Montreal Train Station

[TabithaK]

We are doing a one-way cruise from Boston to Montreal this summer. We are looking at taking the train from Montreal to Toronto Union Station after the cruise. Does anyone here have experience doing this? Can we walk from the cruise terminal to the train station without too much difficulty?

 

Thanks for any insight.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

About 1.5 km 

 

[Fouremco]

It's a good 20 plus minute walk, and that doesn't include taking your luggage with you. Personally, I'd grab an Uber.

 

[LHT28]

slightly uphill as well

 

[lx200gps]

Montrealer here. It's not worth attempting this, for all the reasons mentioned above. It's a long walk, and depending on the exact route you choose, some of the streets are more than just slightly uphill. Also, Old Montreal, where the cruise terminal is located, features cobblestone streets, which could be problematic if you are towing large, heavy bags. Taxi or Uber would be my suggestion as well.

[JustCruzin77]

Any experience/advice on cheap transportation for a Canada New England cruise that starts in the US and Ends in Canada?

 

Drive and park at the Quebec Port and...

Fly to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Bus to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Train to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

 

[*Miss G*]

VIA Rail, Montreal to Toronto Union, is a very pleasant experience in Business Class.  The Montreal station is underneath the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth.  There is a Business Class lounge should you arrive early.  Enjoy your trip!

 

Editing to add:  I see @JustCruzin77 posted a separate question at the same time I posted.  My answer is in response to the OP’s question.

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by *Miss G*

[JustCruzin77]

7 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

Any experience/advice on cheap transportation for a Canada New England cruise that starts in the US and Ends in Canada?

 

Drive and park at the Quebec Port and...

Fly to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Bus to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Train to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

 

Sorry to hijack the OP, maybe I should have started a new topic! 🤐

[*Miss G*]

6 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

Sorry to hijack the OP, maybe I should have started a new topic! 🤐

 

Is your originating point Ontario?  Are you close to Billy Bishop Airport?  (Toronto Island)

 

The reason I ask is that it would be much cheaper to fly Porter Airlines out of the island airport if you’re not far from there.

Edited March 1, 2023 by *Miss G*

[LHT28]

28 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

Any experience/advice on cheap transportation for a Canada New England cruise that starts in the US and Ends in Canada?

 

Drive and park at the Quebec Port and...

Fly to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Bus to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Train to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

 

Fly 

As suggested look at Porter  from YTZ  if you can get to Downtown Toronto easier that YYZ

For us YYZ  is easier to get to

YMMV

[Magicat]

On a trip from Montreal to Quebec city they weighed bags and were very strict on the 50 lbs limit.  Our friends had to rearrange their bags.  Train from Toronto to Montreal they didn't care.  Also if you are exmilitary your baggage allowance is unlimited.  

[TabithaK]

Thanks for everyone's input. Looks like we'll be taking a taxi. 🙂

[JustCruzin77]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Is your originating point Ontario?  Are you close to Billy Bishop Airport?  (Toronto Island)

 

The reason I ask is that it would be much cheaper to fly Porter Airlines out of the island airport if you’re not far from there.

It's probably a 2 hour drive with traffic, thanks, I'll check porter.

[*Miss G*]

18 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

It's probably a 2 hour drive with traffic, thanks, I'll check porter.

 

Oh.  Yuck, then.  Are you near a train to Union Station?  From there they have a free shuttle to the island airport.

 

Also, Porter sends out the best fares through email after you join their rewards program.  They’ll be higher just browsing the site.  After you join, if you browse a certain itinerary it will usually trigger the bot to send you a sale.

[LHT28]

38 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

It's probably a 2 hour drive with traffic, thanks, I'll check porter.

Probably not worth the  time to go to Downtown TO 

then there is the parking issue/cost

 

[*Miss G*]

It would be helpful to know if you’re on the border of Ontario/Quebec or north/west of Toronto.  We can provide more pertinent responses that way.

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by *Miss G*

[JustCruzin77]

27 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Oh.  Yuck, then.  Are you near a train to Union Station?  From there they have a free shuttle to the island airport.

 

Also, Porter sends out the best fares through email after you join their rewards program.  They’ll be higher just browsing the site.  After you join, if you browse a certain itinerary it will usually trigger the bot to send you a sale.

Thanks for the email tip!
It's about 30 mins to the train, and might be cheaper than parking in Toronto for a week.

[JustCruzin77]

3 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

It would be helpful to know if you’re on the border of Ontario/Quebec or north/west of Toronto.  We can provide more pertinent responses that way.

 

I am 30+ mins North of Bowmanville/Oshawa/Whitby.

[*Miss G*]

1 minute ago, JustCruzin77 said:

I am 30+ mins North of Bowmanville/Oshawa/Whitby.

 

Ah, okay.  Then you could take the train back from QC but you’d have to change in Montreal.  But the train station is next to the cruise port in QC so there’s that.  VIA Rail sends out “Discount Tuesday” emails if you sign up.  You’d have to run the numbers for flights and trains.  The nice thing about Porter is they don’t charge extra for one-way flights.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

11 minutes ago, JustCruzin77 said:

I am 30+ mins North of Bowmanville/Oshawa/Whitby.

Have someone drive you to Oshawa and catch the train from there 

[*Miss G*]

Also run the numbers on doing a closed loop cruise out of Montreal or QC if you can afford the vacation time.  When you count the cost of transportation to/from the ports, along with a hotel stay the night before departure (you don’t want to miss embarkation), it may end up being cheaper in the long run.  That way you could do the train and not have to backtrack into Toronto to catch a flight.

[Fouremco]

3 hours ago, JustCruzin77 said:

Any experience/advice on cheap transportation for a Canada New England cruise that starts in the US and Ends in Canada?

 

Drive and park at the Quebec Port and...

Fly to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Bus to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

Train to NY/NJ/BOSTON/Etc.?

 

For our Boston-Montreal cruise few years ago, we drove to Montreal and left the car at one of the park and ride lots the day before embarkation. We then flew to Boston later in the morning and took a free shuttle to our hotel near the cruise port.

 

At the conclusion of the cruise, we grabbed an Uber to the airport parking lot, then drove home.

 

We could have taken the train to and from Montreal, but it's a quick and easy drive from Ottawa and was quite a bit cheaper. It minimized wait time between train arrival and plane departure outbound, and between docking and train departure on our return.

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, Magicat said:

On a trip from Montreal to Quebec city they weighed bags and were very strict on the 50 lbs limit.  Our friends had to rearrange their bags.  Train from Toronto to Montreal they didn't care.  Also if you are exmilitary your baggage allowance is unlimited.  

The last time I took the train from Toronto to Montreal, and return, they looked at the size of the bag to decide whether they needed to be weighed. If your bag wasn't too big they didn't bother.

[Marilyn Carkner]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:35 PM, TabithaK said:

We are doing a one-way cruise from Boston to Montreal this summer. We are looking at taking the train from Montreal to Toronto Union Station after the cruise. Does anyone here have experience doing this? Can we walk from the cruise terminal to the train station without too much difficulty?

 

Thanks for any insight.

No walking with suitcases would be challenging… a short taxi or uber would be easy and inexpensive