The Train! The Train!

“The Canadian” – Via Train #1 – is not really a form of rail transport.  Four days to cross 4500 kilometres is no commuter run.  Speed and timeliness are not factors here: Via1 has delays built into the schedule (?), so even when you’re late you’re on time.

Freight train traffic causes the delays.  It’s not just that Via is a sort of interloper on CN tracks.  The sheer volume of freight traffic is quite staggering; 100+ car trains passing several times every hour.  Our 20-car train is a pipsqueak.  Passenger rail is #4 in CN priorities, behind intermodal trains, commodity trains and retail goods trains.

You do not travel Via1 for speed. Nor for cost, as even coach is more expensive than bus or air.  Via1 travel is about the experience: not just the scenic views, not just the appreciation of the sheer scale of this country, but also the experience of being in a closed community of fellow travellers for 97 hours.

This last is where I’ll elaborate first.  We see the same folks, close up for four days.  We become a community, voyaging comfortably through new lands. You learn names and histories and (to a controlled and discrete extent) world views.   We in first class had easy access to a bar / lounge car, and exclusive access to this dome car; it was in this car, as well as the dining car, that most socialising took place.  Canadians were in the minority of first-class passengers: the largest proportion were from the US, next from the UK.  Most were traveling just for the experience, although there were a few who made the trip part of their world cup event.  The American citizens on the train were quiet and civil; most were quite unaware of the current state of Canada / USA relations: consternation that there was no bourbon on the train.

Although I was traveling for the first class experience, I also wanted to remind myself of the sheer size of Canada. This impression had stayed with me over the 60 years since my first cross-Canada train trip, and was reinforced once again. 36 hours crossing Ontario alone. I believe it is correct to say that Canada has more fresh water lakes than all other countries combined. Travelling through shield country, you can believe it. Lakes abound, some gorgeous, some rather plain. Just on day one, the whole of this route underlines the extraordinary efforts to build the line, through basically nowhere: blasting rock, filling swamps, coping with muskeg, building bridges: on and on and on. “What were they thinking?” in deciding first 150 years ago, then again for a second line120 years ago, to cross this beautiful but hostile and forbidding landscape, when southern routes (through the US) were so much more do-able and far less costly. No wonder so many thought MacDonald was off his rocker.

Coming off the shield country onto the prairie lands is the geographic equivalent of a light switch – quite sudden.  Manitoba has some tennis court flat land, to be sure, but the train then meanders up the Assiniboine River valley, coming into Saskatchewan without an obvious change.  60 years ago, I thought the Prairies were boring.  I’ve changed my view; there is still much to see on the flat lands, and the panoramic view of the sky is mesmerizing. Big sky country indeed.

The Rockies were, in a way, anti-climatic. It was raining and misty as we passed through dampening, as it were, our appreciation.  The mountains were majestic nonetheless, and the clouds created an air of mystery.  Via1 uses the Yellowhead Pass through the Rockies; in my recollection, the Kicking Horse Pass is the more spectacular.

The trip offers endless scenic views but one’s appreciation is limited by the speed of the train. Sometimes you only have a few seconds to appreciate a northern lake or a craggy outcrop.  Photography is particularly challenging.  Shooting through a train window risks reflections and blurring.  Many hours of the train ride passes though forest close to the train, a mesmerising tunnel of green.

Via Prestige is quite staggeringly expensive.  I knew I didn’t want to replicate my long ago coach /  berth experiences.  A private room and toilet were persuasive; a private shower was conclusive.  The private room is still quite small; two bench seats at right angles, with a coffee table.  An in-room TV (which I didn’t use), a beverage cooler, a closet, mini-cupboards and shelves.  A full-size window. Some couples travelling were envious of the extra space I had as a single traveller.  Indeed, once the twin bed is lowered for the night, there is no space to sit (except on the bed), and almost no room to stand.

My bed, when it is made up, is at right angles to the train, so I slept sideways as it were.  From my pillow, there is a view of the large window.  I slept with the blinds open.  Twice I was woken by the beams of sunrise on my eyelids: quite special.  Although the bed was comfortable, sleeping on the train was somewhat challenging: the motion and clanks of  the train, the rattle of cupboards and contents in the room, the sudden silence when the Via train stops to allow a freight train to pass.   

Via staff treat you very well.  Check in was relaxingly easy – except for a brief panic about a wrong format boarding pass.  Luggage carried to my room on the train.  Escort through the station to the train.  After briefly settling in, repairing to the Park Car at the rear of the train for samosa, canapés and conversation.  The staff learn your names quickly, also your favourite drink choices.  Dining is done in three sittings; the middle sitting was always full.  Meals were very well presented: fresh white tablecloths, decent silverware and china, table service efficient and friendly – all done quite well despite the rolls and jerks of the train.

Would I do it again?  Probably not, but that is not a criticism.  It is a experience to be had, and I would recommend it.  But I don’t think the experience bears repeating.