Going on biking trips just got easier, and it can stay that way with your help.
Beginning in June 2007, and going through to September, you will be able to bring your bike on the VIA train to Niagara.
The Toronto-Niagara Bike Train Initiative is launching a pilot project this summer where over the course of the four months, there will be about 4 or 5 weekends where a baggage car will be re-routed to the Toronto-Niagara line with added bike racks so that passengers will be able to travel to Niagara from Toronto or vice versa with their bikes. There will be no bike service between these stops however.
The idea is to increase cycling and tourism in both cities and promote the areas as cycling cities while at the same time reducing the increased summer vehicle traffic between Toronto and Niagara. They are currently conducting a survey on their website to gauge people’s needs and wants in terms of cycling trips.
Justin Lafontaine, the project’s lead, thinks success will come from the amount of response from the public. VIA has received already received some feedback, and Lafontaine believes the project may become permanent for this route as well as other routes that currently don’t have baggage cars. At the end of September, the group will produce a report and discuss the success or failure of the project.
The reason you cannot currently bring a bike onto the train for this route is because of its short travel distance. This route does not currently have a baggage-car assigned to it, whereas the Toronto-Montreal route does. Short trips like the Toronto-Niagara route don’t need storage simply because passengers don’t usually have that many suitcases.
Ticket sales will begin on April 24, 2007 and they will be $59.00 round trip. You won’t be able to buy your ticket from VIA though, you’ll need to go through Toronto-Niagara Bike Train.
photo by Metrix Feet on flickr
2 comments
This… this is going to be awesome, I think.
A wonderful boon for tourism and general travel in the Toronto-Niagara Falls corridor.
Ticketing should be through VIARail or GO not a third entity. It becomes too complicated for folks to remember a third rail company.
Also VIARail should make certain that people using the Biike Train qualify for VIA Préférence reward program points. It would encourage more folks to use the train in general (for example going from Toronto to Waterloo or Windsor and then cycling back to Toronto or from Windsor/Waterloo to Toronto etc.