Montreal–Gaspé train
former thrice-weekly passenger train operated by Via Rail between Montreal and Gaspé, Quebec
The Montreal–Gaspé train (formerly the Chaleur) was a thrice-weekly passenger train operated by Via Rail between Montreal and Gaspé, Quebec. As of 2026 there is no concrete timeline for the restoration of service.
History
In 1907 the Quebec Atlantic Oriental Railway was built from Matapédia through New Carlisle to Port Daniel, and gradually extended until it reached Gaspé. Before that, inhabitants had to drive by horse or sleigh 180 miles (290 km) to catch the Intercolonial Railway from Matapédia to Montreal, a journey of four days.
Schedule
The train left Montreal in the evening and arrived in Gaspé at about noon the following day. The train departed Gaspé mid-afternoon and arrived in Montreal in the morning.
Operation
In later years the train was normally merged with the Ocean between Montreal and Matapédia. The Montreal–Gaspé train after 1995 was composed exclusively of cars built by the Budd Company, many originally used by the Canadian Pacific Railway's Canadian.
This had been the case until 2004 for the Ocean as well, but the introduction of the Renaissance cars on the Ocean resulted in both trains operating separately during the summer months (when trains were longer) and combined during the winter; the reason for this policy appears to be related to the braking effort of a combined train.
When operating separately, the Montreal–Gaspé train ran several minutes ahead of the Ocean.
“Montreal–Gaspé train” enters the record as former thrice-weekly passenger train operated by Via Rail between Montreal and Gaspé, Quebec. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Montreal, Gaspé and train can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Montreal–Gaspé train” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.