Information Is BeautifulDaily train service in Canada. For clarity, the operative word here is DAILY. The lines exist but there is no longer a daily service.
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https://www.threads.com/@uptheroader/post/DLqj7iNygSZ
Riku Voipio@infobeautiful I kind of understand why america doesn't have bullet trains (they went full retard: never go full retard). But how the hell Canada doesn't have a Quebec-Montreal-Toronto bullet train line??
SeaDoug want more highway, Doug no like train.
Rob Johnston 🍁@suihkulokki @infobeautiful It's in the planning process right now (again)!
Chris Cantrellthe line exists. the schedule exists. they've agreed not to discuss this.
Martin Bodlák 💙💛@infobeautiful wow… if they have the rails on the ground, it is pity not to use them as much as possible
Rupert V/@babaq @infobeautiful I just looked into it, as I have to get from Toronto to Vancouver at some point. Trains run twice a week, take 4 days (!) and cost over CA$500 for a seat, CA$3,500 for a sleeper.
@rupert I feel your pain… it's the same story in Europe, flying is not only faster but also cheaper (among the others, not all externalities are included in flight ticket prices)
@infobeautiful
@infobeautiful
Chris Corrigan@rupert @infobeautiful @babaq not all minutes are counted in travel time. For me to fly from Paris to Marseille might be an hour flight but getting to CDG, from the city (an hour) check in dealing with security (two hours) flying (hour) and getting into Marseille yet another hour) makes the 3,5 hour train trip easy.
Francesco Marini@ChrisCorrigan @rupert @infobeautiful @babaq yes, but now do Milan -> Paris 😉 (and it’s one of the fastest international long-ish routes 😅), 6h40m
Milan -> Berlin, 12h20m, 1 change
Milan -> Barcelona, 20h50m, 2 changes
We on this side of the Alps are kinda fscked. I mean, I kinda get why, but it’s still frustrating.
@fmarini @infobeautiful @rupert @babaq Paris to London at two hours still blows me away. I lived in the UK in the 70s early 80s. Going to Paris for lunch was not a thing.
You guys need a few more reeeeeeeaaaaly deep tunnels.
canleaf08✅ 加拿大葉子 🏳️🌈⚧️🇪🇺🍁@rupert @babaq @infobeautiful sleeper is recommended because you will have a berth, three meals a day and stopover in Capreol on when the attendants want to. In tronno you have access to lounge.. i would still prefer half the price. Mmhhh.. the domes are social hubs.. Better than former ICE3 seats...
Fusselwurm@rupert
Sounds like they've been reduced to a Special Needs schedule for those afraid of flying.
Pity.
@babaq @infobeautiful
Sounds like they've been reduced to a Special Needs schedule for those afraid of flying.
Pity.
@babaq @infobeautiful
disorderlyf@rupert @babaq @infobeautiful Meanwhile, I think a flight from YYZ to YVR is still less than a third of that in spite of a literal oil shortage
@rupert @babaq @infobeautiful It's cheaper to buy a ticket on a Tuesday, usually. You don't have to travel on a Tuesday, just purchase.
Niko@babaq @infobeautiful oh they are used… by freight trains and there’s no law requiring freight to yield so the passenger trains are delayed
i think VIA Rail’s on time performance is like 30%
Alnakar 🇨🇦@babaq @infobeautiful I did the Churchill train a few years ago. There are so many issues with the rail service, most of which stem from the fact that a private company bought the track, let it fall into disrepair, and prioritizes cargo over passenger trains.
There were so many times that the train either had to slow to a crawl on uneven tracks, or heed right of way for cargo. Our train out was cancelled at the last minute, and the train back took about 50% longer than advertised.
Duncan@infobeautiful there's a show called Race Across the World (similar to The Amazing Race but much less about competition, more about character, budget and the joy of travel).
One series was Canada coast-to-coast and the country came across really well. Except that this rich country had almost no public transport.
The other countries on the show, aside from Mongolia (where roads weren't a given!) most routes had bus or train connections. Canada was basically all hitchhiking and ride-shares!
Mike. 🩼🇨🇦@infobeautiful and no more Greyhound
Rachel Rawlings@infobeautiful Damn, and I thought nothing could be worse than Amtrak's service cuts
Sjaak K. 🇳🇱🇪🇺🍋@infobeautiful
Same in the Netherlands: a lot of track has disappeared over the years. This is all that’s left (with an every ten minute schedule on the main lines)
Same in the Netherlands: a lot of track has disappeared over the years. This is all that’s left (with an every ten minute schedule on the main lines)
@sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful that's so sad what happened to poor Netherlandians.
@fataqe @infobeautiful
I know! Yesterday changing trains even cost me 17 minutes extra! Plus shrink costs of course, for the caused ptss.
I know! Yesterday changing trains even cost me 17 minutes extra! Plus shrink costs of course, for the caused ptss.
@sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful the shrink is not covered by insurance in the wonderful state of Netherland?
Sir Osis of Liver 🇨🇦 🇲🇽@sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful
The Netherlands (42k km^2) is almost half the area of New Brunswick (73k km^2).
@Sir_Osis_of_Liver @sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful I think this argument would have more weight if the whole continent didn't have rail lines so well developed that I'm confident without even checking that I could travel from Lisbon to Warsaw only ever doing so via train.
And that's before the argument that we made it work half a century ago. Why is rail so hard in 2026 compared to a decade after the first humans set foot on the moon?
@disorderlyf @sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful
For that tiny area, the Netherlands has a population of 18M, Canada as a whole only has 40M.
There are very few centres that would have sufficient demand to support an extensive rail network. As it is, most places struggle to fund road transit.
@Sir_Osis_of_Liver @sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful In 1979 it would've been closer to 20 million, and yet we had all those daily routes for half the population spread over the same distances.
@disorderlyf @sjaakkeuvelaar @infobeautiful
And VIA rail was losing money hand over fist. Even now, with the greatly reduced service, it's bleeding badly.
Once the airlines were deregulated and fares dropped, it was game over for long haul passenger service.
Taking 1-5 days to go between cities is fine for a sight seeing, but not great when you really need to get somewhere.
Yncke@infobeautiful Um. Just to be sure: you really mean daily? Not hourly?
Deus Figendi.jwd@yncke
I was confused too but Canada is huge I gues.
Coast to coast by train is like a week or something.
Compared to Europe you have to call the orient express I think.
@infobeautiful
@deusfigendi @yncke @infobeautiful Canada has something people love to talk about. austria would like to have something like this. australia pays even more to journey beyond... the Canadian feels like an orient express... 71 year old cars, queenslanders, Germans, Canadians and entire Altersheims....
@infobeautiful @deusfigendi @yncke yes. And population density. There some regional rail in Ontario and one line in BC that runs commuter trains but it would add much to the map. We are extremely poor key services by rail.
Nevertheless there should be lots of regional rail in the Lower Mainland of BC and Vancouver Island. In the entire southern Ontario and Quebec corridor, and even the Halifax/Moncton/Saint John region and between Calgary and Edmonton.
@deusfigendi @yncke @infobeautiful I just looked up the connection Lisbon to Tallinn. That's a solid 60-80 hours, 6-10 changes. So around three to four days.
Lisbon to Kiruna is in the same order of magnitude.
So... Much quicker, not that much shorter.
One problem is that I cannot book the whole trip on a single ticket. Crossing ten or so countries 😁
Edit: As @deusfigendi replied, it's a similar duration in Canada (four days or so) 🙃
@drchaos
Sorry. I wrote "a week or something". According to Rupert it's also four days.
@deusfigendi @yncke @infobeautiful 🤣
OK, fair enough. Let's call it a draw.
Too bad we don't (yet!) have a system to book such a trip in one go and too few trains that cross borders.
The first few hours from Lisbon are really stupidly slow as well. Lots of regional trains, not too many fast trains. Plus three days on different trains? I think I'm good.
And yes, I take the train to go on holidays more often than driving. But that's only a few hours (like... eight or so).
Nege 
@infobeautiful we should be so ashamed of ourselves.
Éris Serène 
@theynege @infobeautiful The state of our national rail truly is an embarrassment
D@infobeautiful @[email protected] I'm pretty sure there's a daily Montreal->Kingston link (not going through Ottawa)
@driusan @infobeautiful The corridor goes through kingston if no other disturbances are on the tracks
Francis Cook@infobeautiful so what happened to the trains? No demand? Too expensive to run? Snow on the lines?
Personal vehicles burning oil/gas on inefficiently designed roads to serve the few at the cost of the many.
Canada loves monopolies and sucking off corporations.
@Sea1Am @infobeautiful so stick some car transporters at the end of the train and sell that? In Canada it would make sense. You go from province A to D (or a territory if you’re feeling adventurous) and the drive off to your final destination. Doesn’t really answer why people abandoned them en masse.
Advertisements equating car ownership and freedom convinced generations of idiots to get on their knees and suck off the oil barons.
M. Grégoire@infobeautiful In Canada, we mostly use our rail lines for freight.
Sassinake! ᑐ ∪ ∩ ⊂why did we choose poverty
Jean-François Mezei@infobeautiful Some of the tracks are physically gone.
Port Hawkesbury to North Sydney is abandonned. About to be pulled out.
Line to Gaspé is half abandonned but there is hope to restore service to Gaspé.
Ottawa-Sudbury (CP) et Ottawa-Capreol (CN) are mostly gone. A short line has kept Sudbury-NorthBay-Mattawa but tracks pulled between Mattawa and Ottawa. CN is all gone.
Senneterre to Cochane no longer connects. But Val d'Or to Kirkland Falls still exists (was no passenger soervice).
Jessie Nabein 
@jfmezei @infobeautiful many years ago I saw CN employees (assuming) tearing up train lines along Ontario Highway 7.
I guessed those were old lines that ran service to Peterborough, or maybe even Lindsay, ON (though the Lindsay service stopped running in the 50/60s)
@jessienab @infobeautiful Peterborough is CP territory (and CP still has the tracks to it).; It was likely the Kingston-Ottawa line thatw as being taken out. (leaving only Brockville to Ottawa which was CP until siold to VIA.
@infobeautiful And Victoria Nanaimo Courtney is abandonned, and while tracks still there more of way, were pulled from downtown Victoria.
Robotistry@infobeautiful Halifax to Montreal rail still exists, but it's not a daily service and it takes almost 24 hours. (It's a 13 hour drive, or under 2 hours nonstop by plane.)
@infobeautiful Sure would be nice if we didn't septopple down on oil and LNG in the middle of an oil and LNG shortage