Today VIA Rail hosted in open house to celebrate the 120th year of operation of the Ocean, Making it the Oldest named train in Canada. The train first appeared on Intercolonial railway schedules connecting Halifax to Montreal on July 03 1904.
The event also marked the completion of restoration work on Halifax Station. Of note is the return of the clock to the sculpture above the main entrance.
The Ocean Limited began as a summer only train, and its operation was taken over by CN when the ICR was folded into Canadian National in 1918. It Remained, when CN spun off its passenger operations to VIA Rail in 1978.
The Ocean once ran as a daily train, going down to 3 days a week from 1990-94, it regained a 6 day/week schedule until 2012. it now runs three times per week with a mix of 2000’s Renaissance equipment, and 1950’s Budd stainless steel cars.
The Renaissance equipment was originally built for the the NightStar – a proposed nighttime sleeper train to complement the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel – the train was cancelled before the equipment was finished, and VIA bought it all. Despite being the newest equipment in the fleet, prior to the entry of the Siemens Venture/Charger sets, The Ren equipment with their European heritage have proven problematic, and they are primed for replacement.
The much older Budd equipment is finally reaching the end of its service life. The fleet was purchased by Canadian Pacific for launch of The Canadian in 1955. VIA bought additional Budd cars second hand from other railways and converted them for service.
Prior to the Ren equipment, CN/VIA ran the ocean with a mix of Pullman smooth side cars.
In 1958 the Ocean departed Halifax at 11:45am, and arrived in Montreal at 7:30am the next day. The train currently departs Halifax at 11:30, and arrives at 9:53. and runs 2 hours and 20 minutes slower. the Departure from Halifax was moved up in June 2024, from 13:00 to better accommodate slow orders on route.
A 2016 employee timetable showed maximum speeds of 30 mph for passenger trains on a 59.2-mile section of the Newcastle Subdivision from milepost 48.4, near Rogersville, N.B., to MP 107.6, near Nepisguit, N.B requiring 1:58 to cover that distance. at 90mph, that distance takes 40 minutes, of course, since 2016, track conditions have worsened,
I have taken the ocean several times in both directions. the most recent was in May 2024, when it served as the first leg on my trip across the country by train.
