Train #641 is being introduced starting May 27th, 2024, which departs Ottawa at 4:15, Kingston at 6:15, arriving in Toronto at 8:48am, which would be useful for anyone trying to get into a Toronto downtown office at 9am.
Train #641 is being introduced starting May 27th, 2024, which departs Ottawa at 4:15, Kingston at 6:15, arriving in Toronto at 8:48am, which would be useful for anyone trying to get into a Toronto downtown office at 9am.
Commuting:
If we’re comparing the price and convenience of “commuting” by plane versus VIA Rail… erh… do people regularly take a plane to work?
I mean, yes, it can be in competition with planes for this kind of distance but… commuters?! Like, going to work a few times a week using VIA Rail, and we’re comparing it to taking a plane… to work?! And even if we compare driving the whole road instead of driving to a station; who is going to bother booking tickets days in advance for a few times a week in order to be able to drive to a train station? If you just buy the cheapest ticket for going to work one morning and miss your train, you can’t even use that ticket for the next train! Gotta pay extra for that privilege!
I really, really can’t understand the “commuting” part. Maybe if someone goes to the office once a week and doesn’t mind having like, 2 or 3 departures to come back home, it can be a nice addition… but… relying on VIA Rail to go to work, on a regular basis?! What kind of mad person would do that?
I can’t really vouch for every part of the argument your acquaintance on Twitter, such that it’s “mainly” made for commuting. Like I laid out earlier, it’s more for business as clients and employers would be the ones expecting you to be in Toronto downtown by 9am for one reason or another. There are manager type of roles that need to travel as frequently as once a week between two cities, that’s still commuting in my eyes. A Monday to Friday 9 hour round trip commute would be utterly insane, that’s a quarter of your week gone. I’d have to be paid big bucks to put up with that.
Then again: One summer I did take a Via roundtrip every weekend (using a pass ofc) and I’d consider that commuting. I still booked a week in advance for the most part because I’d knew I’d leave on a Friday night and come back Sunday night.