Trip Reports by our Clients:
PRINCE RUPERT TO JASPER ON VIA RAIL'S SKEENA
Fri, 10 June 2005
Dear Sylvia,
Everything went well in Canada and we had a delightful time.
The Comfort (coach) class on the Skeena had very few passengers, almost
all locals.
The two of us, and another couple were the only
passengers on Totem or Totem Deluxe classes (where passengers
are seated in single-level glass-topped domes) so we had a steward all to
ourselves. There were high clouds but otherwise good weather.
Everything was very informal, and because of the paucity of passengers,
we made several
stops where everyone got off the train. A particularly delightful stop of
18
minutes was given so that we could inspect totem poles in a First
American
Village and I was highly amused that when it came time to go, the
conductor
got on her radio and sent a message to the engineer to toot her horn.
We were also charmed by the practice of the train stopping to let people
off in the midst of nowhere. In one instance we were told that a woman
was
under treatment for cancer and used the train to reach where she needed
to
go.
The people of VIA seem very happy in their work and did everything
possible to
make this a wonderful trip. I would recommend it to anyone.
Decades ago, we had taken the original, pre-VIA Canadian (operated by the
Canadian Pacific at that time)
and the original, pre-Amtrak California Zephyr and were looking forward
to again riding in a vintage dome car.
The Park Cars (round-end observation/dome/sleepers, each named after a
national park) are from the original, pre-VIA Canadian.
Both the present Canadian (between Vancouver and Toronto) and
occasionally the Ocean (between Montreal and Halifax)
still use these cars, which have been restored and equipped with head-end
power. The Director of Passenger Services
(conductor to us old folks) had a book on this subject which we got to
see.
The Skeena's Park Car had a lounge under the dome and very nice chairs in
the back.
There were no pictures in what they call the Mural Lounge on the fully
restored Park Cars
on the aforementioned trains, and the bedrooms were not available for
daytime use by passengers
as they were used by members of the crew.
I can't compare the full length high roof Superliner cars on Amtrak with
these dome cars
since we have avoided ever using Amtrak. The great advantage of the
historic dome cars is that you can see forward the entire length of the
train.
Unfortunately, the glass on the front of our dome in the Skeena was
cloudy and needed to be replaced.
The crew told us that the similar domed Park Cars on the other Skeena
trainsets are in the same shape.
I don't have any idea of how you would go about getting the attention of
the people in charge of VIA but this work
certainly needs to be done.
Thanks again for your help.
Kyle and Margaret Pearson
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