my end and can confirm it's on Via's poorly design website. Because of having to wait and see if it'll work later ticket prices have gone up and I may need to pay even more now. Trying to order tickets on the phone is not pleasant either as you'll likely be waiting for 15 min before even speaking to anyone. If possible avoid Via's services at all cost.

We had a very positive experience today with Kassy at the Windsor train station. She was most knowledgeable in helping us choose the best option for a roundtrip journey to Toronto. Without her, navigating the possibilities would have been a nightmare. Many thanks Kassy.

Horrible experience. No food water or drinks are included. Price is the same as airplane. Always delays like 45 minutes. Don’t recommend anyone take a car or air plain price will be the same just will save time and nerves

Terrible wait times on the phone. Then chattednwith Suzie from Moncton and she was absolutely not helpful. Suggest you get better more knowlegesble staff

Via RUINED our whole trip!!!! Toronto-Windsor took almost 12 HOURS …many of which with no air. Gross wahrooms! Also, With our ride up, Windsor- Toronto, a 45 min delay turned out to be 3hours extra!! If YOUR train has a “delay” run the other way! Better off with a taxi DO NOT board!!! We will NEVER use VIA again!!!!!!

Took the train from Toronto to Montreal. Train was late getting into Montreal but the real issue was the ride back from Montreal. The train as 1 hour late so our 5 hour trip turned into 6 hours. No communication on why and how long until passengers got restless. Watch the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is stuck on a train and that is how we felt.

Sooooo Late. Waited for my train from Edmonton to Saskatoon for 6.5 hours. This is not ok

Deplorable customer service. Spoke to 'escalation' team who saw no ethical problem with double-booking me a fee after they booked the wrong way.

They charged me 50% to rebook a ticket after not telling me what the fee was for. I presumed it was for difference in fare.

The first 'supervisor' David refused to do anything about it and the 2nd went on to list all the ways I was to blame for the mess-up. This is insane that a company would go out of their way to blame the customer instead of working to fix the problem. I was blown away.

I've been working in customer service my whole life and these losers do nothing to help. Instead of doing the ethical thing and fixing the ticket with no extra fees, they wanted to double dip and couldn't do the right thing.

Via rail is a highly unethical company and they have trash customer service agents.

Stay Far Away from Via Rail!!!!!

I purchased a ticket for a family member who is vulnerable and has mental health issues with my Grandmother as well.

He had some issues on the train and was questioned by the conductor and Staff if he was ok and Clearly he was Not well.

He is signed up with Via Rail Preference along with my family.
They were very aware of his mental health issues and let him off at a Different Via Rail station 2 Provinces away from his final destination stop. Alone and had no bank card no food nothing 😭

He was located 2 days later in Another Province in the Emergency room suffering from confusion and made it clear he needed help.

Speaking with Customer service and staff over the Horrible situation nothing was questioned why he was let off the train.

No one Cares about him no one!!!

This is my family member who is now without any thing and alone in a hospital in another Province.

No refund at least half to get him home.

Horrible situation and staff Do not care.. No one Cares about him and he is now stranded in another Province.

Please do not ever send a Family member on Via Rail

Experienced mostly average to abysmal service on a few occasions with VIA. My most recent experience however, bordered on the ridiculous. Booked service to Quebec City back in March and everything seemed fine. Received an e-mail a few weeks later informing me that there would be a booking modification to the schedule, involving seating and train numbers. Ok, I thought, that’s fine,it’s probably just going to happen once and that’s it. But no, I was contacted by e-mail numerous times later, with the same booking modifications! Who is running this service? Do they have a clue how to run a passenger train service? Public transit could probably run this service better and that’s not saying much…..And,when I contacted VIA regarding a refund, I was informed that I would only receive a partial refund on my purchase. Talk about ripping off your customers.

VIA get your stuff together, and start caring more about the passengers who put up with your lacklustre service.

The staff are extremely attentive to our needs. We travelled from Winnipeg to Vancouver and then back to Winnipeg 5 days later. On both trips we were treated royally by Edgard (our valet) and by Chantal ( the dining car supervisor). Although the Canadian is a bit expensive, it is definitely worth it.

Thank you to Nelson and the security guard at Trembley station in Ottawa. We left a bag on the train and rushed back to get it and they worked quickly and efficiently to retrieve it for us, even though it was late and everyone else was gone. Did it with a smile too! It really helps :) Great service and compassion!

I am been taking the train for 50 plus years. I used to love taking the train. Over the last four years, service standards have crumbled; the trains are often an hour or more late, there appears to be no interest in punctuality any longer; apologies for lateness are perfunctory, if given at all; fares have doubled and tripled; unstaffed stations have been locked with no access for passengers. However, two days ago on Thursday April 25th, while on my way to board a train from London station, I was subjected to the worse experience in over 50 years of taking the train. I was first stopped by a security guard nonchalantly lounging on a chair, who demanded to see my boarding pass to scan it. When I showed it to him, he announced I had one bag too many and sent me to the ticket counter to discuss this with an agent. Recently Via has severely tightened its baggage regulations. I was an offender as in addition to a small backpack I use as a purse, a small, carry-on size rolley, and a small bag of groceries, I had a second small bag of groceries. Three items is now the temporary limit; soon it will be two. My four small bags together were less than one medium to large sized suitcase. I admitted I was over the limit, and asked politely how we could resolve this. The woman at the ticket counter, who claimed she was the shift supervisor, proceeded to treat me as a criminal, excoriating me for not following the rules. She was officious, condescending, hard, cold, reprimanding, and to say she was also cruel is no exaggeration. I asked that I be allowed to pay an additional fee for the offending small bag of groceries. She first refused, and kept me standing at the ticket counter for nearly 15 minutes while she checked my bookings to see whether I had discussed with the booking agent an extra bag of groceries! Finally she relented and allowed me to pay $25.00 plus tax for the offending extra grocery bag. She announced, with apparent satisfaction, that in a few months we would be allowed only two items, a purse counting as one. Her behaviour was abhorrent, unfriendly, and demeaning. I am quite a sturdy person, although an elder, but I was reduced to shaking with agitation at being thus abyssymally treated. I had arrived at the station 25 minutes early, but had to run to board the train, which by now was already boarding. I will be writing a formal letter of complaint to Via, and requesting an apology.

They have terrible customer service and no compassion. They should go to Disney and take some courses on customer service.
Their prices are all over the place and it’s always more reasonable to drive.
They would rather leave seats empty than accommodate someone that’s in trouble to get home. I had already paid the penalty to change my ticket in the first place.
I won’t be using VIA going forward and will be spreading the word