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Passenger Train from Vancouver to Calgary

K

Kauai Kid

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
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Talking with a friend this week about this train trip.

Trip was extremely slow he said because every time the passenger train was clipping along it had to pull into a siding and wait and wait and wait for extremely long freight trains to pass. I'm guessing the freight trains have the right of way because they are the money makers for the railroads.

About half way to Calgary the train stopped overnight and all the passengers had to go to a not every impressive hotel to spend the night.

He did say the scenery was incredible but he and he family would never do the train trip again.

He convinced me not to use the train.

He has been to the Calgary Lake Louise area seven times.

FYi, Sterling
 
Hi,
The trip you are talking about is on the train the Rocky Mountaineer. It is a day only trip. You can choose the hotel you want to stay at for different prices.

Via Rail offers a train from Vancouver to Jasper and then on to Winnipeg and Toronto. It continues to travel though the night so you miss some of the scenery.

Both trains will stop for the freight trains. Because the passenger trains are small and have big engines they can start up and stop quickly. It takes forever for a freight train to stop or get going.

I have traveled on the Via Rail "the Canadian" 4 times from Toronto to Vancouver and back. I love it. I also took the train from Winnipeg to Churchill with one of my daughters and took a different private train down the center of BC with the other. That one was very cool. The older of our sons and I went from Ottawa to Vancouver. The track washed out and so we got to take Via Rail on the track to Calgary and go through the spiral tunnel for the return trip. Very fun. We also took the train east from Ottawa to Halifax.

If only I could get my husband to go on a train trip with me! He took our girls from Charlottetown (first part is a bus) to Ottawa on the train when they were very little and it was less than fun for him.

Pam
 
We took the Auto Train from Washington DC to Florida and paid extra to get a sleeper. The air conditioning didn't work and it was a most uncomfortable sweaty steamy ride. Really soured us both on trains, unfortunately.

Never got any kind of $ compensation either and crew couldn't have cared less.

Sterling
 
Kauai Kid said:
We took the Auto Train from Washington DC to Florida and paid extra to get a sleeper. The air conditioning didn't work and it was a most uncomfortable sweaty steamy ride. Really soured us both on trains, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Yes, that Auto Train can be something of a "hit or miss" experience, but when all goes well it's certainly a great alternative to pounding down (and hopefully surviving) the same punishing 900 miles of driving distance on (terminally and eternally boring) Interstate 95.

Few are saddened by missing that 900 mile driving slog on I-95 through so. VA, NC, SC, GA and no. FL. Dinner, breakfast, reading, relaxing and getting a good night's sleep while covering that 900 miles can be a real life saver for the old folks (and for those spared from exposure to their eroding driving skills exhibited out on the highway). ;)
 
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I haven't been on a train trip in years in Canada but recently took a train from Rome to Milan, Italy. It was wonderful...smooth and fast...the sign on the front of our carriage showed 330km per hour. Cars and trucks on the highways looked like they were standing still.

I used to go from Toronto to Montreal and back on the Turbo in a relatively cheap business class where you get drinks and dinner in your seat. Don't know if it still is that way now.

Brian
 
Brit rain 125

Years ago we took the Brit Rail 125's all over Great Britain. 125 mph

Fast, convenient, comfortable, on time, and you didn't need to put your knees up around your ears like in coach aircraft.

Someday in the far distant future Texas may have a high speed train routes from Houston to Dallas Fort Worth to Austin to San Antonio and back to Houston. But not in my lifetime. Austin has some of the worst traffic in the nation.

Check out you tube for the video on the mag lev train in China. Wow

Sterling
 
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