Two locomotives like this one are needed to pull the Canadian Explorer across the 3,600 miles of Canadian countryside.

Does the romance of rail travel appeal to you? If so, one of the most spectacular journeys in the world is across Canada on VIA Rail’s Explorer train. 

At the eastern end, the trip actually starts a few hundred miles inland, at Toronto, and follows a circuitous route along waterways in the prairies of south-central Canada, then heads north through a pass in the Canadian Rockies and south again to the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver.

The entire trip of around 3,600 miles involves four days and nights of travel, but the traveler can, for no extra charge, get off somewhere along the way and continue the journey on the next train two or more days later. The accommodations vary from economy to “sleeper class,” which is considerably more comfortable than sleeping in a train seat and includes gourmet meals in the dining car.

A varying number of cars make the trip – east-west or west-east – every two days.  Two locomotives are needed to pull the assortment of passenger cars, sleepers, dome cars, diners and activity cars over the challenging terrain on the western half of the trip.

The most popular stop for tourists is probably Jasper, Alberta, in the heart of the Rockies. But the train will stop anywhere along the way to pick up or discharge passengers who live in remote (and often inaccessible except by rail) homes or small villages on the train’s route.

Many of the towns owe their existence to the railroad construction, which was completed in 1885. Railway promoters realized they had to have a chain of support services for the trains, and the railway towns came into being as work on the rails progressed. 

A prominent feature in each new town was a railway hotel across from the train station. It was planned not primarily for the public, but for the train crews that were (and still are) changed every eight hours or so. Crew members are assigned to a particular section of track and are expected to know every inch of it. The towns are also needed to provide support needed for the trains like maintenance, repairs, food, fuel and other services. 

Started in Montreal

Our trip actually began in Montreal, where we explored the charms of this primarily French-speaking city on the St. Lawrence River. We also visited the museum built to preserve the site of the 1642 birthplace of Montreal beside the river and the magnificent St. Joseph’s Oratory on the “mountain” that gave the city its name, 679-foot Mount Royal.

At the nearby Canadian Railway Museum, we learned that the construction of the railroad had been motivated by the need to connect the western provinces with the rest of the country quickly, in order to persuade them to join the Canadian confederation rather than the United States. 

A race was on to see which country would get British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies, already linked to the United States by north-south routes.  (The United States had completed its transcontinental railroad, farther south, in 1869.)

After the Canadian government promised to build a transcontinental railroad, British Columbia entered the confederation in 1871. The Canadian Pacific Railway was established to complete the construction. Canadian Pacific later dropped the unprofitable passenger travel, which is now operated by VIA Rail on the CPR-owned tracks with government subsidies.

The museum has a variety of historic locomotives and rail cars, including an original Pullman car restored to its 1890 glory. To get into or out of the upper bunk, the occupant had to shout loudly for the porter at the end of the car to bring a ladder – something we were assured would not be necessary on our trip.

From Montreal we took a day train to Toronto, where we stayed in a small, former red-light district hotel across from Union Station. It was in the heart of the city and in walking distance of many ethnic restaurants; the theater district, where we saw a new production of “The Sound of Music” and   the Queen’s Quay Terminal on Lake Ontario, with its excursion boats and fine shops. 

From lectures by historians in Montreal and Toronto, we learned that the race to gain British Columbia was not the only instance of strained relations between Canada and the United States. The people we thought of as Tories and traitors during the Revolution were Loyalists and heroes in Canada, defending king and country, and their flight to Canada was an important factor in the nation’s growth.

The feature trip

All this was leading up to the main feature of our trip: We boarded the Canadian Explorer around 9:30 on a Friday night for the start of our cross-country trip and had our first look at our new quarters. The compartments were incredibly compact and efficient. Because there was so little room, most luggage had to be checked through, aside from carry-ons or backpacks. 

Bunks were already prepared when we boarded, and we had a quick orientation by the porter, who said the compartments would be made up while we were at breakfast each day and converted back to sleeping quarters when we went to dinner at our specified time each evening. During the day the beds vanished into the wall, to be replaced by comfortable armchairs beside the large window.

Each compartment had a tiny closet, a vanity sink with mirrors, and a toilet in a space not much larger than the closet. People with single accommodations weren’t so lucky.  At night their bunks took up almost the entire space, covering the facilities. But there were restrooms and a surprisingly functional shower in each car. 

No one takes a cross-country train to get somewhere fast. One couple was on the train because they were afraid to fly. But in general, a train is a leisurely way to get where you’re going and to enjoy the trip as well. One advantage is the freedom to move around – to one of the dome cars, to the activity car, to the always available snack bar, to the dining car.

View from the dome cars

The dome cars were a popular spot to see the magnificent scenery and get acquainted with others on the trip. A train host encouraged passengers to rotate the prize seats; because mealtimes were staggered, it was usually possible to find a spot after waiting a few minutes.  

The view on the eastern half of the trip was less spectacular than the western portion, since we were traveling through level country. But even there, the train route followed meandering rivers and ran beside sparkling blue-green lakes surrounded by pines.  There were few towns on the route, and we realized how much open country was left in this nation of 33.5 million inhabitants.

The dining car was an obvious attempt to re-create the days of bygone elegance, with real china and silverware, tablecloths and a maitre d’. Tables were covered with pink cloths during the day and navy blue on white in the evening, with matching covers on the chairs at night for good measure. We could order from a printed menu, changed at each meal, and had such choices as salmon, roast duck, prime rib or lamb. And wine if desired!

We met many of our traveling companions in the diner, since we were assigned to any unfilled table as soon as we entered. Our group of 34 came from all over the United States, with two leaders from near Toronto, but there were also many individual travelers, including some from Japan, and a tour group from England that included members from Australia, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Passenger trains on the route always have to yield to freight trains for two reasons. That’s where the money comes from, and the freights are too long to pull off on the sidings. Sometimes the delays were anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour. The train also slowed down for animal sightings and photo opportunities. 

However, VIA Rail is able to stay on schedule by shortening its planned stops if necessary.  One scheduled stop was in Winnipeg, the approximate midpoint of the trip, where passengers could get off to walk around, see a little of the city and visit a nearby market.  The stop could be for up to four hours – depending on how late the train was running by then.

Scenery changed

From that point the scenery began to change, and we were soon getting our first view of the snow-capped Rockies. We stopped for two days in the picturesque village of Jasper – another railway town – in the Jasper National Park.  Our lodge was a short walk from the train station, and the whole of downtown was within walking distance.

One of the first things we learned about Jasper was that, no matter how much one might like to live there, the population is limited to 5,000, and no newcomers are allowed unless they already have a job or a strong reason to be there. These controls are possible because the town is within the national park. There’s a school for the children of permanent residents, who are mostly outdoor types or train employees.

But tourists and seasonal workers are welcome for hiking, mountain climbing, rafting, canoeing, fishing, visiting the hot springs and lakes, snowshoeing, skiing, horseback riding and enjoying the varied cafes, the Yellowhead Museum of pioneer life or the small theater.  There’s also wildlife viewing. We saw elk, moose, black bears, mountain goats and bighorn sheep right beside the road or trails.

The Canadian Rockies are much more jagged than the American Rockies because they were formed by glaciers and have deeper valleys. From these valleys they are about twice as high as the American Rockies, though the altitude from sea level is actually less. 

We had a close-up view of the Columbia Glacier south of Jasper as we visited the Columbia Icefield on a high-powered vehicle able to navigate the ice. We were even able to walk – carefully – on the glacier. Icefield personnel check the spot each morning to make sure there are no new crevasses to swallow up tourists. 

Final day and night

We boarded the train around 2:30 p.m. for our final day and night on the Canadian Explorer, going across the Continental Divide and the border between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia at Yellowhead Pass. Again we were treated to spectacular views as we passed the highest peak, Mount Robson, to the north at 12,972 feet, in a light rain. 

On this part of the route we went through a number of tunnels and could often see the locomotives and cars ahead of us as the track curved around a mountain. The train slowed down to allow passengers to photograph the triangle-shaped Pyramid Falls, which can only be seen from the train. We had another stop because we were getting too close to a train ahead of us.

But we were still slightly ahead of schedule as we crossed the Fraser River and pulled into our final destination, Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station, actually backing into it after the train turned around in readiness for its eastward trip.

We spent a couple of days in the beautiful city of Vancouver, surrounded by ocean bays and inlets, beaches, parks and well-planned downtown living. The towering condos along the beachfront are required to have open public space on at least 40 percent of the development site to permit pedestrian walkways and unobstructed views of the beaches and ocean. This results in much lush greenery there as well as in the rest of the city.

The location of grocery stores, banks and other needed facilities among the downtown apartments and condos, combined with an excellent public transportation system, means that many residents don’t even need to own cars, according to our guides. Vancouver is a popular tourist site and would be well worth a longer stay.

We had just time enough to explore Gastown and its unique Steam Clock, Chinatown, the “First Peoples” totems at Stanley Park, the University of British Columbia campus and anthropological museum, and the historic West End neighborhood, and to have lunch at the Granville Island Market.

This is a city with close connections to Seattle, and we heard some grumbling about the new requirements for passports and resulting border-crossing holdups. It’s no longer possible to run back and forth to have dinner with friends, one Canadian speaker complained. Now you may face long delays going either direction by auto or ferry. But the trip is worth it, there or elsewhere in Canada!

About the trip and author

My trip was an Elderhostel that included the city stays as well as the train trip. Information: http://www.elderhostel.org. The Canadian Explorer train trip can be arranged separately and takes four days and nights, with an optional stop along the way. Information: http://www.viarail.ca.)

Ruby Layson is a retired journalist and educator who has traveled in every continent except Antarctica and has taken other train trips in Russia, Australia, Mexico and Western Europe, along with shorter jaunts in China, Colorado and West Virginia. A native Kentuckian, she lives in Frankfort.