Originally Posted by
cooker
A lot of people, it turns out.
I had hoped to use VIA out of Toronto for day trips - take the train to Brantford or Kingston, bike around for a few hours and then take the train back, and they advertise the "bike train" which has racks so you don't have to box your bike. There are multple trains in each direction every day. Unfortunately, all the trains equipped with racks leave Toronto at midday or in the afternoon, which is incredibly annoying!
Well that's unfortunate (living in TO that is
)
Seriously, We only have I think 3 trains a week pull out of Vancouver but there is one Friday at about 10pm so it fits perfectly for a weekend departure. Takes about 20 hours to get to Jasper though. I don't think they have a bike car on this one, just a regular baggage car and the website suggests a box but they told me even a large plastic bag over the bike will do (so the other baggage doesn't get greasy). My station is quite funny as there is no station at all or even a platform and I have to hand the bike up to the person in the car because they aren't allowed to lift.
I was fortunate to take the southern route from Calgary to Vancouver back in 88, just before they privatized the route. Cost $120 then and no charge for the bike. Now it's about $2000 - 4000 and called the Rocky Mountaineer so I won't be doing that again.