The Canadian
VIA Rail operate a comprehensive network of trains throughout Canada. Their flagship is The Canadian; a comfortable and well-equipped train that runs almost 4500 kilometres from Toronto to Vancouver, with layovers in Winnipeg and Edmonton. The journey usually takes four days and four nights.
In 2016, it was possible to buy a rail pass to use across their network. Currently, VIA Rail do not offer rail passes for adults. However, their webpage has good last minute offers especially on sleeper class travel.
I had arranged to stop at Edmonton to join a two-week trekking and canoeing trip through the Rocky Mountains. I paid the extra to have a birth in a six-person cabin for the three-day train trip from Toronto to Edmonton. It was comfortable and there was a shower and a separate toilet. People travelling in the sleeper carriage of The Canadian were chatty and friendly. Meals were included in the restaurant carriage for sleeper class which added to the social atmosphere of the journey, making it one big party.
This train journey over several days across Canada enjoying the great expanse of forests and prairies and the majestic mountains of the Rockies all against the backdrop of dramatic skies was far from boring. It was hypnotic and calming!
We had a three-hour layover in Winnipeg. I walked about 5 km going to visit the Imperial and marble-cladded Legislative Building; St Boniface Cathedral with a hole where the stain glass window used to be; and the evocative and touching Museum of Human Rights.
The museum invites you to walk a path following the stories of people who have fought to improve human rights and to live a dignified life. The main exhibit at the time told the stories of individuals who had taken extreme journeys to leave the danger and persecution of their beloved homelands in the hope of finding a safer and better future in a new country.
It was still daylight as we continued our journey from Winnipeg across the prairies of Manitoba, and arriving in Edmonton the next day.
The guide for the two-week trip in the Rocky Mountains met me at Edmonton. We drove to Calgary to meet the rest of the group.
The onward trip from Edmonton to Vancouver takes about thirty hours. I figured that an economy seat would be fine for that leg of the journey – wrong! People kept themselves to themselves in the seated coach, and I arrived in Vancouver in the morning and ready for bed!
