True, it is if I can work it into my schedule to leave someplace on one of the two days the train ru

As VIA Rail Canada begins scaled-back winter service on its flagship train, the Toronto-to-Vancouver Canadian , I read a lot of angst online about its future. Starting this month until next April, the train will depart just two days a week rather than the previous three days. Yet I think the future of this train looks pretty secure for at least the next four years. The reason is that the Canadian government has pledged short alaska cruise and land vacation $34 million (all dollar short alaska cruise and land vacation amounts are Canadian) to create an entirely new class of service for this train I ll call it Deluxe and about four years will be needed to know if it succeeds in staunching the train s losses. If it does, well and good; if it doesn t, we ve got a problem.
In late October, at the Railway short alaska cruise and land vacation Mass Transit Interiors Expo in Boston, Lynn Lefebvre, the product manager for VIA s long-haul trains, spoke specifically about the Deluxe class, which will operate only during the peak summer months. Initially, probably starting in 2014, Deluxe passengers will occupy the last three cars of the train: two reconfigured sleeping cars and the Park-series dome observation car. The sleepers will be 12 rebuilt Chateau-series cars which are normally used on the Canadian only during peak season. Below you see before short alaska cruise and land vacation and after interior arrangements of these cars. On top is the present configuration: four roomettes, six double bedrooms, three sections, and a shower, maximum short alaska cruise and land vacation capacity 22. Below that is the new design: six identical 75-square-foot rooms for two, capacity 12, plus a small room for the attendant (called the concierge cabin ).
According to Lefebvre, each of the passenger rooms will feature double beds that pull down from the wall to the outside corridor. short alaska cruise and land vacation There will be en-suite bathrooms with glass-door showers, heated floors, and a hair dryer. Also, upscale duvets and linens, a flat-panel monitor for entertainment (wifi internet service is a later possibility), and a minifridge.
Three Park-series dome observations are being prepped for the Deluxe class. Before short alaska cruise and land vacation and after floor plans are below. As best I can intuit, Deluxe passengers will have exclusive use of this car. It makes sense that they would.
After: two suites, one of them handicapped-enabled, in front, a reconfigured bar below the dome that will be opened to the corridor and divans in the observation lounge. Below, a rendition of the under-the-dome bar:
I thought to myself, absorbing this presentation, short alaska cruise and land vacation that Deluxe would be a fine way to cross Canada. Then I learned the price of admission: $3,000 per person and up. Well, I ll have to begin saving my dimes.
Why is all this happening? VIA Rail s marketing people came to the realization several years ago that the luxury travel market had deserted the Canadian , if indeed it had ever been part of that scene. I m talking short alaska cruise and land vacation about the 1 percent market, incidentally, the very wealthiest travelers who don t mind paying top dollar for top service. That may seem like a tiny sliver, but 1 percent of billions of people is still a lot. These are precisely the folks that the Orient Express attracts in Europe and that Pullman Rail Journeys, a subsidiary of Iowa Pacific Holdings, is luring to its new service on the rear of Amtrak s City of New Orleans.
I await with interest this experiment in a three-class Canadian. short alaska cruise and land vacation The economics of this train are terrifying. I calculated a year ago that even run just three days a week, the train was losing $50 million a year. That s a lot of money. The Deluxe class can contribute almost $75,000 short alaska cruise and land vacation per trip in revenue, or $7 million in a four-month season. Every little bit helps. Fred W. Frailey
We will be making our annual short alaska cruise and land vacation cross Canada trip in 3+ weeks aboard the Canadian, sleeping in one of the sections short alaska cruise and land vacation which are very comfortable berths as we have for the past ten years. So, we have seen a decline in this lovely train but I am not sure VIA analysts got it right about the high end customer. From what I heard, CN pushed VIA to alter the 3 day run to 4 days and when you are running only 3 times a week, the trip becomes a cruise. Then, a cruise becomes something different from a train trip the privileged few demand all the attendant bells and whistles, something the old equipment were just not up to. When the frequency dropped from daily to 3 times and now to two per week and the schedule short alaska cruise and land vacation became so poky to comply with the CN masters, ordinary Canadians we mid level travelers begin to find it less attractive. Over the years, we have met a wonderful array of fellow travelers aboard the Canadian and it is sad to see such an icon of what made Canada different slowly morph into an irrelevant toy for only the very wealthy.
As an acceptable alternative, try the Ocean . A lot less time-consuming, and some really neat scenery, any time of the year. I did it shortly after they put the refurbished Budds back in service, in mid-winter. With fresh-fallen snow billowing around the train, and a beautiful full moon lighting up the return trip, it was a knockout. Unforgettable!
Its sad, but for really good service you have to be very very rich, and while they are a small minority, there are a lot of them. Thats how Sir Richard Branson s Virgin Galatic will work, space tourism is very expensive, short alaska cruise and land vacation but there are still enough rich (and willing) people who will gladly pay the price.
In some ways this isn t ant differnt than the Grand Tours of Europe by very wealthy English in the 18th Century, or luxury Trans-Atlantic steamships short alaska cruise and land vacation or Wagon-Lits trains, the Orient Express in its prime was the equivelent of first class long-distance airline service today, at least in price!
short alaska cruise and land vacation Were I a Canadian, I d be appalled at this. Government has no business creating a cruise short alaska cruise and land vacation service for the rich. If this is what the train needs to be, let the private sector create one, and put the Canadian out of its misery. One would think that Canadians would always want the Classic Across-Canada Train Trip to be available for anyone (or at a reasonable price), as crossing the country by train has great historic and educational value, as well as added bonus of linking many smaller communities along the way. But I m not a Canadian; As an American, short alaska cruise and land vacation I hope trains like the Empire Builder and Crescent never become such a farce.
VerMontanan, the classic train across Canada is still there waiting for you and will be when the Deluxe class begins, at the same pre-Deluxe prices short alaska cruise and land vacation and with periodic 50% off sales and last-minute short alaska cruise and land vacation bargains for rooms. What s keeping you from riding it? As one of its most frequent riders across the country, I ve developed short alaska cruise and land vacation a strong preference for out-of-season travel on the train, and the more out of season the better. So unless I save enough dimes, short alaska cruise and land vacation I may never see the Deluxe short alaska cruise and land vacation class service.
My grandson and I made a round trip Toronto to Vancouver and return. I spent almost all my time in the PARK obs. car. I would not ride it again if the PARK obs. car were reserved for the 1 percent, excluding the rest of us. Having said that, the trip was magnificent, especially eating in the dining car, and the crews were exceptionally wonderful. Pops.
The real issue here is can Canada afford to be Canadian. Ever since the days of John A. Macdonald Ottawa has believed freight and passenger rail service are needed to prevent or at least limit the encroachment of US culture into Canada. With its much smaller population Canada s rail lines have always short alaska cruise and land vacation been more expensive for the country short alaska cruise and land vacation than ours have. Canadians have paid for them because their own national culture is important to them but they have not come cheap. Now luxurious and expensive deluxe service is being offered because VIA Rail believes it will help pay the bill and reduce the burden on Canada s taxpayers.
True, it is if I can work it into my schedule to leave someplace on one of the two days the train runs, or if I don t choose to board at one of the restricted stations (as most of them are) requiring my name be on a train manifest before short alaska cruise and land vacation the train leaves one of the few manned stations on the route. Actually, that trip is not waiting for me, it s trying really hard to do whatever so I CAN T ride it.....
Again, the train s not waiting for me; Rather, I would be waiting for periodic sales, short alaska cruise and land vacation and last-minute bargains to ride it. Of course, not living along the route, it s unlikely that I could position myself for this bargain without spending an arm and leg to get there! short alaska cruise and land vacation And, when Deluxe begins, I would get to pay the same pre-Deluxe short alaska cruise and land vacation price without benefit of the Park/observation car, which, anyway you look at it, is paying short alaska cruise and land vacation the same for less.
Fred said: What s keeping you from riding it? As one of its most frequent riders across the country, I ve developed a strong preference for out-of-season travel on the train, and the more out of season the better. So unless short alaska cruise and land vacation I save enough dimes, I may never see the Deluxe class service.
Fred, what s keeping me from riding it is that I want to ride a real passenger train providing a real function. For the same reason I enjoy the Alaska Marine Highway instead of a Cruise Ship, I appreciate being on a passenger train that exists for all the traditional reasons that passenger trains have been around. This would be especially applicable to the Canadian given its history, and why its current status (deteriorating all the more as Deluxe service is introduced) makes it unworthy of the name.
I understand that it s all about the equipment and the scenery with you. It s undoubtedly a great trip on the Canadian for those who have either complete flexibility or unlimited financial resources short alaska cruise and land vacation or both. But I think passenger trains are more about people. As an American, I m glad part of my tax dollars support a train like the Empire Builder that delivers more people on a daily basis (in season) to Glacier National Park than the Canadian does to Jasper, but at the same time is help fuel the Bakken oil development in North Dakota by moving over 100 people daily to and from Williston, North Dakota. That s what a real passenger train does, and the Canad