The Canadien - 5 - 8 September

The Canadien is VIA Rail’s premier train, travelling between Toronto and Vancouver. Our train is of twenty carriages, all of which are shining silver cars dating from the 1950’s. There are sleeping cars, dining cars, four dome cars and a lovely bullet-shaped parlour car at the end of the train.

Our compartment - set for bed

There are compartments that are two berth and single compartments – these have a toilet and washbasin. There are also sleeping berths, which are bunk arrangements, with curtains. These are all as you might remember from movies before 1960. The steward converts the beds into seats at the start of the day and then back to beds at the end.

We found the train at Union Station and, after a wait, were allowed on board. We had a glass of bubbly in our compartment and then a couple more in the parlour car as our train slipped out of Toronto.

In the Park Car

Friday, we woke to green forests passing by. There is little sign of habitation, save for some pretty holiday houses by tranquil lakes. The train provides a fine cooked breakfast; here are even daily papers.

Today, we sat back and watched Ontario pass by. Thick forests, thin forests and waterlogged land with occasional stops on sidings to let freight trains speed by in the opposite direction. As the day proceeded, there was less sign of habitation. We stopped at small stations twice in the day, which gives some guide to the number of people out here, and these were tiny towns that basically exist to service the train.
 
Lunch and dinner are in settings (there are three). The food is good, as is the service. The restaurant meals are included in the cost and you can buy wines.

You fall into a rhythm. You read, you might have coffee and muffins in the parlour car or sit in the dome car for a while – it’s not too strenuous and it’s all quite peaceful.

Winnipeg's Museum of Human Rights

It’s “clocks back an hour” as we move out of Ontario overnight. We woke in Manitoba and shortly after breakfast, arrived in Winnipeg, a city of 770,000. We were pleased to find that the train stopped here for four hours, which meant that we could take a tour of the town. The bus tour was narrated by a local and gave us a brief overview of the city. The city is sited where rivers from north and west meet and started as a primary point in the fur trade. The city is attractive and grew wealthy over 100 years ago as the primary distribution point for goods trans-shipped to the railway head that ended at Winnipeg. Today the city seems to be doing well – it is a service hub for the region, with all services including universities, a symphony, a ballet and an opera.

Winnipeg - Assembly Building

The city has many attractive buildings from the early 1900’s, including the railway station. A large new museum – the National Museum of Human Rights – will open in 2014 in a striking new building. The provincial assembly building is a large domed building that reflects the wealth of the area 100 years ago, crafted in the local limestone. There is a large city park and many large, attractive homes set in tree-lined streets. In fact, the city has about 160,000 elm trees, with about 10% of these succumbing to Dutch elm disease annually and being replaced.

The city is culturally diverse. The original French trappers were joined by the English and later by migrants from Europe (particularly the Ukraine). A strong Francophone community remains, located across the river in the area called St Boniface (originally a separate city until a bridge joined them 50 years ago). It was an unexpected bonus to get a view of Winnipeg.

The train left Winnipeg and were rattled through the prairies. The country had changed from the forest wilderness of Ontario to flat plains of wheat and other crops, with some smaller cattle herds (cattle have to be housed indoors during the severe winters). We pass by many small towns and there are signs of life everywhere. It’s harvest time and we see large harvesters gathering in the wheat even as the light fades to darkness.

Prairie wheat fields in Sashsatchawan

There are occasional large mounds of potash. Underground mining of potash for fertiliser is a big industry in Manitoba. The potash is transported by train, as is the grain, so that rail transport is important here. Freight has priority on the line, so our passenger train often pulls into a siding to allow freight trains of 150 or more cars to pass. Of course, it’s not just local freight, but also double stacked containers moving across the country.

The next day, Sunday, is our last day on the train. It’s “clocks back an hour” again and we wake to find the train in Edmonton in Alberta. We move from prairie to rolling country with a mix of forest and field, with farms that seem to have corrals and horse facilities interspersed with the occasional oil pump, as Alberta is the primary Canadian oil field.

The country changes gradually as we climb and soon we are in the mountains. We arrive in Jasper, a town in the middle of a National Park. It's time to leave our train, which we have grown to enjoy and find our accommodation.

Pre-dinner drinks on our deck in Jasper

We wandered around the town, collected some food and settled down for a glass of wine on the deck looking at the ring of surrounding mountains. Off for a pizza meal, again in view of the mountains, before a rest without the sound of train wheels.