Riding the rails of the Gasp, Quebec coast, with Via Rail trains 16 & 17 (the Chaleur)

Via Rail’s Montreal-Gaspé service, previously named ’The Chaleur’ and featuring the “SIlver & Blue“ premium sleeper class, was suspended in 2013. It had previously run three times a week, departing Montreal’s Central Station in the evenings of Monday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving in the town of Gaspé around noon the next day. A number of hours later, Train 17 would depart Gaspé, arriving in Montreal around 8:00 am the next morning. Commonly, the Chaleur would run as a combined train with the Montreal-Halifax train (the Ocean) between Montreal and Matapedia, separating at about 5:30 am on the outbound leg and rejoining at approximately 9:45 pm on for the return. As of April 2020, major refurbishment and repairs to the rail infrastructure is underway. It is hoped by many that passenger rail service will return in the not to distant future, reconnecting the rail communities along the Bay of Chaleur coast: Nouvelle, Carleton, New Richmond, Caplan, Bonaventure