Recently I went to Montreal to attend a major sporting event. I was tempted to take my 2018 LEAF as it certainly can make the journey, perhaps a little slower than a gas car, but with much better economics and of course emissions. But alas, the sporting event is unlikely to end until late afternoon on Sunday, making for a long and painful journey back no matter what you drive. So, we compared the alternatives, and given that the event is close to downtown Montreal, the train won out, lets discuss this.
The train is often seen as an option between flying and driving, particularly on regional trips such as Toronto to Montreal. Compared to driving it is faster, particularly if one is going to downtown Montreal. Compared to flying the train is both greener and cheaper. The train I find is a lot more pleasant than either driving or flying. There is a full bar service on-board, and you get to enjoy the countryside rolling by. I find the train a bit too slow for a day trip, but for the weekend, its an interesting value proposition, particularly if a car is going to be more trouble than its worth once you get there.
Lets compare the different ways to get to Montreal in the following table
| Toronto to Montreal | Journey time | Door to door time | Cost (solo) | Cost (family) | Emissions (solo) [Kg CO2 eq.] | Emissions (family) [Kg CO2 eq.] |
| Train (VIA Rail) | 5 h | 7 h | $200 | $800 | 110** | 440** |
| Flying | 1 h 15 min | 5 h | $500 | $2000 | 370** | 1480** |
| 2018 Leaf | 9 h | 9 h | $120* | $120* | 6 **,*** | 6 **,*** |
| Gas car | 8 h | 8 h | $200* | $200* | 208** | 208** |
Emissions wise, clearly the Leaf takes the win, it certainly helps that Ontario’s power-grid is relatively low carbon. Interestingly enough, while for a lone traveller, the Train has lower emissions than the gas car, if your family piles in with you, the gas car comes out slightly ahead. Economics wise, the Train is a strong contender, at about half the cost of flying, but only a third slower in terms of time.
The train has a lot to offer from a user-experience standpoint, particularly if your time in Montreal is mostly spent in or near the downtown core. When you think about it, the car is more of a liability than an asset in downtown Montreal. As often in a large city centre: Parking is painful and traffic is terrible. Is it better perhaps to walk, or take transit? Of note, we were attending a major sporting event, with 350 000 other fans (source). The only way to shuffle that many people around sensibly, given Montreal’s situation, is the subway, hence your hotel will need to be at or near a metro station, where parking might be at a premium.
Looking at our overall budget for the family trip to Montreal sporting event, transport is the third biggest expense, after tickets (~ $1600) and hotel (~ 3k). Hence economically, splurging on transport (say by going business class on the train), is more sensible than going for better tickets say. With all those fans descending on Montreal for that weekend, hotels are quite expensive, while tickets are the biggest expense as the event was packed.
What got me onboard the train, was mostly how to get back from Montreal. Our sporting event ended at 4 pm. Assuming an hour to get out of the event area, the train got us home by midnight, flying might have gotten us home a little sooner, but the leaf would have meant a 3 am arrival, a gas car would have been slightly faster at perhaps a 2 am arrival. Driving it seams, would have made the Monday morning task of waking up the teenagers even harder.
Electric car adventures 