What can expect from this trip compared to Amtrak
2 words, overall better. This time of year lots of snow but still excellent scenery. Far better food than Amtrak. Hopefully you are in Silver & Blue class so you can hang out in the Park car all day and have your camera with you.
Where are you travelling on Via. Anxious to get a trip report from you on your impressions I haven’t been on Via since they took over from CN & CP, All our travels are on Amtrak from Philladelphia, Where we start out from after visiting our daughter. Amtrak is a lot cheaper than Via even considering the money exchange. We understand that Via’s food is better along with their courteous service and the old Budd stainless steel cars provide are far superior to the superliners or viewliners And just loved the Via’s scenic domes. However as I stated Haven’t been on the Canadian to the west coast, it now travels on the CN line instead of CP and scenery is not as spectacular and you traverse most of the route during night hours.
Have yoi considered going one was on Via and returning on the Rocky Mountaineer which goes on the scenic CP line traversing it completely in daylight, stopping overnight in Kamloops? I believe though it’s quite pricy. I’ll have to take a trip on Via one of these days to give a more balanced opinion or the differences.
Yes im in silver and blue class so I will be the park most of the time, and the other dome car as well
How’s The view in the dome? I’ve been in the Amtrak Viewliner car, nice view, but couldn’t look ahead or to the rear. Someday I’d like to take VIA across Canada to ride their domecars. Keep us informed and have a good trip. Bob
Sorry, I thought you were already traveling. Keep us posted
Plan on doing the same one of these yrs. Do give us a report when you return espically the food service.
yep I will post a report and it will include pictures.
What can I say, February, winter in Canada, 40 below, YIKES ! ! have you lost your marbles?? even the birds have enough brains to fly south. It’s like they say here, we have 10 months of winter and 2 months of poor sledding, (bring your toque(tewk)–you guys call them watchcaps) have fun.
Do take lots of pictures and share your experience with us all. [tup]
Where are you going? I live in Alberta and the Via ride in the Rockies is spectacular, winter or summer.
Bon Voyage
Riding the scenic domes is great. Sit up front and you get a window seat
of all the upcoming signals. Yes there are windows all around, Sometimes all seats are occupied, but there is a nice lounge downstairs , where you can wait for someone to leave the dome
The view is great. Here are a few pictures that I took from the dome while riding back in 2001. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=19365
First and second pages have the pictures taken while riding the Canadian.
tatans wrote the following post at 02-08-2007 6:45 PM:
What can I say, February, winter in Canada, 40 below, YIKES ! ! have you lost your marbles?? even the birds have enough brains to fly south. It’s like they say here, we have 10 months of winter and 2 months of poor sledding, (bring your toque(tewk)–you guys call them watchcaps) have fun.
It ain’t that bad, we did not get down to minus forty this week, (lowest point was minus 38, well Ok that is cold but I’m still here). This past week its been in the minus 30’s but in two weeks the tempature could be flirting with zero (c). If you plan on getting off the train a toque and good coat, mittens, scarf, sweater (dress in layers) are all recommended - but hey, why get off the train, you have everything you need on board!
What part of Canada are you touring?