crescent-zephyr
Engineer
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2015
- Messages
- 4,790
Rode the Canadian from Vancouver to Edmonton last week, had a great time. Wanted to mention a few things.
At the station (Vancouver) the Ticket Agent refused to print me a paper ticket because he "didn't want to waste his ticket stock" - I told him I wasn't sure if I had a good cell phone connection across Canada and he acted very rude and told me the only time I would ever have to show my ticket was in the station at Vancouver. That was a lie, I had to show it multiple times throughout the trip (On the train when departing, and when re-boarding in Jasper). I always request a paper ticket when traveling on Amtrak and also on airlines and I've never been refused.
On Board the train the coach attendants were VERY friendly, they assumed that all solo passengers would take up 2 seats - this along with the dome car definitely provides a premium coach experience. I was in a coach with refurbished seats, they seems a little more comfortable than amtrak coach seats, but very similar in terms of overall comfort and leg room.
The Dome car was of course fantastic and I enjoyed the fact that it was not policed... you could hang out as long as you wanted.
The Coach food options are VERY limited - the posted menus are not correct so you have to ask the attendant what he has and then he has to search to see what he has left. The attendant was very friendly, but the whole operation is very unorganized and looks like it was thrown together at the last minute, despite this train operating all the time.
Delays were the normal Canadian delays - several times we had to stop for 3+ freights to pass but CN is a busy railroad with long trains and lots of single track.
I was sad to see the old Searchlight signals are starting to be replaced..... sad
With so much daylight I got great views of the scenery, many of which I missed on my previous trip.
Hope this encourages someone to jump on the Canadian soon.. I'm sure glad I did!
At the station (Vancouver) the Ticket Agent refused to print me a paper ticket because he "didn't want to waste his ticket stock" - I told him I wasn't sure if I had a good cell phone connection across Canada and he acted very rude and told me the only time I would ever have to show my ticket was in the station at Vancouver. That was a lie, I had to show it multiple times throughout the trip (On the train when departing, and when re-boarding in Jasper). I always request a paper ticket when traveling on Amtrak and also on airlines and I've never been refused.
On Board the train the coach attendants were VERY friendly, they assumed that all solo passengers would take up 2 seats - this along with the dome car definitely provides a premium coach experience. I was in a coach with refurbished seats, they seems a little more comfortable than amtrak coach seats, but very similar in terms of overall comfort and leg room.
The Dome car was of course fantastic and I enjoyed the fact that it was not policed... you could hang out as long as you wanted.
The Coach food options are VERY limited - the posted menus are not correct so you have to ask the attendant what he has and then he has to search to see what he has left. The attendant was very friendly, but the whole operation is very unorganized and looks like it was thrown together at the last minute, despite this train operating all the time.
Delays were the normal Canadian delays - several times we had to stop for 3+ freights to pass but CN is a busy railroad with long trains and lots of single track.
I was sad to see the old Searchlight signals are starting to be replaced..... sad
With so much daylight I got great views of the scenery, many of which I missed on my previous trip.
Hope this encourages someone to jump on the Canadian soon.. I'm sure glad I did!