All aboard Via Rail from Vancouver to Jasper!

MY WIFE has a rather romantic view of train travel. We decided to put that to the test on a Via Rail trip from Vancouver to Jasper.

Perhaps her love of trains goes back to her childhood in the UK, where she often caught the Flying Scotsman with her mum from Edinburgh to London.
She waxes on about being woken at 6.30am by the cabin attendant with a cup of tea in one hand and a Nice biscuit in the other. “Morning luv, cuppa tea?” she mimics.
I have a different view.
The train for me was a morning and afternoon ritual to and from school. The train was filled with smelly Christian Brothers boys looking for trouble. And usually finding it.
So when we boarded our VIA Rail train for the overnight trip from Vancouver to Jasper in the week before Christmas, we had completely different expectations.

Checking in was so easy

We arrived at the station at 7pm, picked up our tickets and checked our luggage all in a matter of minutes. The train was due to depart at 8.30pm and we were told that there would be nothing to eat on board until breakfast the next morning.
McDonald’s was the only “restaurant” open. Not a great option at the best of times but even worse when you consider that our lunch had consisted of a hot dog with cheddar cheese and classic poutine (fries, cheese curd and gravy) on the side. Our arteries were already under siege.
When we chose that for lunch, we thought we would be having a healthy soup for dinner. Before climbing on board our silver bullet at Platform 5, we bought $20 worth of magazines and some maple-syrup popcorn to keep us going until dawn.

Small but perfectly formed

We were in Carriage 230 in Cabin F about 2m wide by 2.5m deep. It had a small hanging space, a small sink, two comfy lounge chairs and a very small toilet. It was cosy, though, and surprisingly private.
Our cabin steward told us to head down to the dining car for farewell cakes and champagne. Three free VIA Rail house-brand glasses of bubbles later, we returned to our room to find that Barry had lowered the bunk beds and fluffed our pillows.
Sleep wasn’t easy. The train was noisy, bumpy and stopped and started several times but I obviously slept because I felt refreshed in the morning.
No tea with biscuit wake-up call, though. We had to go to the dining cabin for that. At breakfast it was filled with the sound of Australian accents.
Scenic Tours had two busloads of holiday-makers on board. That’s 85 people greeting you with a “g’day”.
We sat with Robert and Julie from North Melbourne, who were part of the Scenic trip. They had been to Whistler, Victoria, Vancouver and were heading to Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary pretty much the same itinerary as us. They had nothing but good things to say about their second trip with Scenic Tours.

It’s always better under the glass

After breakfast, we headed to the glass dome car to take in the uninterrupted Rocky Mountain views. It is here the real joy of train travel is revealed.
The train just seems to glide through the snow-covered fields. Much of the journey runs parallel to beautiful, green, rapidly flowing streams. Some of the still-water areas we pass have iced over and the fir trees stand tall knowing that Christmas is their time of year. We see a bald eagle perched on one of the tree branches surveying the ground for dinner.
The sky is grey and the air cool as the train takes a slow journey to Jasper. All up, the journey takes just over 18 hours. And for me there is no nicer way to see the Rocky Mountains than from the bottom up on a train.
My wife’s verdict is that it is “not as nice as British Rail trains, but the scenery is much more stunning”. She said the on-board shower was clean, had plenty of hot water and was big enough to move around in.

Brian Crisp was a guest of Travel Alberta, Via Rail and the Canadian Tourism Commission.