Ocean Extravaganza: Part 2 - Travels in Summer 2026

 Ocean Extravaganza: Part 2 – Travels in summer 2026

Summer views on a blistering hot day - that lake looks appealing!

Welcome back! The “extravaganza” continues. In this second installment, we’re going to jump ahead to July for a quick trip to New Brunswick and back, including Maritime Bus. Then we head off to Ottawa again, this time with a little side day trip to and from Montreal, and then back to Halifax one more time.

 

To New Brunswick in July

In mid-July, I had family coming down for a visit in New Brunswick, and made plans to go over to visit with them for a few days. The specific location in New Brunswick (Wickham) was not conducive to travel by public transport, but when reviewing options I figured that I could get to and from nearby points with Maritime Bus, and then get picked up and dropped off by family at either end; saved the need to get a car to make the drive, given that I really wouldn’t need it all once there.

On the way over I figured that I could take Maritime Bus to Hampton NB. Leaving on a Friday there was also a train from Halifax-Moncton, so my original plan was to take VIA 15 to Moncton and then connect to the bus for the Moncton-Hampton segment. In theory, this should work. The train is scheduled to arrive in Moncton at 15:44, and the bus departs at 16:40. With #15's typical on time performance it should be a pretty safe connection. That said, in the lead up to the trip I started to become concerned when noticing several trips that ran into issues. To try to get a sense of the risk involved, I mapped out all trips of #15 from May through July 20. Of those 33 trips, 5 trips (May 10, June 5, June 7, July 3, and July 12) missed the bus connection. The closest of the bunch was July 3 (a trip that terminated at Moncton due to on board air conditioning failures), which was only 5 minutes past the bus departure. Aside from these missed connections, there were another 6 trips that arrived after 16:20, which would be late enough to start causing some stress. The thing that really worried me was the trains over the two weeks immediately leading up to my trip. July arrival times were 15:55 (July 1), 16:45 (July 3), 16:21 (July 5), 16:19 (July 8), 16:08 (July 10), 20:51 (July 12), 16:22 (July 15). Aside from the extreme cases (like that one trip involving a full air conditioning failure and cancellation of the train in Moncton), the delays were caused by an accumulation of heat-related slow orders coupled with meets with CN 120, which had also been running chronically late through July.

The biggest issue with this connection is that there's really no contingency plan if things go south. That bus at 16:40 is the last (and only) departure heading to Saint John, so there is no later bus to rebook to. I did ask a friend who works at the Moncton station about whether they'll ever hold the bus for train passengers, and he said they might hold a few minutes, but even that is not a guarantee. Maritime Bus would not have any obligation to accommodate me for missing that bus because of a late train; they may be generous enough to rebook to the next bus at no charge, but that next bus is the next day (and late afternoon), so it would eat up a chunk of the weekend.

So with that risk in mind, I ultimately decided to skip on the train and take the bus from Halifax-Moncton instead, with the guaranteed connection from Maritime Bus.

Buses waiting to go into service in Halifax, at the shared VIA/Maritime Bus station.

When my departure date (July 17) rolled around, I arrived at the VIA station around the time that #15 was boarding, and watched enviously as passengers headed down the platform to board the train. Shortly before 11:30 the boarding call came for my bus, and I made my way out to the more cramped but admittedly still rather comfortable bus. My ride for this first segment today would be Maritime Bus #2258, a rather new Prevost H3-45. This bus featured rather nice leather seating (a bit firm, but comfy), and a clean and modern feeling interior. There were two buses boarding from the Halifax terminal, which would both make the same first stops at Dartmouth, the airport, and Truro, before my bus would continue express to Moncton, while the other would make the remaining intermediate stops.

I neglected to take a photo on this trip, so here's a photo of the same style interior on another Maritime Bus Prevost H3-45 that I rode earlier this year. It's still not train-level comfort, but honestly nice for a bus. 

Right away I started to get the sense that I had made the right call. The train was already delayed leaving because of a checked bag that wasn’t properly tagged and required locating the owner.  The train departed about 10 minutes late; not bad, but as I continued to check the tracking as the bus got underway, I soon saw them stopped at Sandy Cove, where they would sit and wait, and wait, and wait… It turns out that CN 120 had to set out bad ordered cars at Amherst and so ended up very delayed, forcing about an hour long wait for #15 at Sandy Cove. With that delay, they wouldn’t make it to Moncton until 17:15…half an hour after I had already left on my connecting bus! 

The bus ride up to Moncton was relatively smooth. While there was plenty of space leaving Halifax, the bus ended up full by the airport. There was also some confusion when we made a stop at the Irving in Aulac, right by the NS-NB border. The driver didn’t explain what was going on, but turned out it was a driver swap between our bus and one heading the other way, allowing the drivers to work back to where they started. It also offered a brief fresh air stop, which was nice in addition to the one in Truro.

During our stop in Truro, I spotted this neat little relic of the old Acadian lines, the predecessor to Maritime Bus. While I don't miss many things about how Acadian ran their service, I do miss their iconic branding.

Our bus and the eastbound counterpart when we swapped drivers.

The next bus on to Hampton boarded and departed Moncton right on schedule, and was an older Prevost coach with fabric seats. Still comfortable, and the ride out from Moncton along secondary roads to Salisbury was quite nice, with a decent passenger load but enough space to secure a seat with no neighbour. There was a quick pit-stop at Sussex, and then arrival at Hampton was just slightly late, and I was the only passenger disembarking at the gas station stop.

The next few days in rural New Brunswick were lovely, and I enjoyed getting to check out this rather secluded and quiet part of the province.

Down on the Saint John River in Wickham, with a beautiful sunset. 

Night sky in Wickham. One of the most incredible things about getting out to a really remote area is the truly dark nights and spectacular star gazing.

The ferry at Evandale, one of several cable ferries in this part of the province. The Saint John and its tributaries bisect a lot of these areas and make for some convoluted drives; the ferries help fill in these gaps and allow for more direct travel.

Most of the time the Evandale ferry operates constantly back and forth, but at night they'll wait for cars to show up. If you arrive and the ferry is on the other side, you can use this push button to call them over.

The ferry, a pretty standard design for most of the cable routes around the province.

A few days later, on July 20, I headed off on the way back to Halifax. In this direction, my family would drop me off at Oromocto on their way back toward Ontario, and I would take the bus back to Moncton. This time, with the train almost certain to be delayed, I decided it was a safe bet to make the bus+train connection.

The bus stop at Oromocto is in the parking lot by a Sobeys/Needs Fast Fuel right off the highway. The bus arrived just a few minutes behind schedule, and there were several other passengers waiting to board as well. This coach was another older Prevost with fabric seats, but as is typical with Maritime Bus, it was clean and well maintained. The bus was busy but still plenty of seats free. The ride to Moncton involved a construction detour, but was otherwise uneventful.

Arriving at the VIA station, where Maritime Bus and VIA share space, I decided to check my small suitcase through to Halifax (so I wouldn’t have to carry it with me), then went to wander downtown Moncton for a while as I waited for the train. #14 was running a little under 2 hours behind schedule, so a nice bit of time to enjoy the downtown.

On the bus to Moncton. Maritime Bus has forward facing cameras set up that can be turned on to display the road view on the TVs through the coach - a rather neat feature.

In the Moncton station, bus and train directions.

Maritime Bus flurry of activity in Moncton. Many bus routes connect here, so common to see a bunch of buses arriving and departing around the same time.

CN 407 (from Dartmouth) rolls in to Moncton. No meet with them to worry about today.

When the train finally pulled into the station, there was a sizeable crowd getting off and a similarly good sized crowd getting on the train. Passengers were being split up between the Ren coach and the HEP coaches, so I opted to head down to the HEP section, where I was directed to the last coach, which thankfully wasn’t particularly full.

VIA 14 arrives. From the west, the train pulls directly into the station and then backs out to rejoin the main for departure.

Here’s the full consist of that train, for the record:

VIA #14 – Dep. Moncton July 20, 2026 [Dep. Montreal July 19]

6415 F40 (forward)

6402 F40 (backward)

7011 Renaissance baggage

70217 Ren accessible coach (00)

7516 Ren sleeper (39)

7522 Ren sleeper (38)

7502 Ren sleeper (37)

79515 Ren accessible sleeper (30)

7313 Ren service car (Easterly)

7400 Ren dining car

7314 Ren service car (Economy)

7227 Ren coach

7602 Ren transition car

8142 HEP1 coach

8141 HEP1 coach

8126 HEP1 coach

8209 Chateau Iberville (40)

8220 Chateau Papineau (41)

8202 Chateau Bienville (42)

8219 Chateau Montcalm (crew)

8622 HEP baggage

 

The trip back to Halifax was really smooth and quite relaxing. I had some food with me, so just grabbed coffee on the train when the cart came by. I did wander up to the service car briefly, but found the air conditioning was struggling and the car was very warm, so it was far more comfortable to return to my spacious HEP1 seat.

Wind turbine views entering Nova Scotia.

Lake views nearing Halifax.

More lake views on the last stretch, and a look at the seating in this HEP1 coach.

A deer explores the CN shop grounds at Fairview.

We did make up a  bit of time, and ultimately arrived back in Halifax at 20:18, about 1h45 late, but still with the summer sunlight. The crowd leaving the train in Halifax was enormous, and it took quite a while for my checked bag to arrive on the carousel!

Huge crowds on the platform in Halifax, making the long walk from the HEP section.

 

To Ottawa in August

Less than a month after that brief New Brunswick escapade, I had reason to head up to Ottawa for a bit of a family vacation. This time the whole trip would be by train, departing on #15 on August 7, connecting to train 35 (in theory!), and then making the return trip on #26-14 on August 14. In the middle of that there would also be a day trip to Montreal, which I’ll cover in the middle of this.

The August trip arrived just as Atlantic Canada was in the middle of an extreme heat wave. The week of departure included multiple consecutive days with the heat above 30 degrees Celsius in Halifax (before factoring in the humidity!), and as is far too common these days, several all-time records were broken. Aside from being generally uncomfortable, this kind of heat has serious implications for rail operations.

The rail network has general slow orders that come into effect whenever the temperature exceeds certain thresholds. Some segments have an initial slow order above 25 degrees, and then many track segments have more extreme restrictions when the heat surpasses 30 degrees, as recorded by trackside defect detectors. This is done to prevent rail buckling that can happen at extreme temperatures, when coupled with the forces of fast moving trains.

Unfortunately for those of us travelling, the 30-degree+ speed restrictions make for an extremely slow trip, as well as slowing down freight trains and resulting in unusual and slow meets. This would be on full display during this trip…but first, let’s get to the Halifax station and ready to board train 15!

I arrived at the station a bit over an hour before scheduled departure, and proceeded to check my larger bag through to Ottawa. I then caught up with fellow VIA-regular Tom Box, who would be on the same train as he headed back on the return leg of a quick Ocean round trip, and we headed for the sleeper lounge in the hallway toward the Westin hotel. At some point, I noticed that the scheduled departure in both the VIA tracker and the departures board in the station had been updated to say 12:00, rather than the scheduled 11:30. Despite this, boarding commenced on the usual schedule, just before 11am.

Train configuration board in Halifax, with a look at today's consist.

It turns out that we would be delayed slightly because the previous day’s train had been very late arriving, and the engineers also ran into some difficulties when running the locomotives around the night before. That had eaten into their rest time, so they weren’t able to go on duty at their usual time in the morning, forcing a half hour delay to departure.

Heading down the platform, we got a good look at today’s train – particularly with the long walk to the HEP sleepers!

Long hike to get here - good exercise before the ride!

VIA #15 – Dep. Halifax August 7, 2026

6401 F40 (forward)

6432 F40 (backward)

8605 HEP baggage

8218 Chateau Marquette (crew)

8223 Chateau Rigaud (42)

8216 Chateau Lévis (41)

8203 Chateau Brûlé (40) *Lower berth L3

8140 HEP1 coach

8143 HEP1 coach

8127 HEP1 coach

7601 Renaissance transition car

7208 Ren coach

7303 Ren service car (Economy)

7401 Ren dining car

7314 Ren service car (Easterly)

79501 Ren accessible sleeper (30)

7506 Ren sleeper (37)

7518 Ren sleeper (38)

7519 Ren sleeper (39)

70230 Ren accessible coach (00)

7003 Ren baggage

 

While waiting on departure, the crew ran through the usual welcome aboard and information announcements, which included a new announcement about the pre-ordered economy meal option that was recently introduced. Economy passengers can now pre-order several hot meal options when booking, and then present their boarding pass at the service car takeout counter to claim their meal and have it prepared. This is a nice addition, and something I’ll have to try out at some point.

Here's a composite image from the mobile booking site, showing how the economy hot meal pre-order shows up, and the current options.

Lunch reservations were offered for 12 or 1:30. Opting for the earlier option, we headed off to the diner shortly before the train got moving. We departed just before noon, and enjoyed lunch while making our way out through Bedford and out of the city.

Lunch menu

Clam chowder

Vegetarian lentil pie. It doesn't look that exciting, but it is really tasty. Could benefit from some additional vegetables or greens.

Chicken Caesar salad. This was Tom's order, and he offered it up for photo documentation. 

The classic carrot cake for dessert.

It became very quickly evident that this would be a slow trip. The heat slow orders kicked in right outside of the city, and it was easy to tell that we were going much slower than usual without needing to verify our actual speed. We then had a bit of a slowdown before Windsor Jct. while waiting for CN 511 to clear onto the Dartmouth Sub, and then a decent bit of a wait at Sandy Cove for a meet with CN 120, running late (and slow) as usual.

Tourism information setup in the Easterly service car, along with the schedule of activities and a lobster trap for demonstrations in the afternoon.

A better look at the schedule of activities, and a nice view while we waiting on our meet with CN 120 at Sandy Cove.

A quick look at the Renaissance coach seating in car 00, where the send-off toast and wine tastings would take place. This car offers an extra space for sleeper passengers to relax, but the window layout doesn't provide the best views.

Crossing the East Mines trestle.

Wind turbine views again, rolling across the marsh between Amherst and Sackville. With the heat slow orders, this section felt like an unusually slow crawl.

The afternoon was pleasant, and we took in the afternoon edition of the “bon voyage” toast in the Ren coach; Racheal was the learning coordinator on this trip, and did an excellent job as usual.

There were 2 passengers getting off at Springhill Jct., and we were quite surprised to hear the full PA announcement for the Springhill stop, complete with the warning to “please remain seated until the train has come to a complete stop in the terminal”. I doubt anyone would describe Springhill Jct.’s current unsigned gravel lot as a “terminal”, let alone a station!

Dinner reservation options were for 5:30 or 7:15, though the 7:15 sitting would be pushed to 7:30 due to the very late stop in Moncton. How late, you may ask? Between the late departure and the heat related slow orders, it was a bit after 6 pm arrival at Moncton, already about 2h20 late. Things wouldn’t get any better from there through the evening, as we would end up about 3h15 late by the time we got to Miramichi.

Moncton fresh air break.

Early evening light in Moncton.

A look at Chateau Levis in Moncton. This has to be the best looking Chateau sleeper out there right now.

It was a lovely evening, though, and dinner was quite good. Because we were so late, we really didn’t get to see much interesting scenery in the evening. I usually get off for fresh air at Campbellton before going to bed, but it would be after 1am by the time we got there, so I was off to bed long before that stop!

Dinner menu

Puttanesca haddock. The dish doesn't look that impressive as presented, and the fish was a bit overdone; but the accompaniments were very tasty, and with the combination of the appetizer (not pictured) and accompanying roll, it made for a good meal. 

The marsala pork chop (courtesy of Tom) - this looked much more impressive, and was apparently quite good.

Dessert was a chocolate mousse cake, very tasty and rather light.

One advantage of the slow running, though, was that it was very easy to get to sleep. Even as we sped up at some point overnight (with temperatures cooling off), I slept exceptionally well.

Morning views from my lower berth, in Bas Saint-Laurent

The next morning brought some unusual views, as I headed off to breakfast around 7:30am, just past La Pocatière. Because the crew swap overnight still happened when the two trains met, our “new” head end crew who were working back to Ste-Foy ran out of hours and had to be replaced by a new crew at Montmagny. We also had a meet with CN 306 at St-Valier, but it was very efficient. We would finally get in to Ste-Foy at about 9:12am, almost exactly 3 hours late. One thing I took note of here is that the TSI mobile tracker has a lot of padding built into the estimate approaching Ste-Foy. The tracker was still estimating us as 58 minutes away as we rolled through Joffre yard, which is really only about 15 minutes at most.

Breakfast menu

Continental breakfast. This has become one of my favourite options, a nice variety of food and an excellent filling start to the day.

Morning views, river crossing somewhere near Montmagny.

Grungy looking Wisconsin Central hoppers in Joffre yard.

Sainte-Foy stop, unusually late in the morning. 

At Ste-Foy; I was kind of surprised to see the station staff operating the baggage cart by hand this morning.

By the time we got to Ste-Foy, it was quite evident that I wouldn’t be making my connection to train 35, given that the Quebec-originating train had already left and cleared through Ste-Foy ahead of us, and would be gone from Montreal before we got there.

We soon got information about what would be happening for us Ottawa-bound folks. Normally, the next connection after #35 is 37, but on Saturdays there is an extra intermediate option in the form of #637, which departs at 13:56. A much better option than having to wait until 16:30! Unfortunately, because of the existing passenger loads they could not accommodate everyone on the earlier train, so we got word that those of us with Business class tickets would be able to fit on 637, while those with Economy tickets would have to wait until the later 37. As compensation, they were also offering a free meal voucher that could be collected in the station, for use at restaurants within the station. Given that I was fortunately in Business and therefore would be on 637, I didn’t inquire more about the meal voucher, but it was nice to see that as an offer.

Those going on to Toronto were already booked on Train 67, given the chronic lateness of #15 through July and August, and they would make that connection cross-platform.

The last stretch in to Montreal was pretty smooth and much more typical speeds, thanks to somewhat cooler temperatures. We had meets with VIA 622 and 624 (one of the only Ottawa-Quebec LRC sets at the time), and then arrived in Montreal at 13:04, 3h12min late. I bid farewell to Tom as he headed across to board 67, and headed upstairs to wait on my connection to 637.

Morning highlights from our learning coordinator.

Some nice views on the way to Drummondville.

Meet with 624 - a rare LRC sighting on this stretch. Our Renaissance equipment reflecting in the LRC windows will outlast that equipment (at least in Ocean service), but by how many years?

While waiting in the lounge in Montreal, I noticed that my seat reservation had updated. I had carefully picked a forward facing single seat with a good window view for my original booking (using my handy Venture seat/window diagrams), but was swapped to a backward double seat with a lousy view when moved over to 637. I figured it wasn’t worth trying to do anything about this, but when I noticed the additional change I realized that I had been swapped back to my original selected seat, just on the new train. A nice touch!

VIA #637 – Dep. Montreal Aug 8, 2026

2302 Venture Cab Car (05)

2802 Venture Economy (04)

2902 Venture Economy (03)

2702 Venture Business (02)

2602 Venture Business (01) *Seat 10D

2203 SCV-42 Locomotive

This way to Ottawa

Train info

 

Boarding and departure of 637 was pretty well right on time. One downside of the swapped train was that while 35 is considered a “lunch” train with full hot meal service, 637 is considered one of the afternoon runs that gets a light cold meal on the Montreal-Ottawa segment. I had also tried the new meal pre-ordering function for the first time on 35, and obviously that wouldn’t be happening. However, when the attendant was checking tickets on board, she did mention that they had been given some hot meals, seemingly because of the rebooked passengers, and my original pre-selection was actually available if I wanted it. Another nice surprise.

The only other outstanding question was checked luggage. Checked bags from the Ocean that are checked through are placed on the connecting train, and should normally be in your assigned car. My bag was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, after some investigation we found that all Ocean through-bags had been placed in one of the luggage racks in car 2, so easy enough to track down.

Lunch on 637 - the salmon meal I had originally pre-ordered. Quite nice all around. The normal cold options included a smoked salmon or cheese plate.

Zipping along on the Alexandria Sub. One nice thing about the side table on the single-seat side of Business class is the ability to see ahead to a couple of windows.

A relatively new feature is these VIA truffles, which replaced the other after-meal chocolates. They are very good! 

Other than that, the trip was smooth and comfortable, with a bit of excitement approaching Ottawa as we ran through a wild bit of thunderstorm. Ultimately, I made it to Ottawa just after 4pm; about 2 hours later than planned, but with train 35 ending up delayed that day, only an hour and a half later than I would have been if I made the original connection.

We've entered the storm - suddenly a lot of rain and wind outside!

There's always something nice about being comfy inside a train while the weather rages outside. There would be several wild thunderstorms during this Ottawa visit, and even a tornado warning...

Arrival at Ottawa, on the high platform.

Always the nicest way to arrive at this station. A few other Venture trains can be seen around as well.

 

Montreal Day Trip

Ottawa station, very early morning.

While visiting, my siblings and I decided to make a day trip to Montreal. The variety of train options between the two cities make this pretty easy to do, coupled with the rather quick 2 hour travel time right to downtown. We decided to make the longest day trip possible, using the earliest eastbound train and the last westbound return. Our day would start with a super early morning on #22, which departs Ottawa at 06:07 and arrives in Montreal at 08:11. We would then make our return on #39 at 18:50, to have us back in Ottawa at 20:51.

Our trains both ways would be on Venture sets, and as it turns out, the rotation meant that we’d be on the exact same set – trainset 14 (with 2213-2613-2713-2913-2813-2313; one of the sets with properly matched locomotive). As we were travelling as a group of 3, in each direction I had selected us seats at a 4-seater around a table, and we had no additional seat mate either time. I had also taken advantage of looking at the seat maps in advance to identify which cars would be less busy, and moved us into areas with more space.

Arriving for our early morning departure, we made a stop in at the Ministry of Coffee in the station just as it opened for the morning, then got ourselves ready to board. 

Trains waiting to go into service - one nice looking (and soon to be a relic of the past) LRC consist lined up.

LRCs a track over, a sight that will soon be just a memory...

The sun was just coming up as we made our way out to the platform and boarded in car 5, the trailing cab car. The ride was very smooth, and we made excellent time. So good, in fact, that we had to stop at Coteau (despite having no passengers getting on or off) to get back on schedule before being allowed to continue. 

Sunrise views leaving Ottawa. One of the prettiest mornings I've ever seen on a train.

More morning views at the 4-seater across from us. This pair of quad seats in the cab car line up extremely well, but that's not true for all of them.  

More morning views.

Nearing the junction with the Kingston Sub. This is the vestibule at the end of car 4, outside the large accessible washroom. Note the flip down seats for crew or passengers waiting for the washroom.

Vestibule at the end of car 4. This is one of the ones with a built-in wheelchair lift, to the right.

The wide sealed gangways between cars and automatic sliding glass doors are nice features of the Venture trains.

Row 18 of the cab car is reserved for crew members on both sides. Reservia won't sell you these seats, and the extra signage here is to make sure people don't spread out to use them.

We arrived basically on time in Montreal, and then set off for a nice day around the city, which involved taking in lots of sites, some excellent food, zipping around on the Metro, and of course climbing to the top of Mount Royal!

I realize I didn't take many photos around Montreal; here's one from the waterfront.

On our return trip, our train was about 20 minutes late arriving from Quebec, so we had a bit of extra time waiting around the station. I noticed that #14 was delayed boarding, and we would spot that train a few tracks over as we departed. Despite the delayed arrival, we were boarded quickly and departed only a minute late. We would be riding in car 3 on our return, again at a 4-seater with table. The trip to Ottawa was smooth and relaxing with the setting sun, and we arrived only about 6 minutes late.

Baggage loading on a delayed VIA 14.

Sunset views on our return trip. Note how that 4-seater is not quite as well aligned around a window as the ones in the cab car.

Arrival back in Ottawa, on the high platform again.

One thing people have often complained about with the new Venture trains is the bright interior lighting on night time trips. A common critique is that the lights are not dimmed, and that isn’t entirely true. As currently set up, VIA does use a full bright setting and a dimmed setting, which is normally activated once trains leave from the main stations. This was extremely noticeable when we arrived back at Ottawa and they switched the lights back to full brightness – blinding! That said, I also agree that there should really be a dimmer and warmer setting for night time trips. The lighting in these trains is supposed to be capable of both different brightnesses and colours, and I gather there’s some programming required for this. Hopefully it’s something VIA will take into consideration with passenger feedback, as it currently makes the after dark ride less pleasant than the legacy equipment.

To continue the ferry theme from earlier on, here's a look at the Quyon ferry (between Quebec and Ontario) during a little road trip west of Ottawa.

More info on the Quyon ferry - the current one was designed by a firm in New Brunswick!

Return to Halifax

Back at Ottawa station once again

After a nice remainder of my visit in Ottawa, time rolled around to head back to the east coast. My trip back would start from Ottawa on #26, the designated Ottawa connection for the Ocean. For this trip I found myself on the second set in VIA’s Venture series, which was actually the first one to enter revenue service. Interestingly, the first set that was delivered only finally entered revenue service this year, after an extended period waiting on final modifications and parts. Boarding went smoothly, and we departed right on time. One thing I noticed on this trip was that there were extensive repeated announcements from the service manager about proper baggage storage, and the need for people to put mid-size bags in the rack above them (away from the edge), smaller items below the seat, and only very large items in the luggage racks at the end of the car. The limited space on these trains continues to pose challenges when they’re very busy.

VIA #26 – Dep. Ottawa August 14, 2026

2202 SCV-42 Locomotive

2601 Venture Business (01)

2701 Venture Business (02) *Seat 6D

2901 Venture Economy (03)

2801 Venture Economy (04)

2301 Venture Cab Car (05)

Boarding #26 on the high platform.

Other Ventures awaiting assignment

Views shortly after leaving Ottawa.

Alexandria Sub farmland views

The overhead displays throughout the Ventures alternate between showing route information and occasional useful things, like info about the WiFi, promoting onboard products, or in this case, advertizing the discount for using your own coffee mug

 

We had a meet with CN 589 just before Maxville, with the freight waiting for us in a siding, and then we had a more extensive delay at Coteau where we had to wait on a freight before we could enter the Kingston Sub. This put us a ways behind schedule, and we would end up almost half an hour late at Montreal.

Cheese plate lunch, one of the light cold options on this afternoon train. Looked a little sparse, but it was perfectly adequate in the long run.

 

The other new truffle - standard dark chocolate

Entering the island of Montreal

Final approach to Montreal, passing another Venture set

While exploring downtown, I was pleased to see that this section of Ste-Catherine street West was finally complete, after years of construction. Still more sections to do, but this is a very nice upgrade.

Another look at the new Ste-Catherine West, with much improved pedestrian space, greenery, and benches.

After wandering around a bit downtown, I made my way back to the station in time for sleeper check-in. While getting checked in, I found out that #64 (the Toronto connection) was running quite late, but not late enough to arrive after we boarded #14; this had created an unusual situation. Because #64 arrives on the track sharing the same platform with #14’s departure, and there’s only a single elevator and set of stairs from that platform, they had to delay boarding of #14 until all passengers from #64 had disembarked and made their way upstairs. Those making the connection between the two trains would have just gone straight across the platform, but the rest of us had to wait. This delayed boarding until 18:28 (just before the scheduled 18:30 departure), but with some quick work we were able to get underway by 18:53.

Departures board, Montreal

This way to Halifax

VIA #14 – Dep. Montreal August 14, 2026

6432 F40 (forward)

6420 F40 (reverse)

7003 Renaissance baggage

70230 Ren accessible coach (00)

7519 Ren sleeper (39)

7518 Ren sleeper (38)

7506 Ren sleeper (37)

79501 Ren accessible sleeper (30)

7314 Ren service car (Easterly)

7401 Ren dining car

7303 Ren service car (Economy)

7208 Ren coach

7601 Ren transition car

8127 HEP1 coach

8143 HEP1 coach

8140 HEP1 coach

8203 Chateau Brûlé (40) *Roomette 5

8216 Chateau Lévis (41)

8223 Chateau Rigaud (42)

8218 Chateau Marquette (crew)

8616 HEP baggage

 

Keen eyed observers may notice that this was the exact same train set as the one I rode in the other direction. The only changes made between these trips was the swap of HEP baggage car 8605 for 8616, and the change of locomotives from 6401 for 6420. I would even be riding in Chateau Brûlé once again (a car I’ve ridden in many, many times now), just in a different spot in the car. This was the first time in a while I had a lower level Chateau roomette, and it was a nice change to get acquainted with.

Lower level Chateau roomette. This is the layout for rooms 1, 2, 5 and 6. Roomette 1 is normally occupied by the attendant. 

Looking forward, there's a large space for bags underneath the bed, and the bed itself slides out rather than folding down like in the uppers.

Seat, with fold-down armrests. Many of the these rooms are looking shabby, and will benefit from the refurbishment program that's currently underway. 

Night time view, with low lighting next to the seat.

View with the bed rolled out. It had been a while since I'd been in one of these rooms, and I enjoyed it quite a bit; the sliding bed was quite easy to set up and put away, and the larger window is nice even though it's lower down.

On our way out we had a meet with VIA 29 before Drummondville, and then found ourselves following a very delayed VIA 28 after then. This made for a slower than usual run to Ste-Foy.

Departing Montreal - some sort of festival happening by the canal.

Slowly making our way out toward the bridge, with a REM train zipping along overhead.

Crossing the St-Lawrence

Montreal skyline

Meeting the Adirondack approaching St-Lambert, viewed (with a little odd lens distortion of the window) from the Renaissance transition car

A new sign - with the ongoing saga of speed restrictions on VIA's Venture trains, new "V" slow order signs have been posted at affected crossings. The shift to permanent marked slow orders has improved on time performance quite a bit, but delays still persist.

Sunset over dinner

The first dinner sitting was just after departure, but I had opted for the later one, so headed off to the diner when that call came at 8:54 (behind schedule). This made for a late dinner, but I had some very nice company with several other travellers, and quite enjoyed the food as usual.

Dinner menu. I've been having a bit of a challenge adapting to a new phone whose camera focuses a bit differently, and that resulted in some occasionally blurry parts of these menus. 

Chicken supreme, with rotisserie sauce. One of the new economy pre-order meal options appears to be identical to this dish. 

Cherry cheesecake dessert

After dinner I grabbed a cup of tea from the service car, and then made the hike back to my sleeper to get settled in for a cozy evening.

View toward Ste-Foy/Quebec, just before Joffre/Charny

Ste-Foy, with sharp looking Chateau Levis

Montmagny station

After a rather sound sleep, I awoke very early the next morning to views of the sunrise before Amqui, as we made our way toward the Matapedia valley. We were running about 1h40 late (eventually stretching to over 2h behind), which offered plenty of sunlight for these nice sections of the route. I spent a while between dozing and enjoying the views from my comfy roomette bed, and then ended up falling back asleep and not waking up again until we were pulling out of Campbellton. 

Sunrise from #14

More sunrise views

Sunrise along Lac-Matapédia

Amqui QC

Views through the trees as we start down the Matapedia valley

More upper Matapedia views

Lac-au-Saumon, I believe

At that point I pulled myself together and made the trek up to the dining car for breakfast. The stretch after Campbellton is a wonderful area to have breakfast, as the train meanders along the shores of Chaleur Bay, with some particularly spectacular views around Jacquet River.

Shortly after leaving Campbellton

Breakfast menu

Continental breakfast

Breakfast views

Morning activity board updates

Chaleur views

A great blue heron, hanging out

Jacquet River

The rest of the morning was very low key, and I had a bit more of a nap and eventually got showered and fully put together. 

Vestibule views

Wayfinding in this confusing train can be inconsistent - some crews add extra little signage, like this one pointing the way to car 41.

Lunch would be at 12:30 (mostly reserved for Moncton-bound passengers), 2, or 3:15pm, and by the time I had breakfast only the late option was still available. Unfortunately our late running meant that the last lunch call came just as we were approaching Moncton, so I was tied up in the dining car during the fresh air stop. Lunch was nice though, and I had the pleasure of meeting a friendly couple from England who were in the midst of a Canadian vacation, and very eager to hear suggestions for things to do during their visit in Halifax.

Lunch menu

Bison meatloaf. I would have gone for the lobster roll, but they had just run out. Clam chowder starter not shown, but was good as usual.

Chocolate mousse cake dessert

The afternoon continued to be quite relaxed. I decided not to bother with any of the activities, and though I did spend a little while in the service car, I spent most of the afternoon between my roomette and one of the HEP coaches that had thinned out through the course of the trip. 

Afternoon views from the service car

Views entering Nova Scotia

Hallway in the roomette end of a Chateau sleeper, with the exterior curtains for each room that allow for privacy while the sliding door is open.

Chateau roomette hallway looking forward

Folly Lake

Nova Scotia afternoon views

Bedford Basin sunset

ACL Atlantic Sun container/ro-ro vessel at Fairview Cove

Some clouds made their way across the sky, but the weather was mostly very picturesque, and we made up some time on the home stretch, arriving at 20:10, only about 1h30 late.

Arrival at Halifax - with the long train, a few cars don't quite fit on the platform.

Long walk to the station!

Mismatched door on 6420. It appears this unit got a door replacement from another unit in the normal scheme, and they didn't bother to add the wrap over the door. 

 

End of the line in Halifax.

______________________________

That brings us to the end of another report, and the conclusion of this “Ocean Extravaganza”. I hope you’ve enjoyed this mixed bag of observations, anecdotes, and updates.

One interesting thing to see in the month that followed this trip is that with continued busy traffic, the Ocean expanded in September to the most sleeper capacity we’ve seen yet in the post-2021 train – each set ended up with 5 (!) Chateau sleepers, with 4 in service (cars 40-41-42-43). Some of this was to compensate for problematic Ren sleepers, but it has been impressive to see this growth in the number of revenue HEP cars. One of these sets was briefly running with a total of 9 HEP cars (5 Chateau, 3 HEP coach, HEP baggage) and only 9 Ren cars (as it lost one sleeper and a coach), marking the first time we’ve seen a true 50/50 equipment mix in this current train configuration.

It will be interesting to see what’s in store for the years ahead. VIA is undertaking refurbishment work on the Chateau sleepers, and has also tendered for some Renaissance car roof repairs. The clock is also now on for the delivery of the new long distance fleet, with the contract awarded to Alstom and the first new cars expected to be rolling by as soon as 2031; but there’s a genuine question about whether (and how much of) the Renaissance fleet will make it another 5 years to the start of those replacements coming online. We could very well see the Ocean shift to a progressively more and more HEP train over the coming years, but we’ve also heard various prognostications about the imminent demise of the Renaissance fleet for years now (they were once slated, by VIA’s own admission, for full retirement by 2020), so it’s hard to know just how much time they’ll be able to buy.

One thing is certain – if you want to ride any of the Renaissance fleet while it’s still around, you’d do well to do that sooner than later! The same can also begin to be said for the classic stainless steel HEP fleet too. 2035 sounds like a long time off right now, but we all know how time can disappear much faster than we realize, and it won’t be long until we’re into “last chance to ride” territory…

Sunset over Grand Lake from #14. This isn't from the summer trip, but a short Truro-Halifax ride on October 17.