Modernisation of Canada's train reservation system means ticket reservations on the VIA Rail network will be completely suspended.
The current VIA Rail Canada will switch to a new platform. This means that the system will be shut down between 7:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Friday, November 17 and 5:00 p.m. (ET) Saturday 18 November. For French travellers, this means practically the whole of Saturday 18 December..
As passengers will not be able to book, change or cancel their reservations during this system disruption, VIA Rail strongly encourages them to book and plan their journeys before the "fateful" hour.
This suspension does not result in the interruption of rail operations. In addition, all bookings made prior to the system interruption remain valid.
A normally functioning network
However, there will be certain consequences during this period:
- It will not be possible to book, cancel or change a journey at any of VIA Rail's points of sale (online, at the station, on board or by contacting the VIA Rail Customer Centre).
- Passengers who have not purchased a ticket prior to the system interruption will not be able to board trains during this period.
- Online customer profiles will not be accessible and it will not be possible to print boarding passes from these profiles.
- The option of printing boarding passes at the station will not be available
- However, passengers will have access to their travel documents via the e-mail sent with their boarding pass.
All information relating to this system interruption is also available on the VIA Rail website.
What's more, VIA Rail and its American counterpart Amtrak have discussed the possibility of revitalising the Chicago-Detroit-Toronto rail linewhich has been interrupted since 1979. The link would take Chicago just under 10 hours from Toronto. From Detroit, the journey to the Canadian metropolis would take 4 hours 45 minutes.
