📍 Paddington Now onto the worser Hitachi unit as I head South West on business…

📍 St Pancras International Made a quick stop here to check out EMR’s new “Aurora” out on test, they look fantastic! Excited to try them out next month 👀

Hopefully the fares will be cheaper than what Nightjet offered as well, great news!

NEW VIDEO! A look at Ceske Drahy’s brand new ComfortJet from Prague to Berlin! Link: youtube.com/watch?v=xHMH...

With the UP Express suspended due to GO Transit engineering works, my trip ends with a Rail Replacement Bus to the airport for my flight home 🥲 Canada it’s been an absolute pleasure, I look forward to coming back some day 🇨🇦❤️

📍 Oshawa Enjoying my last rides with Via and GO Transit this morning with a return ride to and from Toronto 🇨🇦

The comings and goings of Toronto Union Station… 🇨🇦

Been a fun day out to Niagara Falls, but I best be getting back to Toronto now - instead of having to wait hours for the direct GO train or take a bus, I opted to use the Amtrak/Via Rail “Maple Leaf” for its Canadian leg. My Via Preference Points came in handy here, covering the entire fare 😎

📍 Niagara Falls, ON The town centre is as far as I can go by train - getting to the falls themselves requires manning up and transferring onto a local bus, but doing so certainly didn’t disappoint… 😍🇨🇦

Morning! Today I’m taking my first ride with GO Transit which is on the “Express” limited stop service to Niagara Falls, a journey of around 2ish hours. 6 return services run on weekdays, upped to 8 on weekends in addition to Amtrak/Via’s “Maple Leaf”. Let’s go! 🇨🇦

📍 Toronto Union Station 4 min late arrival, which wraps up my time with Via Rail - can’t say many aspects of their boarding and alighting practices have made filming these journeys easy, but we got there in the end 😁 I have 3 more days in Toronto, mostly for resting and others for tourist stuff… 🇨🇦

A short and sweet stay in London (🇨🇦) as I’m heading back to Toronto on board Via’s LRC coaches. Certain routes out of Windsor and Montreal to Toronto are the last ones these coaches are doing as they, like the HEP2s, are progressively replaced by the new Venture sets. Let’s go!

📍 London, ON Ended up getting a personal safety demonstration on this trip (presumably as I’m a foreigner), not to mention Via staff decided to close the platform halfway through me recording the train’s departure (despite knowing what I was doing)… This is Via Rail Canada, not Via Air Canada 🙃

Morning! Off to London (🇨🇦) this morning, which partially covers some of the remaining sections of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor I have left to clear. The outbound is on a Venture, but the inbound will be something different…

📍 Toronto Union Station 11 minutes late in the end thanks to waiting for a platform to clear, but all in all a great trip with Via Rail - these trains really are a step up to the existing Corridor fleet and by far a better Venture model than the US ones (so far at least). Off to check in & rest 🇨🇦

Remember how I said yesterday I wasn’t filming the Venture from Ottawa? That’s because the sets have now taken over all bar a handful of services on Via’s “Corridor” trains - consequently, my originally-booked LRC to Toronto got swapped for a Venture, so I’ll have 5.5 hours of fun on this. Let’s go!

Bonjour! I’m leaving Quebec for good this time, so I’m making use of the Via Rail Lounge here in Montreal before my journey south 🇨🇦

Sadly a lot of Exo’s fleet are the same Bombardier multi-level cars also used by NJ Transit - great from a comfort perspective, but sadly the same dirty window issue is also present… 🥴

📍 Montreal Gare Centrale Arrival on time into Montreal - as much as I’m giving Via Rail a lot of stick for their airline practices, the staff and onboard service so far have been absolutely brilliant and this journey was no exception! Whilst I wait, I’m off for a ride on Exo 🇨🇦

Via Rail’s honestly a joke of an operation… another safety briefing done on the exit row and even overheard one passenger say they had to remove a certain amount of weight from their luggage just to board. Are they trying to be an airline? 😂

Morning from Ottawa 🇨🇦 I’m heading back to Montreal this morning on board one of Via Rail’s brand new Siemens Venture sets - I was originally going to be filming this one for the channel, but something in my itinerary changed which means I’ll just be enjoying the ride with this one… 😁

Today I’ve been trying out the Ottawa O-Train, a series of light rail and commuter lines around the greater Ottawa area. My main focus has been on Lines 2 & 4, where extensions opened at the beginning of the year using some rather familiar trains… 🇨🇦

That thing looks so cursed 😭

📍 Ottawa, ON A great trip with Via Rail on these vintage carriages, have to say though Via Rail is too “airline” style for my taste, even going as far as to doing a safety demonstration for the emergency exit row… 😳 Also saw “Lumi”, the first Venture set of Via Rail’s I’ve properly photographed 📸

All HEP2 carriages in this consist have been heavily refurbished (with the exception of the very front “Economy” coach). Looking at the interior, you really wouldn’t be able to guess that these trains are almost 80 years old, Via Rail did a good job with their refurbishment 🇨🇦

This morning I’m taking Via Rail Train #35 to Ottawa, formed of a P42 locomotive hauling stainless steel HEP2 cars which were built between 1947 and 1955. Crazy to think in 2025 it’s still possible to ride mainline trains dating back to just after WW2! 🇨🇦

Bonjour from Gare Centrale Montreal! I’m taking my first of many rides along Via Rail’s Quebec City-Windsor “Corridor” today, but before then I’m making use of the Business Lounge to kill some time 🇨🇦

This morning I visited the Canadian Railway Museum in Montreal, which conveniently isn’t far from where I’m staying. A nice selection available, including one of the preserved Mallard locomotives “Dominion of Canada” - a nice continuity for my side quest of railway museums around the world 😁🇨🇦

In between settling in and looking around, I gave the fairly new Montreal REM a go today - the network is due to be extended further to Deux-Montagnes on November 17, with further extensions planned from 2026 onwards. All in all, I’m very impressed!

📍 Montreal Gare Centrale Arrived 3 mins early into Montreal - would seem Via Rail staff here aren’t a fan hanging about on the platforms, so no photo of the train on arrival… An amazing experience on The Ocean and clearing a trip that’s been on my bucket list for years - time to look around!

Good morning from Quebec! 🇨🇦 “The Ocean” is now on the home straight to Montreal, meaning it’s time for the last meal of the trip - breakfast…

Virgin literally has the worst plan of the lot - another screw up by the ORR 🤦‍♂️ On the other hand, one step closer to the collapse of the Eurostar monopolyxxx

📍 Moncton The first of three “smoke stops” of the trip, which provided the opportunity to hop off, stretch my legs and snap some photos 🇨🇦

It’s lunchtime on The Ocean, with all meals being included in the cost of my Renaissance Sleeper ticket - the dining car looks absolutely fantastic, a sad reminder of what we could have had as a fantastic travel option from the UK to Mainland Europe…

📍 Halifax, NS 🇨🇦 Starting Canada off with “The Ocean” to Montreal that uses sleeper cars originally meant for overnight services through the Channel Tunnel. After the project fell through, VIA Rail bought all for use on their network. Look close and you can even see the former “Nightstar” logo too…

📍 Boston South 12 mins late in the end, though that was due to infrastructure issues so can’t really blame Amtrak to a degree. There’s a lot to say about the new Acela - mostly positive, but major negatives too. This officially ends my detour to the US, off to my final destination this evening 👀

160mph… welcome to official high speed rail @amtrak.com ✌️🚄💨

Paid a visit to the cafe car on the NG Acela - hopefully the “grab and go” self-service option takes off soon, it will definitely help with queue flows. That being said, it was definitely a missed opportunity by not having seating fitted like in the Northeast Regional 🙃

“Next level high speed” 😂

📍 New York Penn On time into NYC, which gave me a chance to hop off and stretch my legs given there’s a 15 min layover here - basically the whole first class car emptied here, with a smaller number of passengers joining for the final half. No doubt due to how painfully slow the second section is…

Probably the most satisfying moment of the trip so far - passing the yard at Philly that’s full of New Acelas… on a New Acela 😆

I definitely think Amtrak have upped their meal presentation game on the new Acelas - the photo on the far right is what I had last year on the first gen with the first two being the Next Gen this morning. This stuff matters!

That’s right - it’s finally time to ride Amtrak’s NextGen Acela! In the coming years this train is expected to revolutionise travel in the US, and the onboard ambience already feels more premium and welcoming than the first generation. Let’s just hope it rides as good as it looks… 🤔🇺🇸

Morning from Washington Union Station! No prizes for guessing what I’m doing today 👀

📍 Washington Union Station Made it on time - I do think for what it is, the Northeast Regional is usually a better option than the Acela on the Northeast Corridor, though I do wonder how that will change once both of their new fleets are fully introduced 🤔 On that note, time to call it a day!

📍 New York Penn I’m off to Washington DC this afternoon on the Northeast Regional, the slower cheaper alternative to the Acela on the NEC. Last time I tried Business Class on this service, it was in the opposite direction and when the NEC imploded on itself so I’m giving it another go. Let’s roll ✌️

One thing I’ve been reminded of the past few days is how dirty the windows are on NJ Transit’s coaching stock… literally gotten to the point you can’t even see out of the window. Let’s hope their new fleet, when eventually introduced, doesn’t suffer the same fate… 😬

Morning! I’m leaving Newark today and heading further down the NEC, but first I have to head up it one last time with NJ Transit into New York. I got such a great view too! 😍

📍Harrison Once you get used to New Jersey it isn’t so bad (that and I only have one more day left here before I move on tomorrow)… Back to NYC I go for some evening fun 😁🇺🇸

Made it back to base - evidently staying in Newark and travelling into New York for the duration of my stay here proved to save a hell of a lot more money than actually staying in New York… Been seeing a lot of Amfleet coaches in the new Amtrak Phase VII livery out today, it suits them well IMO!