Travel : The Canadian, VIA Rail, Long Lac to Vancouver

As I mentioned before, back in June I drove half away across Canada, and came back by train. The journey down the Icefield Parkway was worth the trip alone.  After that section, the trip between Banff and Ontario was without much drama or excitement. Actually, there was plenty to remember, but not interesting enough to the world at large to share the full details.  And this post is going to be long enough...

However in short:

• if you're in Regina, I'd avoid the Copper Kettle Inn (lousy food, lousy service), and the Wolseley Motel, Wolseley, Sasketchwan is clean and dry. 
• the Ontario Shield is probably the most tedious road I have ever driven on.  600km from the Manitoba border to Thunder Bay is ALL THE SAME.  Small lakes, twisty single lane road and trees and rocks.  Repeated endlessly, for another 250km till I got on the train. 
• if you get a chance to stop at the Park View Motel, Uppsala, don't.  The worst, flea bitten, dirty roach-motel I've ever stayed in.  If I had been a bit more awake, and not in fear of moose, I think we'd have got back in the car and kept driving.

But we made it to Longlac, Northern Ontario, where I had to say good bye to my friend who was off to points East, and I was due to get on the Canadian to Vancouver.  Longlac station is not like the railway stations in the UK.  There was only the slightest indication it was a station (with only 3 trains a week, why advertise), no platform, and no ticket office.  In the middle of an empty industrial lot, in a town where no-one spoke English.  With no cell phone reception, I had to hope that the pay phone would get me out of trouble if I needed to find a bed for the night. My friend had another 200km to go, so left me at 6pm, the train already 20 minutes late.

But after two calls to VIA rail's customer services, I discovered the service was running two hours behind schedule.  This was good news, as at least I knew it was coming, so I sat back, got out my e-reader and waited.  And waited, slapping the bloodsucking insects, and slowly sweating in the evening heat.  I'd not had a decent nights sleep or shower in the last 36 hours.  I was about to get on a overnight train, in a seat, with a chance of no food service.

The train did arrive, clanging through the town, and stopped at the station as planned.  Only person to get on was me. No packages on, no packages off.  A train crew all running around for one dirty lone traveller.  Tonnes and tonnes of train stopped, for me.  Ah, the power.  Got on, was shown to a seat and given a quick spiel of the set up.  Which, thankfully, included a restaurant car still open for another hour.

I set myself up, had a quick change and rinse in the train toilet and to the observation car, which also had a bar.  A can of Canadian (well, why not) and I was feeling settled at least.   Dinner was served, and a very reasonable meal of chicken fillet and vegetables, on plates at a table with random strangers was had.  The strangest part of the trip, for me, was the random pairing you'd have at each meal, talking to strangers over food.  Some people would love this.  I'm a bit more anti-social, but found you could keep a decent conversation going with most people over the 30 minute food service.

I got back into my seat, flicked out the foot rest, set the seat back and tried to sleep.  Managed it for about 45 minutes, but my fellow passengers included one person taking up four seats, and still managing to lie in a position designed to snore the loudest.  I got up around Sioux Lookout where we stopped for twenty minutes for fuel and passengers. It was midnight, and we'd covered about 300km, but this would have been 600km by road.

The rest of the night I slept fitfully, wandering around, and eventually finding a nice spot wrapped up in all my sweaters in the observation car on the top deck.  No-one else was up there, so while it was cold, it was quiet.  Until about an hour outside of Winnipeg, when people started to wake up and look for something to do.  Which was stare out of the windows of the observation car, and discuss the best way to keep a Mr Sub sandwich fresh for a 36 hour train ride from Toronto.

At Winnipeg, the standard passengers have to get off, even if going onwards to Vancouver, and go amuse themselves in the city.  On a Saturday morning at 8am.  Nothing is open in Winnipeg at 8am on a Saturday. Not the station coffee shop. Not the cafe's near by. The Mall opened at 8.30, but I eventually found the YMCA was open as well, and went for a shower and a swim.  I knew my fellow travellers would prefer a freshly washed me.  Plus the swim got me awake again.  And it passed the time long enough so I could then go grab a cheap breakfast in the mall, and still have time to do some laundry.  Washed, with clean clothes and big mug of coffee, I reported back to the station to collect my ticket for the next two days.  This time in a berth, which meant a bed, meals and all the coffee and tea I could drink.

My Sleeper Carriage

The rest of Manitoba and Saskatchewan was more flat, rural countryside.   I sat in one of the three observation cars for most the day, reading, napping and watching the world go by.  The biggest problem I had on the trip that stopped my complete comfort (and we are hardly talking a massive one), was there was no plug sockets in the berth area.  The only sockets I could find to charge phone and e-reader was on the lower floor of the observation deck, or in the wash-room in my sleeper carriage.

Each sleeper carriage had about 6 berths, a shower, two wash rooms and 6-8 cabins.  The single person cabins were tiny, about the size of a twin bed.  That space contained a sink the size of a cereal bowl and chair and a foot stool.  The foot stool covered the toilet.  Yep, each cabin had it's own toilet, right in the room.  The chair and foot rest slide and unfolded into a bed that I assume takes up all the space.  Meaning you sleep on top of a toilet.  The two bed rooms with a upper and lower bunk had a small seperate wash-room, and they looked pretty cosy.  There were bigger rooms, but I didn't get to sneak a look inside them.

My upper berth was made up around 9pm and consisted of a bunk bed, a thick curtain and a tricky climb up  as the train rocked around a corner.  There was no luggage shelf to put my overnight bag, but a careful arrangement of stuff meant I could tuck in quite nicely, shut the curtain and read myself to sleep.  The gentle motion of the train sent me off to sleep, though at first the lack of a visual cue was a bit disconcerting.  I went to bed with the train on time, and due in Edmonton at 6.30am.  I had arranged to meet a couple of friends there for a cup of coffee, so I set the alarm for 6am for a shower and the first sitting of breakfast.

My Berth. That's me waving at the mirror, not a port-hole to another place.

On awaking, I relearned that VIA rail doesn't have priority over freight, and time tables are guidelines.  It was 6am, and we were a long way outside of Edmonton, and not likely to see the station until 8.30 at the earliest.  And though in Alberta, there was little cell reception to send a message to people to tell them to go back to bed and not be waiting for me with large mugs of coffee.  


Hmm, my peeves seem to be based around the availability of electronics. This says more about me than anything else.

Edmonton arrived 2 hours later than planned. Unlike UK stations, the Edmonton rail station is well outside of the city, but one set of friends was there to say hello and catch up, while the train split itself in half to add a super-duper observation car for the trip through the Rockies.  The trip to the Rockies took another three hours, crossing over various rivers, with the mountain range slowly looming into sight.  I sat at the rear of the train for this section, in the very last car.  This car had a great view from the back of the train, as well as a nice stock of tea and biscuits to keep me going.

The Rockies come into view

The Sleeper passengers and Standard Class are kept separate, unless the Standard passengers have paid for the meal service.  It's a little odd to think there's about as many spaces in the standard class three carriages as there is for the other 14 carriages in Sleeper class.  All that added weight dragged across Canada for sleeping and eating.  Still, the whole set up made for a bit of a cruise like feeling.  You got up, took a short stroll down the train, then sat and watched the world go by, and maybe chatted to your fellow passengers, or read, or eavesdropped.

There seemed to be several regular travellers from Toronto, and one guy was marking up all the pictures he'd taken a month later with his map of the railway.  Usefully, he could tell the rest of the observation car what we were looking at.  Though with the air of someone damn well proud that he knew that "on the left, in 3 miles was great vista across the Athabasca", and that everyone else should know it.

We stopped in Jasper after entering the edge of the Rockies.  I had an hour, so I jumped off and had a pint in the Jasper Brew Pub to see if their beer was worth the lousy service we'd had on the way out.  It wasn't.  The IPA tasted like a very over-hopped Pale, with no complexity or balance.  The service was still slow.  I'd have been better of saving my dollars for another Fort Garry Dark on the train.

We headed out of Jasper, climbing over the Yellowhead pass again, looking down on the river and highway. The scenery here was just as stunning as on the way out, with the added advantage of not having to concentrate on driving, and the extra height above ground also helping you appreciate the view.  Mount Robson was seen again, and it was as stunning as the first time.  Different time of day, and different angle.  I think I'd happily take a hike around the base of the Mountain and just watch it change as the light and weather changes during the day.

Random waterfall on the Westside of the Rockies

The VIA rail goes the long way around compared to the CP rail which goes through Calgary and the southern passes (and through some big looping tunnels).  This makes for a long haul back down the Fraser River valley to Kamloops (400km+), and another 350km from there into Vancouver.  So another night on the train, following the Fraser River.  Another nights sleep when I went to bed thinking we were ahead of schedule, only to wake up early for breakfast and find ourselves still well outside the city.  But another peaceful morning reading and eating a fantastic breakfast.

All the food was great.  Small-ish portions, but well cooked and presented in the dining car with table service and (in one case) a song by the waiter.  Nothing greasy, nothing that seemed just warmed over.  Vegetables were fresh, nothing flash fried. The Raspberry Ice Cream cake was especially delicious, and they claimed the chef prepared it on the way. And at around $20 for a meal if you were paying as you go, it was good value. Not cheap, but there's many $40 dinners I've had that would have lost out in a fight with the simple, effective food on the train.

So into Vancouver, and were out of the station on the Pacific Coach Lines back to Victoria.  There something that feels like home as you pass through Active Passage and can see Vancouver Island appear again.  You've got to go away to come back.

I'd certainly repeat the trip again.  VIA rail seems to be having a series of 40-60% of sales on the Canadian.  Taking a cabin is not cheap, but a lower berth would be almost as good (getting the window while you sleep and about 6 inches more bed space.  I'd probably avoid the non-sleeper class, unless I intended to hop on and off at various small towns on the way.  But I do hope to take another long distant train journey again.