# Current VIA system map in context?



## velotrain (Aug 28, 2019)

Pretty much all of the maps I've found on the web show the Gaspe line, so I know they're not current - that could be the only change, but I have no way of knowing. I don't care for the spindly one on the VIA site as it's more of a diagrammatic type, with straight lines connecting all major stations. What I'm interested in is one that respects the actual true routes and also shows them in the context of a traditional map background, preferably with the northern US shown so I don't need to toggle . . . and the larger the better! 

- IF - such a creature exists. thanks


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## NS VIA Fan (Aug 29, 2019)

Not a very good map at all and yes....very diagrammatic. Halifax appears to be north of Montreal…where it is actually southeast. And Mont Joli……the furthest north you get on the Ocean’s route is at 48.5 and south of the 49th parallel which is the US/Can border all across the west...but still shown north of it. Vancouver and Edmonton even appear to be further south than most of the Ocean’s route.

https://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/trains

The Railway Association of Canada's on-line Atlas is very good:

https://rac.jmaponline.net/canadianrailatlas/


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## jiml (Aug 29, 2019)

That VIA map is certainly an interesting artist's misconception. The longer you look at it, the harder it is to tell how they got there. If you know geography at all it's just weird.


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## Urban Sky (Aug 29, 2019)

velotrain said:


> Pretty much all of the maps I've found on the web show the Gaspe line, so I know they're not current - that could be the only change, but I have no way of knowing.


The presence of the Montreal-Gaspé service does by no means signify an outdated map: service on this route has only been suspended and never cancelled, meaning that VIA Rail is still mandated to resume passenger service as soon as the infrastructure has been restored to a track quality which allows to safely do so...



NS VIA Fan said:


> The Railway Association of Canada's on-line Atlas is very good:
> 
> https://rac.jmaponline.net/canadianrailatlas/


Given that having Amtrak and VIA on the same map seems to be a requirement, I would rather recommend this (also more user-friendly) online map:

https://asm.transitdocs.com/map


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## jiml (Aug 29, 2019)

Urban Sky said:


> I would rather recommend this (also more user-friendly) online map:
> 
> https://asm.transitdocs.com/map


That's my "go-to" app. It has a lot more detail when zoomed in than appears at first glance.

For straight research, a combination of the RAC, the CN network map (http://cnebusiness.geomapguide.ca/) and this map cover most of the bases.


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## velotrain (Aug 29, 2019)

Urban Sky said:


> The presence of the Montreal-Gaspé service does by no means signify an outdated map: service on this route has only been suspended and never cancelled, meaning that VIA Rail is still mandated to resume passenger service as soon as the infrastructure has been restored to a track quality which allows to safely do so...



Is there actually any intent to do that? It's been gone so long I'd assumed that it was permanent. I suspected a very light passenger load and I apparently rode on it near the end and the train was creeping over trestles and some places seemed quite close to eroding cliffs.

Although not what I requested, I like this map as it at least identifies the trains. It's one of those easily findable with search. I'm not so much interested in detailed track plans, but rather wanted to see just what was available and be able to comprehend it. I just discovered Jonquiere and didn't like the speed of Montreal - Toronto, but with ~300 miles in nine hours the Jomquiere averages ~33 MPH - my kind of train!

NS VIA - I've been chatting with a manager in Customer Service and will pass your comments along.


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## Urban Sky (Aug 29, 2019)

velotrain said:


> Is there actually any intent to do that? It's been gone so long I'd assumed that it was permanent. I suspected a very light passenger load and I apparently rode on it near the end and the train was creeping over trestles and some places seemed quite close to eroding cliffs.


As far as it concerns VIA Rail, there definitely is commitment to resume operations over restored tracks, whereas as far as it concerns the federal government, they appear at least committed to not let tracks deteriorate further:
https://www.canada.ca/en/office-inf...ion-and-restoring-railway-transportation.html



> I just discovered Jonquiere and didn't like the speed of Montreal - Toronto, but with ~300 miles in nine hours the Jomquiere averages ~33 MPH - my kind of train!


It’s quite a nice route, which often follows rivers and offers views which are undisturbed by any roads for most of the journey, but I’ve been told that if you like Montreal-Jonquierre, you’ll love Montreal-Senneterre, as the train travels through multiple gorges (Edit: not gauges)...


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## velotrain (Aug 29, 2019)

Well - that's nice, but it was announced a year ago - has anything actually happened? I'd have expected a more recent reference if it had. I'm uncertain if the ridership would make the effort/expense worthwhile.

It was before VIA, but the Annapolis Valley line was allowed to die. That would have provided an amazing NEC, Downeaster, Annapolis Valley, Ocean, Adirondack loop. I did a similar trip starting from Boston in 2007, cycling the Annapolis Valley and from Quebec City to Sorel and then south through VT and NH back to Boston. I think it can be done with some sort of shuttle/rental car from Yarmouth to Halifax - the Annapolis Valley is often pretty and has some interesting back roads and side trips so I'd recommend the car option.

This is Cape Split - on the Fundy coast near Wolfville/Kentville. I've hiked it some half-dozen times and once camped on the point overnight. There are a few side trails to get down to the "beach", but you need to be careful as the tide can come in faster here than a man can run, so you don't want to get caught exposed. It's a great day hike - highly recommended. It's a blast exiting the trees and suddenly finding yourself on a high meadow with ~320* ocean/bay surrounding you and squawking gulls circling overhead.







I'm hoping to do the Jonquiere run over the next year - I just got a $50 credit from VIA based on my unhappiness with several issues on my Montreal-Toronto run three weeks ago, but my map instinct told me that it has much better scenery than Senneterre - not to mention what looks to be a much more interesting destination - region. Not that I don't like narrow gauge ;-) Also, I gather there's a Quebec City bus option, giving an exclamation point on top of the Adirondack stalk.

I've found another VIA gripe - I hadn't realized that the Jonquiere was an alternate day operation, and their site doesn't have a schedule but forces you to pretend you want a ticket, but then stops working. I did what they suggested to change the date, but still got the error. Why do they need such complexity for a once a day train that only runs alternate days in each direction? You can have the ticket purchase system, but how about a simple graphic schedule to see what you have available?


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## Pere Flyer (Aug 29, 2019)

velotrain said:


> Although not what I requested, I like this map as it at least identifies the trains. It's one of those easily findable with search. I'm not so much interested in detailed track plans, but rather wanted to see just what was available and be able to comprehend it
> View attachment 14921



I agree, that map looks much better than the official one. Where did you find it? Who made it?


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## velotrain (Aug 29, 2019)

It looks so similar to the current one that I would think it must be a prior VIA map, but it might be ~6-7 years old as it does show the Gaspe line. They may have left it on the map for several years after it stopped running with the mistaken idea that it would be back soon.

I'm pretty sure I just searched for something like VIA rail system map and saw it in Google Images. I tend to check the size of files to see if they're worth opening, particularly for something like a map where I might want to expand the size of it.

An increasing problem is that there are so many tech acronyms out there that you can't type something like VIA by itself anymore, perhaps even qualifying it with both Canada and rail so the search engine knows just what you want.


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## Urban Sky (Aug 30, 2019)

velotrain said:


> Well - that's nice, but it was announced a year ago - has anything actually happened? I'd have expected a more recent reference if it had.


The announcement of the federal government is dated “August 26, 2019”, which would have been this Monday...



> I'm hoping to do the Jonquiere run over the next year - I just got a $50 credit from VIA based on my unhappiness with several issues on my Montreal-Toronto run three weeks ago, but my map instinct told me that it has much better scenery than Senneterre - not to mention what looks to be a much more interesting destination - region. Not that I don't like narrow gauge ;-)


Sorry, I meant “gorge”, not “gauge” (silly mistake, even though I have the excuse of not being a native speaker)!



> I've found another VIA gripe - I hadn't realized that the Jonquiere was an alternate day operation, and their site doesn't have a schedule but forces you to pretend you want a ticket, but then stops working. I did what they suggested to change the date, but still got the error. Why do they need such complexity for a once a day train that only runs alternate days in each direction? You can have the ticket purchase system, but how about a simple graphic schedule to see what you have available?


The Montreal-Jonquière and Montreal-Senneterre trains leave Montreal on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and return to Montreal on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, but you can find the full PDF timetable by clicking on this link and then on “Bilingual timetable”:
https://m.viarail.ca/en/plan-your-trip/customize-your-train-schedule



velotrain said:


> It looks so similar to the current one that I would think it must be a prior VIA map, but it might be ~6-7 years old as it does show the Gaspe line. They may have left it on the map for several years after it stopped running with the mistaken idea that it would be back soon.


I believe that this is the same map as the one used in the pocket timetables since 2007 and it is not outdated, as the service is temporarily suspended and not withdrawn, as I explained a few posts above.
https://m.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/schedules/VIARail_Timetable.pdf (Map shown on pages 28/29)



> I'm pretty sure I just searched for something like VIA rail system map and saw it in Google Images. I tend to check the size of files to see if they're worth opening, particularly for something like a map where I might want to expand the size of it.
> 
> An increasing problem is that there are so many tech acronyms out there that you can't type something like VIA by itself anymore, perhaps even qualifying it with both Canada and rail so the search engine knows just what you want.


Just put “VIA Rail” or “VIA Rail Canada” into quotation marks (or even better: “VIA Rail” Canada, that is “VIA Rail” in quotation marks and add the word “Canada” without them) and your Google searches should yield much more relevant results...


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## velotrain (Aug 30, 2019)

> The announcement of the federal government is dated “August 26, 2019”, which would have been this Monday...

Sorry - quite right. I had my glasses off and misinterpreted the bottom curl on the nine.


> Sorry, I meant “gorge”, not “gauge” (silly mistake, even though I have the excuse of not being a native speaker)!

I thought perhaps Senneterre was such a small place (that's how it looked in the photo I saw when I searched for it) that they had used a narrower gauge when the track was laid, and there was a transition at some point. In retrospect I should have realized this is very rarely done in the contemporarily world, although believe a few such outposts still survive.






Wednesday night I was poking around more on the site and came across the Jonquière and Senneterre schedules inadvertently. However - I'll point out that I entered the site at their initial marketing page and selected "The Adventure Routes", but don't believe there was any reference to the full schedule from that drill down.


> I believe that this is the same map as the one used in the pocket timetables since 2007

Yes, I know you mentioned the Gaspe service was only suspended, but that was six years ago now, and I might note that it has been removed from the current VIA system map. I won't say it can't happen, but will remain skeptical until I see the line rebuilt and trains scheduled. But then, perhaps I'm looking at the situation from a US - Amtrak perspective?


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## Seaboard92 (Aug 30, 2019)

Depending if you time things right Senneterre is using the consist on Saturdays to go from Senneterre on rare milage to Amos. 

This last weekend they even managed to get a Park car for it. And on the Friday and Sunday deadhead people were allowed to ride in the park car on the way. Something to keep an eye on.


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## velotrain (Aug 30, 2019)

This is for next year.


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