scilly

Having my second jab on Thursday (Pfizer again) was the first step towards something approaching normality.

This morning a second step towards it ........... I booked our train tickets for our Christmas cross-Canada trip.

The last such trip got us home on January 2nd 2020. Haven't seen our daughter and family since December 27 2019, when boarding the train home.

abner

Congratulations!! I can't wait to get the family back to Canada to see the old folks there, once international travel can be booked without potential quarantine concerns on either leg of the trip. Realistically, that's likely to be mid-2022 for us (fingers crossed).

scrubbedexpat091

Hopefully all will continue going well for your trip at Christmas.

I haven't been home to visit since February 2019, thought maybe this year but looking like next year at the earliest now.

CanadaJimmy

Train ride across Canada during Christmas? Sounds pretty magical!

scilly

It is ........... the winter wonderland is just spectacular, no matter which province you're crossing.

It never palls on us ............... and we have done this trip at Christmas at least 18 times, with 2 more in one direction only.

caretaker

It must be close to 40 years since my last ride on the train. You're right about the view; in any season you might see something, and I even remember the lights at night coming into some of the cities. I'm thankful for all those memories. The old Canadian was a piece of history itself so I guess I was lucky to ride it as much as I did, even though I never took it east of Toronto. I'm sure you'll have a great time, and we expect pictures.

Jerseygirl

We would love to do this trip, but would like to spend a few days here and there. What are the cabins like…en suite?

scrubbedexpat091

I did the trip west once, only from Toronto to Vancouver though, and in coach since the sleepers tend to be rather expensive even when on sale. Overall it was a good trip, just never plan to be on-time, expect delays and make the train itself your adventure, not the destination as you will probably be behind schedule.

On the train I was on, they put all the Vancouver passengers in one coach car since we were going the furthest, and they said it was to keep the car quiet at the stop in between, there was only maybe 10-11 of us in the car so we each had our own row of seats which made sleeping way easier, the bathroom are fairly large, and I could wash my hair in the sink, and use wash clothes to freshen up each morning.

If you have deep enough pockets, I'd recommend a sleeper car, but when I went they were all 1,000+ where my coach seat was a modest $150 which is how I ended up on the train, it was at the time the cheapest option to get me to BC.

scilly

This is probably more than you want.

It is certainly possible to get off the train and spend a few days here or there, and get back on the next train that fits your schedule. Just make sure you book it all at the same time.

There are 3 levels of sleeper, and I do recommend those especially for those of us over a certain age. Sitting up all night for 4 nights even with a reclining seat and having to take a pillow & blanket onboard or pay to use VIA's is not for anyone with bone problems, even though I have seen 70 and 80 year olds getting in Coach class.

There is (in normal times) a Service Car for the Coach class with a dome above and a sort of cafeteria and lounge on the main level. There are snacks, sandwiches and some hot meals available to buy from that, as well as tea, coffee, bottled water, juices, sodas, and some alcoholic drinks from beer to mixed drinks. Or you can try to take on your own food! There literally is only one place that I can think of where you could get off during the daytime and have time to go and buy food, and that is Jasper. Almost all other longer stops are either in the night time (Winnipeg) or the station is far out of town, with no services around.

All levels of sleeper get a berth, all meals, free coffee, tea, water, snacks and fresh fruit available 24 hours a day in the Service Car. In addition, croissants or Danish plus orange and/or apple juice are available from 6 am until about 11 am in the Service Car.

The cheapest are open upper and lower berths, closed during the day to form facing bench seats. There are heavy curtains to pull across at night. They share a public washroom, segregated by sex, the women's is larger than the men's, even has a bench and stool with large mirror. There are a total of 6 of those, but any other passenger on the train may also use the washrooms.

I sometimes call these the Pullman berths, because many of the American musical films made from the 1930s to the 1950s had a scene where the "troupe" is going on tour, and the chorus girls are all in this type of accommodation and someone starts singing after "bed time", the girls then pop their heads out from behind the curtains! The sleeper cars on American trains were called Pullmans. I've seen a couple like that on TV ......... I think White Christmas might have been one of them.

The cabin for 2 has upper and lower berths, closed during the day to allow 2 chairs for use. There is a vanity, with triple fold mirror and wash basin and an "annex" which has a toilet in it (with door that closes). There is also a narrow closet that just about takes 3 hanging items, and boots on the floor, plus a small security box. There are 6 of those.

The cabin for one has a toilet and vanity in the cabin, the toilet seat is covered by leatherette and can be used a foot stool or seat. The berth drops down from the ceiling (like the upper berths elsewhere) and rests on the toilet, and raised in the daytime position to show a bench seat. If you need to use the toilet in the night, you have to lift the bed ............. the attendant shows you how to do that, but if you are unlucky, like my sis-i-l when coming to Vancouver in 1970/71, the bed won't stay up and she had to rest it on her head. Or alternatively, use that public washroom in the next car (closer to you than the one in the same car).

There are 4 of those, but one is almost always reserved for the Car Attendant.

All the cabins are cleaned every day by the Car Attendant, who makes up the beds with clean sheets, and then puts them away into the "daytime configuration", or you can ask for the lower berth to be left down. Also supplied are clean hand towels and face cloths, fresh soap, hand lotion, shampoo and plastic glasses. A large plastic bag with a sealed tie contains 2 bath towels, face cloths, soap, shampoo and hand lotion. You leave used bath towels in the container in the shower area, or they have just begun to say "leave the towels hanging and/or tell the Car Attendant" if you are willing to use them for another day. You will also often get clean towels as well as a quick clean-up when s/he makes up the room for night time.

None of the cabins, unless you go for the super-expensive Prestige Elite, has a shower, but there is a shower in each car, with a maximum of 24 people to use it. It's very clean, has a shower compartment and an outer change area, the shower has a wooden floor ..... I always take a pair of el cheapo plastic thongs to wear.

The only items you have to actually pay for over and above the fare are alcoholic drinks, and some sodas, eg Coca Cola.

The super-expensive Prestige Elite really is very expensive, about 3 times what we pay. They get a double bed (one person has to climb over the other to get into it), which folds up to form L-shaped bench seating, a slightly larger closet, "annex" with shower and toilet, I think the vanity is in the main cabin, everything free including ALL the alcohol you can drink. A special hors d'ouevres is handed out to them before lunch and dinner but otherwise they sit in the same Dining Car and get the same meals as the "ordinary" sleeper passengers. Some will sit with "us", others keep themselves to themselves. There is a specially trained concierge for each PE car, though there is never more than 2 per train, to give you exclusive service, plus the Bar Attendant in the Dome Car.

I've yet to work out how much more service they get than I would get .......... serving the drinks is about all, although we get the seat service when we go into that same Bar and Lounge.

caretaker

I never got to stay in a room or room-ette; it was always coach or sleeper (I remember in the late 60's the cost of a berth was just a $4 addition to the coach ticket for 1 night). Since we traveled on a CPR family pass, that sleeper charge and food and tip for the porter made it pretty cheap. Upper berths seem to transmit less impact than lowers, being a few feet further from the wheels, and the sway or yaw is slightly more pronounced. I always found upper berths easier to sleep in, if a bit harder to get in and out of. Until the mid-60's money was tight and mom would take 3 or 4 kids into coach with a small suitcase full of sandwiches for the trip to Oliver or Vancouver. It would take a day's travel on routes that no longer exist to reach the main line so she must have been stretched pretty thin. Being on the verge of uncontrollable, I had the run of the train from the baggage car behind the power unit to the smoker car in the rear. Even as a young man, the shared experience of traveling in coach or sleeping car was a good part of it, but maybe now I'd like the privacy of a room. In the 80's drug smugglers used the train a lot; get in your room in Vancouver, slip the porter $50 and tell him you need peace and quiet and ride as far east as you want without seeing a mountie.

abner

Your description of 'coach' sounds depressingly familiar; I'm wondering if the rollingstock and service levels are actually any different from those we took as a family from Toronto to Nova Scotia and back in the early 1970s. That was a looonngg and uncomfortable trip for a child (though in retrospect, possibly slightly better than a Greyhound bus).

I recall being mystified by how long we had to stop at Levis, near Quebec City. Lots of carriages banging back and forth, for well over an hour, not a word of explanation. Even now, as an adult, with some experience in the industry, I can't imagine what sort of extensive shunting moves would have been necessary at that yard, before sending a 'through' passenger consist on its way...?