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I’m not sure if VIA had more than one breakfast and one lunch menu in 1989, but since I only collected one each, perhaps not. However, it did have multiple dinner menus, which would have been offered to travelers on … Continue reading
Category Archives: VIA
If the breakfast and lunch menus, with four choices of meals, were limited, VIA’s dinner menus were even more limited, with just two meal choices and no a la carte. This menu offers a choice of Swiss steak or fried … Continue reading
VIA’s lunch menus didn’t offer much more selection than the breakfast menu. The entrées were omelet, cheeseburger, and shrimp salad. There was also a fruit salad but it was much less expensive so it was probably small. Some of the … Continue reading
VIA menus in the late 1980s weren’t much better than Amtrak’s, and possibly worse. Only four selections are available on this breakfast menu, and there is no a la carte section. Click image to download a 533-KB PDF of this … Continue reading
After my 49-day 1978-79 trip on Amtrak and VIA, I took VIA to Banff sometime in the mid-1980s, but I don’t seem to have any memorabilia from that trip. My other big trip was in 1990, when budget cuts led … Continue reading
In 1981, the Canadian government cancelled the Super Continental and two of the three Montreal-Halifax trains, the Scotian and Atlantic, leaving the Ocean. However, a change in governments led to the restoration of the Winnipeg-Vancouver portion of the Super Continental … Continue reading
Unfolded to 16″-by-22″, one side of this brochure has fourteen color photos of Jasper, the Rockies, the Fraser River, and Vancouver, plus a small simplified map of the VIA system. The other side has detailed maps and an along-the-way guide … Continue reading
This 9-inch-high brochure filled with children’s puzzles unfolds to be 48 inches wide. When folded one way, it shows a steam locomotive, tender, and wooden coach. When folded a different way, it shows a TurboTrain power car and coach (see … Continue reading
Aside from the photos on the cover, this 1979 brochure graphically shows VIA train accommodations in snazzy 1970s colors and styles–not quite psychedelic, but far louder than anything Pullman or the railroads would have used. Pictures of the lounge cars … Continue reading
Canadian National sleeping car spaces were probably equal to those of the Canadian Pacific, but coaches were distinctly inferior. As I recall, they had vinyl upholstery instead of cloth, less leg room, and lights that did not dim much at … Continue reading