In September, I connected a few train segments that I have wanted to ride into a 6-day trip to Quebec City and the Charlevoix region.
My travels started with a VIA Rail corridor train to Montréal for a work event. After a short walk to Union Station in Toronto, and hot coffee and breakfast on the train, I was able to arrive in Montréal’s Gare Centrale in time to drop off my luggage at my hotel and walk to my lunch meeting.
Montréal to Jonquière
The next morning, I joined one of VIA Rail’s “Scenic Adventure Routes” from Montréal to Jonquière in Saguenay – train #601. This is an all day trip through a remote area of Quebec north-east of Montréal.
After a delay in leaving Montréal of several hours, we began with a loop around the city and started out across the fields and villages north of Montréal.
The train had two segments – the front of the train was #602 heading towards Senneterre while the back of the train was #601, my train to Jonquière. The trains leave three days a week, currently Monday, Wednesday and Friday, returning the following day. The combined train splits in Hervey Junction about four hours into the trip.
Both segments consisted of only a locomotive, a baggage car, and a single passenger car. Basic snacks and drinks are available for purchase from the attendant.
After Hervey, the terrain got more remote, with small villages, and cabins. Many appeared to be only accessible by train. At one stop, kayakers boarded with their kayaks to ride the train for 45 minutes to their destination along the Batiscan River. Most of the stops were flag stops – the train would only stop if requested or flagged down by a passenger.
After passing the appropriately named Summit, the train descended over a series of loops to Lac-Saint-Jean. In the evening light over the lake, we could see cyclists riding the 260 km Véloroute des Bleuets around the lake.
We arrived in Jonquière at about 9pm and I took a cab to downtown Saguenay and my hotel for the night.
Saguenay to La Malbaie
The next morning, I caught the morning bus to Quebec City. It was a quick ride through the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve on a comfortable bus. In Quebec City, we rented a car to drive to Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie.
As part of our visit to the area, we rode portions of Train de Charlevoix along the beautiful St. Lawrence River. We didn’t see any whales but the train travels just above the water level on its daily return trip from Quebec City to Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie.
Return to Toronto
After our visit to Charlevoix, we returned the car in Quebec City. I took the corridor train from Quebec City via Montréal to Ottawa and then back to Toronto. Both Quebec to Montréal and Montréal to Ottawa were new segments for me. I had ridden portions of tracks to Quebec City on The Ocean many years earlier but only at night.
