{"id":502713,"date":"2026-02-27T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/502713\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:00:12","slug":"this-is-what-its-like-riding-via-rail-business-class-from-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/502713\/","title":{"rendered":"This is what it\u2019s like riding VIA Rail business class from Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve lived in Toronto for most of my life, and there’s something about a train ride that always appealed to me more than a bus or a car. Maybe it’s the fact that you don’t have to worry about traffic; it’s just one smooth, speedy ride.<\/p>\n

Even as a kid in Romania, I have fond memories of riding the Cluj-bound train with my grandpa, just staring out the window without a single important thought in my head.<\/p>\n

Here in Toronto, there are plenty of ways to get around by train, whether TTC subway cars or regional trips on\u00a0the GO\u00a0Train,<\/a> but I’ve always had a soft spot for VIA\u00a0Rail, especially for long-distance trips.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m not one to spend money frivolously on just anything, but travel? That’s where I make an exception. I will happily splurge on a business-class flight or ride if the trip is longer than five hours. I opted for a round-trip business-class VIA\u00a0Rail ticket in preparation for a long weekend trip to Montreal, and this is how the experience went.<\/p>\n

The business class seats on VIA\u00a0Rail<\/p>\n

A business class seat from Toronto to Montreal cost me $194.33 while the return seat rang up to $245.34, so in total a round-trip set me back $496.83. However, this steep price comes with the privilege of\u00a0being pampered with all the food and drinks I could ever want, and to stretch out without hitting my knees on the damn seat in front of me.<\/p>\n

By comparison, economy seats for the same round-trip totalled $407.12, so I only had to shell out an extra $89.71 for much more space and comfort. Not too shabby.<\/p>\n

The business class carts are located at the front of the train, and upon arrival at Union Station, ticketholders can access a business lounge offering free drinks, comfy\u00a0seats, et al.<\/p>\n

My train departed at 6:30 a.m., so I didn’t really have much time to explore the lounge.\u00a0I did, however, get priority boarding, which allowed me to bypass\u00a0hundreds of people seated in economy and be among the first to board.<\/p>\n

\"via<\/p>\n

On one side of a business-class cart, there are single seats which cost an extra $7. In my experience with riding the rail, I’m never seated next to anyone because business are typically less busy\u00a0than economy, so I selected one of the free two-seaters on the other side.<\/p>\n

There’s also space in business class that can seat a group of four at a table, but I don’t particularly gravitate towards this sort of seating arrangement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"viaHalf of the seats are forward-facing, while the other half face\u00a0backwards.\u00a0I definitely prefer the forward-facing option, and, personally,\u00a0don’t understand why anyone would willingly ride the whole trip facing the wrong direction. If I ruled the world, every single seat on every vehicle would face forward, no exceptions.<\/p>\n

For the whole 548-kilometre ride, I had an extra empty seat next to me, which was perfect for stashing my backpack and other items while I worked away on my laptop using the tray table in front of me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don’t mean to be a diva, but I really wish those tables were wider. I barely had enough room for both my laptop and my drinks, and if I had brought my mouse and pad, well, then forget it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"via<\/p>\n

VIA\u00a0Rail also claims online that business-class seats recline, but unfortunately, mine didn’t (or maybe I’m just a dummy and couldn’t figure it out?) Not the end of the world, as I had to work on my computer anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The business class food on VIA Rail<\/p>\n

Unlike the food in the economy, which you have to pay extra for, business class passengers get free warm meals and lots of beverages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Breakfast was served by the lovely VIA Rail staff (a special\u00a0shoutout to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique for being so friendly and attentive) less than an hour after departure. I was served a chorizo mozzarella omelette on a bed of shredded hash browns and roasted red peppers, along with a bowl of fruit and a cruffin with butter and jam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"via<\/p>\n

I’m by no means a coffee snob (I’m someone who I will gladly sip a 7-Eleven drip), so all I can say is the coffee on VIA\u00a0Rail flowed freely, and I had no complaints.<\/p>\n

My return trip to Toronto was the last train of the night, so I started off with water and a bag of gourmet nuts after boarding, then was served dinner shortly afterward.<\/p>\n

Just like on most\u00a0airplanes, passengers are provided with multiple meal options. I went with ginger beef instead of lasagna or fish. It was a\u00a0decent portion with lots of protein\u00a0on top of rice and broccoli, served\u00a0with a small side salad, a bread bun and a delicious apple crumble cake for dessert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"via<\/p>\n

I don’t drink alcohol, so I politely declined when staff routinely came around asking if I wanted any beer or wine. I did, however, drink a lot of complimentary water (they didn’t have sparkling, boo hiss!), coffee and orange juice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The food on VIA\u00a0Rail is good, honestly. It might not be Instagram-worthy in terms of appearance, but trust me when I say every bite was packed with flavour.<\/p>\n

If you want to ride business class but have allergies or dietary restrictions, VIA\u00a0Rail is very accommodating as long as you leave a note when purchasing your tickets online.<\/p>\n

The overall ride on VIA Rail<\/p>\n

Five and a half hours go by fast when you’re answering emails, writing articles and messaging colleagues on Slack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My one gripe was that the morning train ride was incredibly bumpy, which left me feeling nauseous. I had to get up two or three times because I honestly thought I would barf. I’ve never experienced this on VIA\u00a0Rail before, so maybe it was the bad weather conditions or that I was just staring at my laptop too much, the same way you can feel queasy trying to read in a moving car.<\/p>\n

The return ride was smooth sailing, no notes.<\/p>\n

A completely unexpected surprise on my trip: VIA Rail gave every\u00a0passenger a $97 travel voucher because the Toronto-to-Montreal train was delayed by 30 minutes. Definitely didn’t see that coming, and I will put this money towards my next adventure.<\/p>\n

I ride hard for VIA\u00a0Rail \u2014 pun absolutely intended\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and one day I hope to go on a longer, more scenic journey<\/a>. The Toronto-to-Vancouver route is on my travel bucket list, as it covers over 4,400 kilometres of gorgeous landscape for four days and nights.<\/p>\n

You can’t ride straight to Halifax from Toronto on VIA Rail, but you can hop on in Montreal. From there, the one-day, one-night, 1,350-kilometre journey promises spectacular views of the Maritimes. The views out the window from Toronto to Montreal aren’t worth writing home about, so when I head further east, reader, you’ll be the first to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve lived in Toronto for most of my life, and there’s something about a train ride that always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[45,49,48,411,15225,3302,200742],"class_list":["post-502713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-class","tag-rail","tag-toronto","tag-via"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}