Trip Report: May 3 - 18, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Through the Pacific Northwest and Canada
by Amtrak, BC Rail and VIA Rail Canada
THE RACE TO JASPER TO MEET VIA RAIL'S CANADIAN.
Wednesday May 9, 2001
Via Rail's eastbound Canadian leaves Jasper, 230 miles east of Prince George, at 12:25 PM. Our plan is to pick up a rental car in Prince George and drop it at the National Car Rental desk at the Jasper Via Rail Station. Although there is a National Car Rental office in downtown Prince George, just a couple of blocks from the Ramada, it does not open until 8 AM. I want to have as much time as possible to complete this drive through unfamiliar territory on the Yellowhead Highway. Local advice is to allow a minimum of four hours. I arranged to pick up a car at the airport location, which starts their day at 7 AM. I calculated I should have my rental agreement in hand and my luggage loaded by 7:15 AM, and should arrive in Jasper at 11:15 AM to drop the car and meet my Brewster Tours representative, who will have my ticket to Toronto.
My plan is working so far. I check out at 6:30 AM, pick up some muffins and coffee to go, and have the desk clerk call a taxi for me. Our driver gets us to the airport at 7 AM sharp. I had called to reconfirm, so Lisa, the National Car Rental manager, has my rental agreement ready to go. We load the car and are on the open road by 7:15 AM. As I cruise along smugly thinking how efficient I am, a chill descends as I realize that Jasper is in a different time zone. In an instant, I realize I have lost an hour, my plans have gone up in smoke, and I could miss my train if this road does not remain as open, fast, and smooth as it is now. I step on the gas and hope to not meet a Mountie today.
Fortunately, the road is wide open, and we arrive in Jasper at 11:50 AM, Central Daylight Savings Time. The train is already in the station, the National desk is open inside the station. We pick up the bag we had pre checked to Jasper and check two excess bags back to Vancouver. We settle our car rental agreement, pick up our ticket from Maurice, the on board Service Manager, who is at a kiosk inside the station, and meet our Brewster Tours representative. We find to our pleasant surprise that we have been upgraded to drawing room A in the 225 car. We have time to take some photos of the Park Observation Car before boarding the diner, which is beginning service as we depart at 12:25 PM.
The train is full, all twenty seven cars. We have not yet determined how many dining cars are on the train, but we have been assigned to a diner four cars behind us, and four cars ahead of the Park Car. All 48 seats are filled before the crew is introduced to us and meal service begins. We have the salmon Caesar salad, which is excellent, on par with, if not better than, the similar salad we enjoyed on Amtrak's Coast Starlight last Thursday. We have herbal tea served in a pot and wrap up lunch with a fresh fruit plate.
Thus fortified, we spend the afternoon organizing our luggage which we had just dumped into our drawing room. Our car attendant sets up a table and brings us a bucket of ice. Soon we have a workstation in operation. As we settle down in the comfort of our spacious room, we reflect on the silent smoothness of our ride, as compared with our recent rides on the Coast Starlight and the Mt. Baker International. The heavily built single level stainless steel Budd cars from 1955, rolling along continuous welded rail laid on concrete ties is a combination that is hard to beat.
When we arrive in Edmonton, Maurice introduces us to the station agent who lets me use his desk and phone to hook up my laptop to transfer e-mail. Juno, my e-mail provider, now has local numbers in major Canadian cities. This is a one hour stop and since the train has arrived ten minutes early, we have seventy minutes to get our e-mail, send replies, and check my CRS for the status of current reservations.
On our last trip to Edmonton, the station was in the basement of a downtown high rise building, and was complete with a first class lounge. The present station is a small building on the southern edge of the Edmonton Airport (although not connected to the airport in any way) and is reached by a stub end track, which requires a backup move when departing. Although well maintained, it is quite small, and there appears to be much confusion. However all that needs to be done is done and we are underway on schedule. Although passengers boarding at Edmonton must wait in the station until the watering and servicing of the train is completed, passengers already on board may walk to the station and then reboard at any time.
Dinner on board is scheduled for three sittings, 5, 7, and 9 PM. When we boarded in Jasper we were told that the 7 PM was booked up, but we learned that our Brewster representative had included us for 7 PM dinner. We meet in the Skyline dome lounge car, which is located just ahead of our diner, for a cocktail hour with our group. The first sitting dinner is running late, so we are not called in until 7:30 PM.
Here we are greeted with a new look in the dining car! There are dark blue chair covers, dark blue, white, and gold table cloths and napkins, new place settings, and a leather bound multi lingual dinner menu, with several upscale entrée items. It is revealed by our tour leader that this trip has been scheduled for our group on this train so that we can preview recently announced upgrades in the Silver & Blue First Class Service. We are impressed and very happy to see these improvements in service, especially at a time when Amtrak seems to be in the throes of downgrading again.
We are advised to set our watches ahead to Central Time before going to bed. When we return to our drawing room we find the beds to be made up with new light blue linen and blue green patterned duvets. It all looks very cozy and inviting, and after a hot shower down the hall, we set our watches ahead and retire for the night at 11:30 PM.
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