Via Rail's "The Canadian"

@kj356 posted:

This is a great trip though VIA does some of the most scenic parts of the trip at night. Since they started offering Prestige Class regular sleeper passengers can not enter the rear Park Dome car for much of the trip. Paying the extra $ gives a lot of extra perks. I have done the trip a few times before the upgrade great trip thanks for your photos. The .... gate photo you show is the narrowest part of the Fraser River Canyon. A great place to watch the trains go by, has a gondola ride to get you low over the river. You were very lucky to have such good weather and get a shot of Mount Robson. Food is always excellent.

If you are keen on seeing the best of the scenery ride the Rocky Mountaineer they have 3 routes through B.C. all by daylight. The food and service especially in Goldleaf dome class is excellent like VIA. (VIA has the better dome cars for view, though only room for a few people.) The Rocky coach class is good enough for seeing the scenery. The CP route to Banff is great as is the BC Rail route through Prince George. You can also take a B.C.  ferry Prince Rupert up the coast and take the VIA Skeena train to Jasper with dome car access 2 day daylight trip with great scenery as well.

Great rundown of possible rail excursions in BC. Thanks. Lots more reasons to return. We also are considering Rocky Mountaineer's new route, 2 days 1 night, from Denver, Colorado to Moab, Utah.

You are right about VIA's night travel and missing some things. But this time of year, with many hours of daylight and travelling west to east, we saw a lot of mountain scenery. We departed Vancouver at 3pm sharp and we had enough light to see until well after 10pm. And for early birds, there was morning light by 4:30 am.

The last car on the train, a Park car with a bar, lounge and dome, is reserved for Prestige passengers until 4 pm. But even after that time, there was always room to spare and empty seats. There were 3 other dome cars forward, open at all times to everyone.

We were told that the top of Mt. Robson is shrouded in cloud most days. Only 14-15 days per year, on average, is the peak clearly visible. We were lucky!

Bob

Looks like a great trip. Have to put this on the bucket list along with the Rocky Mountaineer.

Thanks for sharing the pix.

Bob

@kj356 posted:

If you are keen on seeing the best of the scenery ride the Rocky Mountaineer they have 3 routes through B.C. all by daylight. The food and service especially in Goldleaf dome class is excellent like VIA. (VIA has the better dome cars for view, though only room for a few people.) The Rocky coach class is good enough for seeing the scenery. The CP route to Banff is great as is the BC Rail route through Prince George. You can also take a B.C.  ferry Prince Rupert up the coast and take the VIA Skeena train to Jasper with dome car access 2 day daylight trip with great scenery as well.

I’m going to have to look into this. We’re planning a return to the Vancouver area next year, but we drive from Phoenix. We plan to spend 2-3 weeks exploring the area from Vancouver. Part of the plan is the Hwy 99-12-1-7 loop. Then we’ll head to Banff/Jasper, over to Saskatoon, down to Regina and over to Winnipeg. From there it’s International Falls and either down through Duluth or around Lake Superior via Sault Ste Marie to the Green Bay Area. Not sure how much more/better scenery we’d see adding a round-trip train excursion to the itinerary.

@Bob "O" posted:

Great rundown of possible rail excursions in BC. Thanks. Lots more reasons to return. We also are considering Rocky Mountaineer's new route, 2 days 1 night, from Denver, Colorado to Moab, Utah.

You are right about VIA's night travel and missing some things. But this time of year, with many hours of daylight and travelling west to east, we saw a lot of mountain scenery. We departed Vancouver at 3pm sharp and we had enough light to see until well after 10pm. And for early birds, there was morning light by 4:30 am.

The last car on the train, a Park car with a bar, lounge and dome, is reserved for Prestige passengers until 4 pm. But even after that time, there was always room to spare and empty seats. There were 3 other dome cars forward, open at all times to everyone.

We were told that the top of Mt. Robson is shrouded in cloud most days. Only 14-15 days per year, on average, is the peak clearly visible. We were lucky!

Bob

How does traveling east-west vs. west-east impact the scenic view?  Is one direction better/preferred?

Mark

@PRRrat posted:

How does traveling east-west vw. west-east impact the scenic view?  Is one direction better/preferred?

Mark

Mark,

It is really a matter of personal choice. We especially wanted to see the Fraser River Valley. So a 3pm departure going west from Vancouver was nearly ideal. By dark the first day, we had proceeded to within an hour of Kamloops where the Fraser turns north and the train route veers away. The next morning we were still in the mountains and got to see Jasper in the early afternoon and Edmonton in the evening.

The Canadian, travelling east from Toronto, departs at 9:45 am. It arrives a couple of days later in Edmonton late at night. The next morning early, you are in Jasper. But almost the entire portion of the route along the Fraser, from Kamloops to Vancouver, occurs at night. Arrival in Vancouver is 8am.

Links to the detailed schedules: https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan...peg-jasper-vancouver

https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan...per-winnipeg-toronto

I am sure that either way, you would get lots of memorable scenery. All other aspects of the journey don't change with your departure city.

Hope you get to go!

Bob