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Trip Reports: April 30 to May 24, 2004
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
From Mexico to Canada by Rail and Sea Jasper to Vancouver on VIA Rail’s “Canadian”
May 22, 2004 Snow and freezing temperatures were predicted last night. While that didn’t happen, it is overcast, cold and very windy in Jasper this morning. We cancel our morning walk, enjoy an excellent breakfast buffet, and return to the comfortable amenities of our suite at the Sawridge.
A Brewster bus picks us up and delivers us to the Jasper train station for the scheduled 3:30 PM departure of VIA’s Train #1, the westbound “Canadian”. As we pull into the parking lot, Sylvia says, “That train in the station is headed the wrong direction!” Sure enough, it is #2, the late-running eastbound “Canadian”, which was scheduled to depart at 12:20 noon but is just starting to board passengers. “That’s okay, we’ll be able to take photos,” she concludes.
 
After #2 departs, some long, slow CN freight trains, pulled by grimy red, white and black diesels, grind through the station area. There is a great deal of freight on this line, and apparently delays and bottlenecks are accumulating, as they often do on the Union Pacific.
At 3:10 PM, an hour and five minutes late, #1 arrives behind three engines, the second one painted in the dramatic Spiderman 2 theme. (Please refer to the home page on our website for a photo and details on the contest connected with this engine.)
Before long, we are settled into Bedroom F in the 112 Car, smack in the middle of this lengthy train, which is at least 20 cars long. The consist sports four VistaDomes; three are Skyline cars which have tables and chairs downstairs and can be used as a coffee shop or lounge. Bringing up the rear is a Park sleeper/lounge identical to the one used on the rear of the Skeena. However, the drawing room and three bedrooms in the “Canadian” Park Car are sold to passengers.
Car 112 is just in front of a Skyline car and a single-level first class dining car. In the Skyline, a champagne reception with Niagara Falls Dry Sec and light canapés is getting underway in the upstairs dome as we pull out of the station. The attendent tells us she has to pour 20 bottles and most of us are happy to help. Running out of places to set things, she asks us to watch one of the bottles for just a couple of minutes as she puts it on Ted’s fold-down tray.
 
We sign up for 6 PM dinner reservations. Sylvia has the roast turkey and Ted the salad greens and blackened halibut. The apple cake is what a pastry should be but rarely is, even in the finest restaurants; tasty, fresh, and moist.
It is a wonderful feeling to have the solid, traditional, 1955 Budd-built equipment under our feet again. It is possible to walk through the smooth-riding train without the constant fear of losing one’s balance or getting thrown against the bulkheads.
The muted gray-blue-green color is still dominant in the “Canadian’s” décor – consistent even to the bed linens -- but new upholstery and rugs have been added since our last trip on the train and it is looking good with its Art-Deco theme intact.
Brian, our car attendant, has our beds made up and it is a pleasure to sink into the thick, old-fashioned mattresses, and tuck ourselves under the duvets that are VIA’s trademark.
We awake Sunday morning just west of Kamloops in sagebrush country. We are now five hours behind schedule. At the first breakfast sitting, we have a bonus. Instead of a rushed continental breakfast just before detraining in Vancouver, we are offered a leisurely meal and a choice of three hot breakfast items, including an omelet and buttermilk pancakes. “We keep some extra food on board, just in case,” explains our waiter.
The other bonus is the scenery one usually doesn’t see on the “Canadian” as we roll along beside the mighty Fraser River.
By 11 AM the “Canadian” has reached the outskirts of Vancouver, with its backdrop of snow-capped mountains. This trip, on our third VIA Rail Canada train, is about to end.
We’ll check into the Pacific Palisades here in Vancouver. Tomorrow,
we’ll be taking the early motorcoach from Vancouver to Seattle in time to connect with southbound Coast Starlight #11, and back to Klamath Falls.
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