The Romance of Canadian Rail

When Cary Grant pulls Eva Marie Saint up to the top bunk in the sleeping compartment of his train in North by North West, it’s the culmination of a romantic, sexy train encounter – particularly for the 50s. Since I first saw that film, I have longed to travel in a sleeping car crossing the vast North American continent.

And if Cary Grant and the movies provided the romance, it was “Canadian Sunset,” a happy, corny kind of a song from the same era, that provided the destination. “A weekend in Canada, a change of scene was the most I’d bargained for” sang Andy Williams of his ski train to romance in the Canadian mountains. For a child growing up in Twickenham, just southwest of London, this image of crimson skies reflecting on snowy mountains all viewed from a train of young, handsome skiers was a deliriously romantic if perplexing fantasy. Which train Andy ? What scene?

When I got a chance to make a winter crossing of the WHOLE of Canada from Halifax, Nova Scotia in the east to Vancouver in the west, well all those years of longing for the romance of great train travel seemed about to be satisfied.

“Canadian Pacific carry me 3000 miles,” sang the appropriately named Hank Snow ‘through the valleys and the forests….to the sunshine of her smile” Well Hank must have got on in Toronto because my journey will carry me over 4000 miles through gentle Nova Scotia woodlands, along the dull business traveller’s corridor between Montreal and Toronto, up into the tough, gnarly Canadian shield of lakes and forests, across a vast stretch of prairie to meet the grandeur of the Rockies and the lush and lovely Pacific Coast beyond..

But before the scenery even begins to unfold, the idea of sleeping on a train that is moving through all that landscape is high romance in itself. These days, many of the more luxurious Canadian train rides send their passengers to luxury hotels at nightfall.where they are guaranteed a stable night’s sleep in an unmoving bed. But it’s the rattle, the rhythm and the raising the blind in the morning not knowing quite where you are that I am seeking.

I am well served on the first part of my journey – The Ocean from Halifax to Montreal . This train has a newer rolling stock than its big brother, The Canadian, which covers the big trek from Toronto to Vancouver. The Ocean leaves Halifax in the early afternoon and arrives in Montreal the next morning at 8 am. The sleeping compartments actually provide showers in the individual bathrooms whereas The Canadian only has shared showers in the corridors.

I spend a couple of days of truly bittersweet tourism in and around Halifax. I defy anyone to visit the Titanic exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and remain dry-eyed (Halifax seamen went out to bring back the dead bodies from the Titanic wreckage.) In the same museum, the audio-visual account of the Halifax Explosion tells another heart-rending, very dramatic tale of the 1917 explosion of a French munitions ship in the harbour ; this resulted in the biggest man-made explosion in history with the exception of the nuclear bomb.

The antidote to such drama is a ride down Nova Scotia’s lovely South Shore to Peggy’s Cove and Mahone Bay. And that same mellow feel - snow-covered woods, a glimpse of the Atlantic - continues as The Ocean travels to the Bay of Fundy and heads towards New Brunswick.

Next day, after a peaceful night in a wide comfortable bunk bed in my sleeping compartment, with no sign so far of Cary Grant, I make the connection through from Montreal to Toronto where I have to overnight before heading out on The Canadian from Union Station at 9 am.

This train is the Big Deal in Trans-Canada travel. It boasts a couple of glass-roofed dome cars, glamorous stainless steel rolling stock from the 50s and a champagne welcome for passengers travelling in the sleeper section.

Was it the champagne or did Ontario really go on forever? I enjoyed it – settled as I was in the two person sleeping room that I shared with a friend. During the day time, comfortable armchairs are set out and we could read and write and watch the white world outside whisk by. During dinner in the elegant pink and silver dining car, the chairs mysteriously disappeared and our bunk beds awaited complete with a chocolate on the pillow. Single travellers are disadvantaged on this journey: their compartment is very narrow with a bed that folds down over the toilet lid. .

Ontario was still there the next morning when I woke up to gaze out at the tight tangles of woods and lakes that make up the Canadian Shield. As the second day on the train progressed the world outside remained white with just an occasional glimpse of a lone dog-musher out on a lake or a snowmobiler roaring through a forest. The Shield turned to Manitoba prairie in the early afternoon. Via Rail tries to programme this journey to ensure that the most scenic parts of the route are visible during the day time and that we sleep through the vast, flat prairies of Saskatchewan. They also provide food that represents the region we are crossing – lake trout in Ontario, bison in Alberta, salmon when we headed into BC.

By day three, when I wake up to glimpse an Edmonton rush hour traffic jam outside my window, well I have completely bonded with the train and am a little sorry to disembark at Jasper where I have programmed a day of sightseeing in the Rockies. Then a local guide takes me for a moonlight walk through the woods complete with lamp on my head and cletes on my boots, to discover the ice cathedral that is the frozen, mysteriously beautiful Maligne Canyon..

Next day when I board in the afternoon, I head straight for the Dome Car in order not to miss the spectacular views of BC’s Mt Robson and Yellowhead and Moose Lakes. On this winter trip, night comes too soon, as does the morning and the end of this great journey for when we wake up at 7am the next day, we are already approaching the outskirts of Vancouver. A gentle rain replaces the snow, cherry trees are in blossom and I step out of my cosy home of the last 5 days into one of the most beautifully situated cities on the planet. .

The Vermonter

I discovered The Vermonter by accident one January day when snow had delayed flights out of New York and I opted instead for this leisurely, magical journey from Penn Station through a New England winter to Burlington, Vermont. The train travelled alongside the frozen Connecticut River, past Vermont’s Green Mountains and through Brattleboro where Kipling once lived and wrote The Jungle Book. We carried skiers to Sugarbush and Stowe and waved to ice fishermen out on frozen lakes The Vermonter delivered me into Burlington, an attractive bookish town on Lake Champlain, in the late evening.

The Cascades

This is a short but spectacular route that runs from Seattle, Washington along the coast to Vancouver, BC. Travellers heading northbound from Seattle into Canada take the train at breakfast time and settle in for a gentle amble (the 141 mile journey takes just under 4 hours)almost entirely along the Pacific coast to accompany their eggs and hash browns. Southbound out of Vancouver, the train leaves in the evening in time for a Canadian Sunset over the Pacific to accompany dinner in the dining car.

The Adirondack

The Adirondack has been described by National Geographic Traveller as “one of the 10 great train rides in America.” Most Amtrak trains run at a sedate pace and the Adirondack takes a leisurely ten hours, following the banks of Lake Champlain and the course of the Hudson River as it travels from Montreal to Manhattan. The train travels past battle fields of the American Revolution and the mansions of Hyde Park where Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt had their home. This is a train to take in late September or early October in the company of the glorious reds and golds of a North American autumn.

The Malahat

The Malahat is a local train line that runs from Victoria on Vancouver Island to Courtenay. Locals advise travelling only as far as Qualicum Beach in order to experience the most scenic part of the ride, have a leisurely lunch (there is no food served on this train) and ride back to Victoria. The Malahat travels through forest, over two precarious trestles and across the lush Cowichan valley. It even occasionally stops for bungee jumpers on the bridge over the Nanaimo river.

Travel Notes

Air Canada flights to Halifax and back from Vancouver start at £479 including tax.

For more general information on holidaying in Canada please click on www.canada.travel.

Also www.novascotia.com

www.travelalberta.com

VIA Rail Canada www.viarail.ca

Travel with The Independent Traveller, 01509 618800 www.itiscanada.co.uk The Independent Traveller can organize tailor-made cross Canada rail trips, priced according to itinerary.

Low season (1 Nov-31 May) Canrail passes start at £269 per person for 12 days train in a month. But this only includes a seat.

The Silver and Blue sleeper trains start at £600 per person in low season including all meals on board.

Janette Griffiths is a novelist, travel writer and broadcaster who currently divides her time between Vancouver and Paris. She would take a train across the Atlantic if it were possible. In addition to her great train journey across Canada, in the past year she has travelled by train across Norway and on a night train called ‘Don Giovanni’ from Venice to Prague.

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