I can't imagine commuting with Via Rail. As someone using Via once in a while, I don't think it's more expensive than it was. If anything sometimes you can get some accepable deals if you reserve a few weeks in advance. But it sure is absolutely overpriced of you are last minute. It's $50 if I want to see my family tomorrow even if there are still seats in the train, but $25 if I plan the visit a week or two in advance.

It's the whole problem with their pricing system. They don't see themselves as a replacement for cars. You can't get a monthly pass for Via. They see themselves as a tourist attraction.

And unlike other rich countries, we don't even have regional trains. It could also help to have more than 5 trains a day. But again, they don't want to be a commuter service.

Sometimes I wish Exo and GO trains would cover Via rail routes in their respective provinces. It would be so much more convenient for everyone. And with Alto eventually coming, will Via ever be improved?

Reportage intéressant sur la piste et les abords du canal en 1987.

À la fin elle retourne au centre-ville et c'est impressionnant de voir le côté nord du canal, qui a un moment était complètement remblayé, et toute la transformation qui s'y est produite.

J'ai essayé de trouver un emplacement similaire pour faire une comparaison

En fait, voici une image aérienne de la tête du canal en 1988.

I knew steamboats were common on bigger rivers between cities, but I didn't expect to find out that there were steamboats on a small rural river between a town and two villages in southern Québec. I wonder how long it must have taken for the 30 km trip.

This boat must have been rendered obsolete by two railway lines running parallel on each side of the river, which are also now both abandoned.

For context, in red, the itinerary of the steamboat, and in brown, the abandoned railways.

Source in French

I wanted to explore this rail trail for a while and was finally able to bike most of it. Le Parc du Corridor Aérobique is a 58 km rail trail somewhat isolated from the rest of the cycling network.

As I have no car, I took a train from Montréal to Saint-Jérôme and cycled to the trail head in the village of Morin-Heights, via the very popular P'tit Train du Nord rail trail. Here's my return itinerary and the profile.

The surface quality varies quite a bit. Sometimes it's crushed gravel, sometimes it's dirt with rocks pointing out and painted orange. There's a few bits on roads but the vast majority is a dedicated trail. Wild camping is not permitted in Québec but there are three sites with platforms along the trail, where one can pitch a tent and spend the night.

I just got back and didn't expect such a spectacle of colours. It was glorious. I'll have to go back!

Here are some more pictures.

In a Montreal exo commuter train.

Went to a camping in the Laurentians in Québec (Ste-Agathe) and there were those things near some camp sites. The sites are only accessible by footpaths. No car access. And if you bring a bike, you have to walk it up a hill, so I doubt they are bike racks.

EDIT: I have sent an email to the park and they have been kind enough to reply. It's just a type of fireplace with a grate. They didn't give more info than just this. Thanks to everyone for pitching in!

Spring has sprung, the cycling networks in Québec, the Route Verte and other regional or municipal paths, are now mostly open.

So it's again possible to explore or use the network to go camping, as part of touring, or just to get from point A to B.

And you should know that if you are touring or arriving on a bike, there is a program called "Bienvenue Cyclistes" where all national parks (provincial parks here) will offer you a campground for less than $10. Keep in mind you also have to pay entry fees that are around $10 too. About the same for some wood. This is also possible in some other establishments. Consult the map linked above.

You should also know that you can use public transit around Montréal to bring your bike with you. It's included in the ticket. So you can take the metro, but more importantly, the REM, and the commuter trains. There are also some exo buses with bike racks. So you can go to St-Jérôme for Le P'tit Train du Nord in a commuter train with your bike for a few dollars. From that trail you can also reach another park, Parc national du Mont Tremblant

Today I'm going to see my family from Montréal to the Drummondville region. In the other direction. The ~140 km to get there is entirely bike trails/paths. I cut the itinerary in two stages and stop in a small national park called the Parc national de la Yamaska for a night of camping.

The first part to get there is using a network of local bike trails. The first from Longueuil to Chambly is called La montée du Chemin de Chambly. Then from the other side of the Richelieu river there is a trail called La route des Champs to Granby. And from Granby to the park it's local trails. They have very nice cycling infra in that region.

Here are some pictures of La route des Champs and the local trail before the park.

Then tomorrow, I will use another trail connecting to the park called La Campagnarde. This one goes to Drummondville, entirely on small gravel, and sometimes very remote and quiet.

I do this multiple times a year so I thought I would share some tricks and adventures. And I've been encouraged to by /u/Evkob.

Have fun cycling everyone!

I've been doing some rail trails on the "green roads" (routes vertes) to visit my parents for the last three weekends and I stopped at the park for overnights as I didn't want to cycle the full 140 km in one shot and then back. It's getting greener!

The Yamaska National Park is a small park located around a reservoir in southern Québec. From there it's possible to access multiple rail trails and "linear parks" going in all directions.

More pictures in the comments.

The last two upgrades have broken my audio setup.

First the options for Network Server and Network Access in paprefs were greyed out and my sinks disappeared after upgrading to bookworm. I just had to create a link to an existing file and it was working again but, it's weird that it was needed in the first place. Pretty sure it has something to do with the change from pulseaudio to pipewire but I'm not very up to date on that subject and I just want to have my current setup to continue working.

Then yesterday I just launch a simple apt-get upgrade and after rebooting my sinks disappeared again. The network options in paprefs were still available, but changing them did nothing. I had to create the file ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/10-gsettings.conf and stuff it with "pulse.cmd = [ { cmd = "load-module" args = "module-gsettings" flags = [ "nofail" ] } ]" in order to have my sinks back.

I know it's not only a Debian thing, as I can see this happening to people on Arch forums, but as Debian is supposed to be the "stable" one, I find it amusing that a simple upgrade can break your sound.

Using Boost for Lemmy, I got an obvious political ad from the right asking to sign a petition to scrap the gun "ban" in Canada (it's a registry not a ban).

Now I understand this is an ad but I don't appreciate having propaganda from the right injected into my browsing on lemmy. Have better ads, or let us report them.