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VIA Rail is launching non-stop Montreal–Toronto trains starting on September 29, 2025 as a three-month pilot project, announced on September 19. All intermediate stops will be eliminated for trains 60 and 61, the first services in the morning, and for trains 68 and 69 in the late afternoon. Train 50 from Toronto to Ottawa will also operate non-stop from Toronto to Brockville, including on Sundays. This is intended to offer faster downtown-to-downtown travel, with journey times expected to be about 30 minutes faster than the existing schedule, although advertised arrival times are not being changed. See VIA Rail’s Travel Advisory.
However, these changes also reduce services to other cities along the lakeshore route. The first eastbound departures from stations between Toronto and Brockville will be two hours later, with the first trains from Kingston leaving at 11am and not arriving in Montreal or Ottawa before 1pm, making same-day trips much less practicable. The first departures from Cornwall in each direction will also be two hours later, with mid-afternoon arrivals in Toronto or Montreal, and service between Brockville and Montreal is reduced to just once daily. Limited motorcoach services leave affected passengers with few alternative travel options.
While we welcome faster services, we are concerned by the very short notice given for this schedule change which is disruptive to passengers who had already made plans and reservations based on the existing schedule, and by the absence of adjustments to rest of the schedule to maintain adequate service to intermediate towns and cities between Toronto and Montreal.
Reducing the usefulness of passenger rail services for cities along the lakeshore is also at odds with the “Kingston Hub” strategy for ensuring the continued vitality of the route once the Alto high speed rail line opens for end-to-end travel. Transport Action believes it is important for VIA Rail improve service and grow traffic between cities along the route, despite the restrictions in infrastructure capacity and equipment availability. We recognise that this is a balancing act, so we ask VIA Rail to recognize that the availability of morning and evening services is particularly important for intermediate cities.
A reason for this experiment is the loss of passengers between Toronto and Montreal, particularly in business class, resulting from the increasingly severe delays including those caused by the restrictions CN imposed on new Venture trains. There is significant untapped demand between the two cities, so by running these express trains with 32-axle consists that will be able to operate at full line speed VIA Rail may hope to win back lost ridership and attract new passengers. Much will depend on whether CN provides adequate dispatching so that slowdowns from freight trains are minimized and the express trains can achieve reliable on-time performance.
Strategies to better balance faster express between Toronto and Montreal with useful service to intermediate cities could include:
Previous schedules with express trains, such as VIA Rail’s flagship Metropolis in the 1990s and CN Turbo and Rapido services, were combined with stopping services to provide a balance between speed and connectivity.
A VIA Rail spokesperson said: “Although this pilot project is an exciting opportunity, we recognize this change may inconvenience some customers who rely on intermediate stops. That’s why VIA Rail will carefully evaluate the pilot based on ridership, on-time performance, customer feedback, and community impacts. It is too early to determine whether the program will continue beyond this pilot phase.”
Members of Parliament along the corridor have expressed concerns raised by constituents about these changes, and the changes have attracted negative press coverage.
Transport Action will continue to advocate for timely and reliable service for all communities along the route, and for adequate consultation before making major service changes.