The Ottawa Station is great and very spacious with helpful staff. Loved travelling from here twice…read moreduring our trip to Canada.

VIArail is reliable, but a mediocre company. I've rode them…read more dozens of times and I will certainly choose them again, but they are among the worst rail lines that I've rode on anywhere in the world. I think the only rail lines worse than VIArail, is the super unreliable DB (Deutsch Bahn) and all Japanese companies, Trenitalia, the rail lines of Morocco, France, Norway, Sweden, UK, and Spain are all superior, so 2 stars is kind of generous. They are in the bottom 20% of rail lines. The food is inedible at times, you don't actually have wifi on the train, they block many things, so its censored internet, and not useful. The customer service is not great. The trains are clean, and they have fixed their payment system issues. It used to be necessary to call in to buy tickets, because the online system used to be too buggy. I remember one real nightmare train trip where the staff were absolutely bitchy and horrendous. They get a fat federal subsidy so every ride is subsidized heavily by the federal government. Trains are excellent for the environment, so I ride them whenever I can, but VIA could easily improve in many ways.

TL;DR/The Short Version: The Business Lounge at the Ottawa…read moreVIA Rail train station has been newly renovated (around 2020) and is much bigger with a few private meeting rooms. The Long Version: This lounge is for VIA Rail passengers travelling VIA 1/Business Class. There's a front desk where you must show them your ticket before entry. This lounge underwent major renovations which started in 2019. I'm not entirely sure when they were completed because my next visit after 2019 was in 2024, lol. I'm pretty sure it didn't take 5 years. Haha. The new lounge is much more spacious, has lots of different set ups when it comes to seating, from desks, to couches, to tables, to even a couple of mall private meeting rooms. They have several Van Houtte coffee dispensers that make coffee, lattes, hot chocolate, etc. They have several varieties of teas, as well as sodas and juices. The only food they have is apples. They have lovely sinks for you to wash your hands near the food area, but no soap (!) Like they didn't have any soap dispensers, not they ran out of soap. Please install some soap dispensers. Luckily they have soap in the washrooms, which are all gender-neutral/unisex and wheelchair accessible. They are all single rooms, not stalls. There are several televisions in the lounge some show the news (with closed captioning) and some show a slideshow of Canadian landscapes. There's also a screen that shows the station's departures. The lounge is big, bright and clean. I like it. My only complaint is lack of soap by the sinks in the food area. Review #30 (2025)

My wife and I took VIA business class across and between Ontario and Quebec four times in early…read moreNovember and it was truly top notch. Spacious seating is way better than plan and even beats Amtrak Acela. They also have great meals with beer, wine, and cocktails. Their staff has been very helpful with helping us and our bags board and inboard the train with our disabilities and my wife got to ride with me for free as my caregiver which made this a great deal. The lounges are very nice as well and provide free coffee, apples, and juice. We even made a new friend as the lady in front of us ok our first ride from Montreal to Ottawa is autistic and recently married like us.

Beautiful and easy to navigate OC Transpo LRT Line One station that is a also a transfer station to…read moreLRT Line Two. There are no public restrooms at this station. Be aware there is no parking nearby. In case of weather, there is little shelter on the Line Two platform. Plus there are nil amenities inside the station. Simple and rustic perhaps, but it is a fully functional transit station!

This station is west of Nepean. It is 15 mins away from the main Ottawa train station…read more There is plenty of parking. There are no any covered passenger waiting areas outside of the main station. When we arrived, it was cold, damp and starting to rain.

If you're taking the train in or out of Ottawa, I would absolutely recommend travelling via (ha!)…read morethe station in Barrhaven. Yes, it's small, but it's cozy, and I find it much cheerier and cleaner than the city station. I agree with Fauve - I think taking the train is the most pleasurable and civilized way to travel. No checked baggage, no taking off my shoes for security and free wifi. If I could take the train everywhere, I totally would. Note that this station is also a major transit hub, so there's a ton of buses to get you anywhere in the city you need to be. The service here is good, and it has a much more calm and relaxed feeling than any airport I've ever been in. Don't be alarmed - it is, in fact, right next to a field.

O-Train station right in the middle of the Central Business District in downtown Ottawa. Fully…read moreaccessible with lifts and escalators. Clean and well signed. Good bus connections to Gatineau and only 2 short blocks walk to the Supreme Court. Direct underground access to Place De Ville.

So OC Transpo is the public transportation network in Ottawa. For the longest time it was just…read morebuses and the O-train that ran more or less north-south (the O-Train has been around since 2001). In 2019 a new light rail (kinda like a subway) system was built. So the old O-Train line is now called the Trillium Line and the newly built one that runs east-west is called the Confederation Line. Admittedly, I do not take OC Transpo all that much. Unlike when I lived in Toronto and Montreal, I have always had a car when I have lived in Ottawa. Despite not being a frequent user of OC Transpo, I have taken it enough to have an opinion of it. I find the bus system not that extensive and it's not that easy to get around using public transit. I also think the light rail network is terrible. The new stations are too small with platforms too narrow for the volume of people who take it (during pre-Pandemic times). Also all the stations have the same generic look. Maybe they can learn a lesson or two from the metro in Montreal or the subway in Toronto where each station has a unique look and feel to it. The light rail has also had lots of problems like not running properly when it's very cold. Hello? Ottawa winters! How was cold weather not considered? Also doors jamming when people try to hold them open. Uh this does not happen in Montreal or Toronto and I'm sure people there try to keep doors open longer than they should. Anyway, OC Transpo is satisfactory, I guess, but I can't say that I'm a fan. This review is for Pre-Covid times. I have not taken OC Transpo since the Covid-19 Pandemic, but I know that ridership has decreased significantly, as more people are working from home now and people are going out less.

The O-Train is a piece of trash, it's seats alone make it so, but then there is the pathetic slow…read morespeeds it has to run, as the train was not designed to run on the tracks we have, and or deal with the sharp turns. A trip from one end of the city to the other used to take 11 minutes on the 95, now it takes 40 to travel less of a stretch in the same direction. The seating is the WORST PART though. The seats lean forward at the top, so if you are taller than 5'4" the molded angle of the seat causes the sharp edge to stab into your spine as it curves forward. So if you are in the 6 foot range of a human, your forced into a hunched position in the seats. Every trip on this train is an exercise in sciatica pain as a result. I can literally get to the other end of town on my ebike faster using the bike paths, with far less pain. I am now saving thousands a year avoiding public transit and all it's pains. Thanks for pushing me away ! Replace ur darn seats !

So I recently took the O-Train for the first time ever (despite living in Ottawa for over a…read moredecade). It's similar to the TTC Subway in Toronto and the STM Metro in Montreal except there's only 1 route and it's relatively short, and you're above ground for most of the time and only underground briefly instead of the opposite in the two other cities. Since Bayview is one of the end points the train sits there for a while and the doors are closed. There is a button that you have to press to open the doors. This is different than all other trains I've used where the doors are controlled by train staff, not passengers. You also have to press a button to open the door when you disembark. The train itself is not dissimilar from subway or metro trains. Bayview station is currently under construction due to the building of the LRT (Light Rail Transport), so it's a bit of a mess. When you transfer from bus to O-Train or vice versa you have to walk around a detour path that is circuitous and a bit creepy, especially at night. Hopefully once the construction is over, the transfer points will be more direct.

There are definite plans for expansion, but for now, Ottawa's O-Train runs north to south. It can…read moreget quite packed, but it can also be really, really convenient. I used it ALL the time when I was a student at Carleton and wanted to go to Loblaws for grocery shopping or visit other stores in the South Keys plaza. A friend of mine had a yearly bus pass and even went as far as riding the train in between classes or while she was waiting for something or someone in the winter, since the train has heating. What a way to waste time while abusing the system haha eeps! The ride is fast and smooth, and if you have a bus transfer or pass, you can hop right on the O-Train without having to pay an additional fare. Sometimes the ticket machines are out of order, which can be annoying, but will save you $2.75. I remember the fare only being $2 when I started university in 2004, so it hasn't really increased very much in the last six years. Even if it's only a couple bucks, though, make sure you pay the fare or have some kind of proof of payment, since officers will check often and I've seen people get caught and fined pretty hard for not having a transfer or pass.

I was traveling in the state of Quebec In Canada and VIA…read moretrain system was nice And convenient and the clerks were helpful Inside the cars!

Via rail is pretty great. But golly does their wifi suck. I honestly don't even know why they…read morebother having an on-train entertainment program when it is a true nightmare to stream anything while on-board. Level up via. The people want to stream.

Fairly popular location for catching the train. No way to know if there will be available parking…read moreuntil you arrive. You can use an app to pay for parking in advance or use the machine inside the station. Nothing but parking can be purchased here. There is a board inside that updates with arrival times. The bathroom is a single universal room. The door lock clicks to make you think it locks. However, the door can still be opened. I thought I did something wrong, but an older gentleman informed me this happens all the time so he waits to make sure no one yells from inside before entering. Good on that person, but terrible on VIA for having a very unsafe bathroom.