Trip to and Accross Canada by Train

[JohnF]

I have been wanting to ride the Canadian across Canada for years. The decline of the dollar and a few other things finally pushed me to book my trip this year. I wanted the off season fares so I had to take the trip before Memorial Day. I live in Houston, Texas. I looked at an all rail routing, but it was just not practical given the poor service we have down here. So I flew old faithful SWA to Chicago and boarded the Lake Shore Limited on May 15th. I allowed plenty of time so I checked my bags in the first class lounge and took a walk and went up the Sears tower. The staff in the first class lounge were very nice and helpful. They boarded sleeping car passengers early for a wine and cheese thingy as there is no evening meal since the train departs at 10PM. It was just fine and the attendent made up my bed while we had our wine. The Lake Shore has a cafe lounge I think they call it. I had a roomette in one of the refurbished view liners. I had never ridden in one. They are really nice cars. I like to lay in bed at night for a while and just watch out the window. I was too excited to sleep anyway. We met a lot of freight trains. I finally got sleepy enough to dose off when we hit the CSX track. It was very rough. We sould slam over road crossing at track speed, 79mph, and it would just jar you out of bed. We met many more freights as I could hear them slamming by. We were tearing through the night rocking and rolling. I did get breakfast in the cafe before Buffalo. I got off in Buffalo the next morning where I had a long wait for the Maple Leaf coming up from NY to take me to Toronto. The station is out in the middle of nowhere. But the staff(all two of them) were very friendly and checked my bags for me and I took a bus to the nearest mall to kill time. When the Maple Leaf finally came it was already two hours late. It's a small train of a few coaches and wasn't crowded. At the border the Canadian agents went over the train with a fine tooth comb and even brought in the drug sniffing dogs. They took an elderly couple off the train. We sat there for over an hour. Got into Toronto around 9:30PM, very late. I was glad to have a bed in the hotel that wasn't moving. The next morning I boarded my sleeper on the Canadian. I had a roomette. I won't go into the details except to say that Via runs a first class service. The Canadian equipment was built in 1955 for the CP. Via has completely refurbished the equipment in it's original art deco style. The train was around 22 cars long with a baggage, two coaches and the cafe dome for coach passengers, then the first class section with 13 vintage sleepers of either 3 sections(the 4th is now a shower) and either 8 roomettes and 4DB or 4 roomettes and 6DB. In addition we had two diners, two dome lounges and the Park series dome lounge obsv. I spent three marvelous days and nights riding this train through breathtaking scenery while eating gourmet meals in the diner and champagne in the dome lounge, all included in the price of the ticket. A truly great train trip. This CN route is very busy with many meets with freights and two eastbound Canadians and the Rocky Mountaineer. To their credit the CN kept us mostly on time. Many times we would have to take the siding as the freight would be too long and do a saw by. The route traverses some very remote regions. At the service stops we could get off and walk around. Most of them were 30 minutes to an hour. We were only an hour late getting into Vancouver. I spent two days there then took the Cascade to Seattle for two more days and then SWA back to Houston. I had hoped to get to ride one of the Talgo sets on the Cascade, but they were in the shop and Amtrak had substituted some ragged out superliner cars with broken seat backs and leg rests and non working toilets on my car at least. But it's a short trip and a very scenic one. The US border agents were on the train for only a few minutes and we were on our way. Got to Seattle on time. Great trip over all.

 

[Cascadia]

Nice trip & nice report John. I would love to do that same trip, that would be fabulous. Sorry you didn't like the Superliners we have on the Cascades though! I am rather attached to them after having had them on our Canada train for more than a year. I never noticed the stuff you said was wrong with them. Actually there's two coach cars and one is nicer than the other. But stuff on them always works for me - I had a broken leg rest on the Empire Builder too, and those are supposed to be the better cars in the system, aren't they?

Anyway it must have been interesting getting on those substitute cars after having been on VIA for days. I'm sure there was a contrast. But in my opinion you didn't miss anything by missing the Talgos. They're a lot more cramped than the Superliners. And the Talgo lounge car seats are extremely un-ergonomic.

Thanks for the report! Did you have fun in Vancouver? What did you do there?

 

[JohnF]

Nice trip & nice report John. I would love to do that same trip, that would be fabulous. Sorry you didn't like the Superliners we have on the Cascades though! I am rather attached to them after having had them on our Canada train for more than a year. I never noticed the stuff you said was wrong with them. Actually there's two coach cars and one is nicer than the other. But stuff on them always works for me - I had a broken leg rest on the Empire Builder too, and those are supposed to be the better cars in the system, aren't they?
Anyway it must have been interesting getting on those substitute cars after having been on VIA for days. I'm sure there was a contrast. But in my opinion you didn't miss anything by missing the Talgos. They're a lot more cramped than the Superliners. And the Talgo lounge car seats are extremely un-ergonomic.

Thanks for the report! Did you have fun in Vancouver? What did you do there?

Oh actually the superliners weren't that bad. Even in a worn out state the superliners are a great vehicle. It was a Wednesday, May 21st. There wern't many passengers. I enquired about the Amtrak buses that run this route and they were all sold out that day. A notice in the station said they were going to add more trains on the route soon. The Cascade could make better time if it could get out of Canada efficiently. The crew has to align all the switches getting out of Vancouver's Central Station by hand and then the track is slow most of the way to the border. In vancouver I like to ride the trolley buses. It's a great way to get around. I got a visitor's pass for both days. I used the 19 route to get from the station to my hotel and back. That route also goes to Stanley Park. Took the Seabus over to N. Vancouver and rode the sky train too. Vancouver is a beautiful city, but I have been there before a few times so this time I just relaxed and enjoyed the park and the walk along the bay. Watched the seaplanes take off and land. I wanted to get a ride but a cruise ship had docked and all the flights were booked up.

 

[Cascadia]

Sounds like you know your way around Vancouver. that's cool you took the Seabus over to North Vancouver, did you have lunch at Lonsdale Quay? I love going over there. And watching the seaplanes and helicopters from the pier at Canada place, that's great too, I could stand out there all day, and it's fun to see the cruise ships.

If you were headed south on the Cascades on Wednesday, May 21, that was the day after I was on it when we hit a bicyclist and killed her, just a mile or two from home in Bellingham. Glad you missed that trip, your timing was good. It has taken me a while to get that incident out of my system.

Oh hey, when you were at Stanley Park, did you see the heron's nests? I took some pictures of them in early May, I should post the link here. There are hundreds of nests, right there in the city, over busy tennis courts, quite a sight to see. Maybe the trees would have been all leafed out and hiding them by the time you were there though.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

i want to do this trip sometime. its been on my mind for awhile

 

[edding]

i want to do this trip sometime. its been on my mind for awhile

Ditto! I've been planning my trans-Canada trip(but in the other direction) for over a year now and I've scheduled it for July 2010( just after my 60th). It's interesting( only to me, I'm sure) that travel is about the only thing I tend to plan for obsessively. However, once I'm actually travelling I don't have to keep rigidly to any schedule. Anyway, great trip report!

Ed