Express Deals this winter?

[Jon Calon jon.yg-E/[e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Hi all,

Noticing that the Express Deals from VIA have all but disappeared for any trains departing beyond the beginning of October. Yet, the link is still very prominently on the front page of the website.

I’d like to travel in early December, but have the trains all been that well booked that they don’t need anything to fill up space, or (and here’s the cynic in me speaking) are the head-honchos at VIA been told to cancel any deals which would improve ridership and with an empty train prove the Winter Canadians can be cancelled?

Jon

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[Will [e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

There typically is a 50% off sale in October (the last one was in July) - I would just wait for it. I believe Express Deals have been 60% off lately from memory, so not as good a deal as they used to be. In the good old days, an upper berth from Winnipeg-Toronto was ~$200 with tax - but alas no more.

I doubt it’s any executive order in any case, if the seats are being sold at the listed prices they don’t need to clear them out. Add in the fact that the capacity drops by 1/3 since only 2 trains are running, there is even less need to clear out the space.

Will

Post by Jon Calon jon.yg-E/5X+***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
Hi all,
Noticing that the Express Deals from VIA have all but disappeared for any trains departing beyond the beginning of October. Yet, the link is still very prominently on the front page of the website.
I’d like to travel in early December, but have the trains all been that well booked that they don’t need anything to fill up space, or (and here’s the cynic in me speaking) are the head-honchos at VIA been told to cancel any deals which would improve ridership and with an empty train prove the Winter Canadians can be cancelled?
Jon

[Tom Box [e-mail] [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]]

Post by Will wpgwill-***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]

Post by Jon Calon jon.yg-E/5X+***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
Noticing that the Express Deals from VIA have all but disappeared
for any trains departing beyond the beginning of October.

Not just "all but", they've completely disappeared. For the last
week or so, the Express Deals page has been saying "There are no
deals available at the moment." For a while before that, the number
of deals was dwindling, as the travel dates for the existing deals
passed, and no new ones were added.

That's unusual. For the past few years, the number of Express
Deals has fluctuated, but they have always been a regular feature,
except when a system-wide seat sale was on. Perhaps VIA is
changing its marketing strategy.

There have been recent changes to VIA's senior management. We all
know there's a new president, but there is also a new "Chief
Commercial Officer", who came to VIA after spending most of his
career at IBM. I don't know if that change is related in any
way to the lack of Express Deals.
<http://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail/our-company/management-team/chief-marketing-sales-officer>

Post by Will wpgwill-***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]

Post by Jon Calon jon.yg-E/5X+***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
Yet, the link is still very prominently on the front page of
the website.

True, so maybe there's no great significance to the current lack
of deals, and it's just a temporary lull.

Post by Will wpgwill-***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
There typically is a 50% off sale in October (the last one was
in July)

It has been a few months since the last general seat sale, and
that too is a change from recent practice. It used to be that
sales only happened a few times a year, but in recent years, it
seemed that there was one every few weeks. Here too, the lack
of sales in the past few months could be a significant change
of strategy, or it could be a random fluctuation of no great
importance.

Post by Will wpgwill-***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]

Post by Jon Calon jon.yg-E/5X+***@public.gmane.org [Canadian-Passenger-Rail]
are the head-honchos at VIA been told to cancel any deals which
would improve ridership and with an empty train prove the Winter
Canadians can be cancelled?

I doubt it's any executive order

I doubt it too. I have no real evidence either way, but my guess
is that people in government don't spend much time actively
plotting to destroy VIA. Neglect is slowly bringing that about
with no active intervention required.

Tom Box
tbox at ncf dot ca
Port Hope, ON, Canada


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Posted by: Tom Box <tbox-***@public.gmane.org>
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