Rail Canada, beautiful but slow

I begin this entry just after having boarded the VIA Rail Canada train in Edmonton heading back to Rivers, MB, where I will finish my road trip with an hour and a half drive back to Redvers. For starters, the train is already well over an hour late. This may be attributed however to the ‘cold front’ that hit the Prairies a few days ago, which brought the temperatures plunging from our unseasonably beautiful practically snow-less winter, to our January norm of snowy -30C plus the wind chill factor, bringing it down to a balmy -40C. Other than the tardiness, which is not unique to Canadian trains (even the German trains are known to be hours late in cold weather), everything has been a very pleasant surprise.

The Station itself, as with all Canadian buildings, is wonderfully insulated (unlike most European stations), leaving the up and coming passengers waiting in a cosy but nicely sized station; especially given the popularity of travel by train. I was half expecting a little shack in the middle of nowhere, standing freezing there or sitting on cold freezing metal benches waiting for the train. There was even free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. I was even taken aback by the passengers taking the train. The creepiness ratio is about 1:15, maybe even 1:20, as compared to an astounding 1:2 when taking Greyhound buses. Mostly musicians, seniors, and scenic travellers.

The train is now over 1h30 hours late, as we have moved roughly 20m from the station to sit atop a bridge nearby. However, this slow speed doesn’t seem to be confined to the promptness or speed of the train itself (which I estimate to have a whopping high speed of 60-80km/h max), but the entire Canadian train experience. The staff are slow to walk from one side of the station to the other. They are slow in walking to the door and checking the situation outside. They are even slow deboarding and boarding the train. Perhaps slow isn’t the right word.. maybe its simply an unpressed nature. We have the time, why not take it. I suppose, one doesn’t take a 60 km/h train if one is in a hurry. As compared to the European train experience where passengers are impatiently waiting to debark from the train full minutes before it actually arrives at the station, and impatiently queuing by the doors to enter even before the train has arrived. Here people are calmly seated inside the warm station as it is announced that the train has arrived. The only movement seen is jackets being fastened as a pre-emptive brace against the cold. Ever so slowly (over the course of a full 10-15 mins) passengers come off the train, baggage is unloaded, and staff go about their business. Afterwards, again at the same rate passengers board the train from the other side. The full procedure taking 20 mins at best.

Once boarded the train, more wonderful surprises awaited me. Boarding first off all, was nothing like the panic and confusion of European trains, wondering where your car is, frantically running to the other side of the platform to get it, checking seat numbers, pushing through people. It was a calm 5m walk guided by railings and fences to the single car taking on passengers at this stop. There was even a little footstool to assist in the 1 foot step up to the train stairs. Once inside, the first thing I noticed was that all the seats face in the same direction save for 2 or 4 quad seats! (My biggest issue with European trains being the reversed seating, as it makes me motion sick). However, not only were the seats all facing the same direction, but the sheer leg space between seats is unprecedented. Well, at least in any Economy on any plane or train I have ever seen. I kid you not, there is at least 2-3 feet between my seat and the one ahead of me. Not only with a footrest at the bottom but with a recliner footrest built in to the seat! There is also 2 outlets next to my little seat alone. Odd feature though, is that there is no middle arm rest between seats. More room for cuddling?

There were a few others things I noticed about the whole experience that made it markedly Canadian. For one, when the steward came to check my ticket, it wasn’t the procession line of ticket checking you normally see, but rather a personal experience asking where I was headed, checking the ticket, and writing a little VIA Rail post it with this information to be stuck on the luggage rack above my head (which is also at least 3 feet up). Not only this, but the duties carried about and conversations of the staff could also not be found anywhere else. Such as the man who drove the snowblower on the tracks and on the platform sidewalks before the train arrived, or the two staff members having a conversation about what to do with the gophers or squirrels that managed to burrow in to a maintenance and storage area of the station.

As I final note I’m beginning to see why it will take me 16 hours to travel just over 1000 kms in the Canadian Prairies, home of the straightest and flattest roads on the planet. It’s now almost 1:45am, approaching a full 2 hours after the scheduled departure time and we are still not yet outside of Edmonton. On the bright side, this will give me more than enough time to write a catch-up entry about Vancouver and the rest of my trip, go through my pictures, sleep, finish my novel, still with plenty of time to spare for staring blankly out the window.



SIDE NOTE: This is also by FAR the nicest and best smelling train bathroom I have ever seen in my life. Aside from the fact that the train is the cheapest way to travel in Canada (out of the very expensive rental car, price of gas, train, bus, plane options), it is most definitely my new favourite.