VIA Panorama Lounge

The new improved Panorama Lounge is marbled, spacious and comfortable. They offer juices, soda, coffee, magazines, business centre, TV, and a non public W/​C. What more do you need to relax by before your journey?
I don’t take the train often enough but when I do this is how I do it. Business class all the way. It beats being with the coach folks in cattle mode.
The only thing missing are Electrical /​USB charge plugs for convenience.
This is a more civilized way to travel… keep it up VIA!

As I sit here waiting for my train, these are my options:
— Consume cold beverages such as Coke, diet Coke, gingerale, tomato juice, or ice tea
— Consume hot beverages such as coffee, tea, espresso, or a chociatto
— Read from their selection of magazines and newspapers
— Check out other passengers
— Use the business center
— Watch TSN on the television
— Sit on a comfy chair and play with my mobile device
Super friendly staff, being in the lounge is way better than waiting in the station.
Okay, back to sitting here.

It’s no Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge and it doesn’t pretend to be one. If you’re taking the train on a business class and you want peace while you wait for your train, this is the place to wait. There was no screaming CHILDREN were spotted. Only women with big eye glasses and high heels and men who generally don’t care about their appearance.
You will get hungry. Lack of biscuits and snack will still make you go to the nearest coffee shop or convenience store and ghettoize the lounge by eating your take home snack. Annoy fellow passengers and eat rice or smelly noodles.
The washroom is accessible. The lounge is a short 4-​minutes walk to the platform. There are two monitors that show you train schedule so you won’t miss your it. You need to check in before you enter.
The seats are arranged like the Island Airport waiting area with rows of leather seats lined side by side and few couches in the corner. Think of comfy economy.
There is wifi so you can post on Facebook that you’re especial and in the lounge. Or say hi to your economy-​riding friends and feel extra special.
A coffee machine that prominently displays its brand can make latte and brewed coffee. Non-​alcoholic pop/​soda/​juices are available to remind you that you paid additional $ 100 buck foryour ride.
The place is immaculately clean. Don’t drop bread crumbs from your Tim Hortons doughnut. People are typically quiet.
Nothing especial. It’s OK.

A perk of travelling business or first class. The Panorama Lounge is a nice, comfortable place to wait for your train. You can help yourself to drinks, as well as a selection of newspapers and magazines. There are areas of lounge with computer terminals, and a more intimate, enclosed area in the back. Other amenities include restrooms on site.

Marble floors, wifi and group of seven paintings on the wall?! Colour me impressed. Considering I pay a pretty penny once every few months to oogle Lawren S Harris winterscapes once I realized I was sitting beneath an A. Y. Jackson painting I almost squealed.
Beyond the incredible art, the lounge is what you’d expect, leather sofas and chairs, a business centre, outlets to work from and free drinks. As an avid VIA traveller, I’m a big fan if the «more humane way to travel.» I don’t splurge often on bus class but if catch a sweet seat sale like I did, it’s really not much more than economy. Definitely worth the extra bit of cash to not be in queues that circle Union Station.
The view of Front Street doesn’t hurt either.

I’m pleased to report Toronto’s Via One business class lounge is now much, much improved. It was moved out from the back of the departure area to street side. The previous lounge was dark and kind of crammed. The new lounge has much nicer seating areas and windows that look out onto the street. Freebies are unchanged (coffee machine, sodas, juices). I think they’ve added a new range of free magazines.
The lounge can be loud. All the stone, tile, and plaster doesn’t really do much to absorb sound.
All ‘n’ all another sound reason to go Via One if you have to go by train. Train is always more expensive than you think it should be. Via One isn’t that much more expensive than coach fare. You get bonuses like being able to chill out in this lounge, pilfer stuff from the fridges, and free reading material. The best part is the pre-​boarding. You get led out past the Bataan Death March line of tired, sad, miserable people lining up for their coach gate. Everyone looks like «will I get a decent seat? Or will I have to sit next to a guy who thinks it’s okay to travel with a bayonet in his carry on?»

This is the worst kind of elitist lounge. There are no other bar/​restaurant options in Union station so you’d think that anyone would be allowed in even if it’s at a price (say if you’re travelling coach you could pay $ 30 extra for access)… Unfortunately this is not even an option. You can’t even set food in the lounge without a high cost passenger ticket.
Each time I’ve been through the lounge was empty with no one eating/​drinking. Seems like this could provide added & needed revenue for VIA if they decided to open it to all passengers (or even to anyone travelling through Union station).
Food/​drinks could be free for high cost passengers and at a price for everyone else… this isn’t rocket science.

This place is seriously due for a major overhaul, especially in light of what Porter offers at its complimentary lounge. For Business Class prices, VIA should be offering clean bathrooms and chairs made in this century at the very least. The décor is very early-​90s and lacks much warmth or comfort.
The VIA 1 service aboard the train is much better than the lounge area offers; if you buy your ticket in advance you can usually get a good discount too.

Taking my first business-​class VIA trip ever, I walked into the Panorama Lounge with fairly high expectations, having seen the information on the website.
REALLY not impressed.
The lounge was absolutely packed — OK, rush hour on Friday will probably be like that — and the décor reminded me a lot of the late 90s. The beverage station was fairly well-​stocked though, and VIA personnel came in to let us know when we could board the train (ahead of the common plebes, nyah!)
Where it all really falls apart is the bathroom. Singular. It’s awful — if you go, take a flashlight, seriously. There’s a light near the sink, and that’s it. The whole thing reminded me of the washrooms in Duke Nukem, except for the lack of aliens and that nobody had shot the toilet yet — miraculous, when you think of it. A line quickly formed, and remained at least until my train left.
What could make this better: a few more tables, furniture that makes it feel less like a hospital waiting room, and more than one bathroom. Please.