Scenic route
Train de Charlevoix
Québec City → La Malbaie · Canada
Runs 140 km wedged between Laurentian cliffs and the St. Lawrence, at times just metres from the tide.
Railway financier Rodolphe Forget pushed this line along the St. Lawrence’s north shore in 1919, and for most of its 140 km the track has cliff on one side and tidewater on the other. Reborn as a light-railcar tourist service, it was rescued by local operator Réseau Charlevoix and carried some 40,000 riders in its comeback 2025 season. German-built railcars now shuttle from Montmorency Falls past the Le Massif ski cliffs to the old resort town of La Malbaie.
Along the way
- Montmorency Falls
- Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré basilica
- Cap Tourmente wildlife reserve
- Le Massif cliff descent
- Baie-Saint-Paul
- Murray Bay at La Malbaie
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 18254074 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 98.8% of this line lies within 250 m of real track, a median 4 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: the railway’s own site — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Train de Charlevoix?
The Train de Charlevoix runs 140 km from Québec City to La Malbaie.
How long does the Train de Charlevoix take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 4 h 30 min for the 140 km. That is an average of 31 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 70 km/h.
Who runs the Train de Charlevoix?
Réseau Charlevoix, with DB 628 diesel railcars.
How old is the Train de Charlevoix?
The line has been in service since 1919. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
How often does the Train de Charlevoix run?
Daily early Jun–early Nov.
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