We decided to take the train for a business/pleasure trip to Montreal from Toronto, instead of flying. Wasn't based on trying to save money, etc. we just wanted different experience. We brought our bikes and were excited. It may not be fair to compare VIA Rail to the TGV in Europe but I must say I was pretty disappointed with VIA and the train experience. I booked first class, apparently its complimentary alcoholic beverages, however they limit how many they serve to you. The food was quite horrific and not that good, inmates at Kingston probably eat better than this. The train cars on the way to Montreal looked like from a 70's bad movie and the car or train shook and bounced around like it was going to come off the rails. Hard to do any work or type without getting tired and bugged eye. The train on the way back to Toronto the cars were a little nicer, we got a few extra drinks but still was a pretty shaky ride. I've traveled on many trains throughout Europe, been on a few in South America and through the USA, and I must say just like our bad subway systems in Toronto and horrible Go Transit service we have, I would rank taking the train a slight step above taking the bus and would not recommend it. The worse part was one of our colleagues misplaced his ticket and they charged him $50 to replace it even though we had our receipt of the full payment with his name on it. Not sure what happened to VIA but it has a long way to go before it can remotely position itself as a world class company that provides excellent service and experience. Too bad I thought taking the train was going to be fun.