Canada
Country Details
See Wikipedia
National Railway System
The Canadian rail network has a complex mix of infrastructure ownership and passenger train operation. Most of the infrastructure is owned by private companies - principally Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) - which operate freight services only. Passenger services are provided by various public-sector bodies. The federal operator, VIA Rail, runs long-distance and other inter-city trains, and local services are run by various provincial operators. VIA Rail and some other operators also own parts of the infrastructure on which they run.
Infrastructure
There is a consistent basic infrastructure standard for all main-line operators (i.e. not metros / light rail):
- gauge: standard
- electrification: none
- rule of the road: right, but with extensive bi-directional operation
Maps
- Online: the Railway Association of Canada publishes an online atlas of Canadian railways, with a separate user manual.
- Printed: Steam Powered Video publish a series of rail atlases covering Canada. These have not been updated since at least 2011, but are (apparently) still available from the SPV website.
VIA Rail
The main information source is the website. The Man in Seat 61 site has a useful guide to train travel in Canada, including summary timetables and ticket details.
Map
There is a basic route map on the website. It is not known whether VIA Rail publish a printed map.
Timetable
- Journey planner: on the website front page
- Online timetables: on the schedules page - click "Timetables - Accessible versions" to display the list. Note that these are not in PDF format.
- Printed timetable: it is not known whether VIA Rail still publishes a printed timetable. VIA Rail services are included in the European Rail Timetable.
Engineering information
VIA Rail no longer provides advance information on engineering works; diversions can only detected by checking individual journeys in the journey planner.
Real-time information
- On the VIA Rail website, check individual trains or journeys using the "Check arrivals & departures" tab on the train schedules page.
- A real-time interactive map of VIA Rail (and Amtrak) trains is available on the TransitDocs website. Click on individual trains to view their details.
Other Railways
Information for provincial operators will be provided on separate pages for each province.
