Taking the VIA train from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

I read those words, attributed to British author Marthe Troly-Curtin, on the wall of the women’s bathroom at Lostlands Cafe in Jasper, Alberta.

A couple of hours later, as I settled into my seat on a VIA train bound for a Pacific port 1000km away, I wondered if I was about to waste a big chunk of time.

Google Maps showed that I could drive to Prince Rupert in just under 12 hours. Taking the VIA train would be almost twice that long.

For the last few days my husband and I have been enjoying Jasper National Park, the largest park in Canada’s Rockies, with magnificent mountains, turquoise lakes and abundant wildlife.

Now, my husband has flown home — he didn’t relish the thought of sitting on a train for hours on end — so I’m on my own.

The Jasper train, also known as Train No.5, is one of VIA’s “adventure routes”. There are no dining cars nor cabins for sleeping. In Prince George, where the train stops for the night, everyone finds their own hotel room before re-boarding the next morning. I worry that “adventure” might be a pseudonym for “uncomfortable”, or “slow and tedious”?

Last year, on a day trip I made with VIA from Toronto to Sudbury, in northern Ontario, I met a young man who told me gleefully that, more than once, he had hopped onto freight trains as they were leaving a station and rode — outside — for free. “The sunrises were amazing,” he recalled with a grin. Who would I meet on board this time?

After finding a seat and storing my bag, I head for the dome car, a two-storey car with a snack bar and lounge on the bottom and an upper floor offering panoramic views. Considering its advanced age — this train was built in 1954 — it’s comfortable and well maintained. The interiors feel dated, but so does train travel itself, at least in Canada.

Compared to the freight trains we’ll pass — some more than 3.5km long (yes, kilometres!) — our train is stubby with just the locomotive, a baggage car, a passenger car for 25 people, and the dome car.

Everyone I meet seems in high spirits, including an older farming couple from Ontario, a young Mennonite woman from Haida Gwaii, and a couple from Edmonton with two little kids. Amongst the international visitors, there’s a Dutch businessman with two grown sons, a young German couple and three American retirees.

Leaving Jasper, the weather turns sombre, but the scenery is anything but. Within the first hour, we chug through the Yellowhead Pass and cross the Continental Divide — the crest of land that runs the length of North America and determines whether rivers will flow east or west.

“This is also the provincial boundary between Alberta and British Columbia,” says Jean-Francois, our VIA host, “so welcome to British Columbia.”

Soon we see Mt Robson rising above the clouds — the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3954m — with its pyramid-shaped peak still streaked with snow. A river comes alongside — our first glimpse of the mighty Fraser, the longest river in British Columbia and the largest sockeye salmon producer in the world.

More mountains fill the horizon, including glaciated Mount Rider, named for Sir H. Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines, who rode this route in 1916, just two years after it was completed.

The scenery we enjoy is rivalled only by the history of this route, part of Canada’s northern transcontinental rail line. As envisioned by early 20th century American railroad entrepreneur Charles Melville Hays as an alternate route to the Pacific, the Grand Trunk Pacific would compete with the more southerly Canadian Pacific Railway and its luxury hotels that included the Banff Springs and the Chateau Lake Louise.

It was an enormous undertaking and soon, Melville’s railway was deep in debt. Needing more money, he travelled to England in 1912 to convince the railway’s board of directors to keep investing.

At the same time, Melville was trying to persuade the White Star Line to connect its ships with his trains. Perhaps you can guess which ship Melville boarded to return to Canada? That’s right, Melville was on the Titanic and when he died, so did his dream, at least for a time.

A decade later, the Canadian government picked up the pieces, folding the Grand Trunk Pacific into Canadian National (CN) Railways, now a profitable business shipping freight across the country. The passenger train on this route is now run by VIA, a Crown Corporation.

“VIA is an acronym for ‘Variance in Arrival’, jokes Jean-Francois, explaining that VIA’s trains are often late because CN’s freight trains have priority on single tracks.

After arriving late in Prince George and overnighting, more people climb aboard the next day including a group of seniors on their way to a neighbouring community for a day’s outing. “I love this,” says the woman leading them, Linda Campbell. “I love the sturdiness of the trains. I love not wearing a seatbelt. I love meeting new people and being able to walk around.”

The second day is a long one. The American retirees pass time playing cards in the snack car. A couple of kids run between cars to burn off energy. Out the window, flat farm fields with yellow flowering canola alternate with ugly pulp mills and industrial yards.

Reaching Smithers, mountains appear once more, including the sawtooth Seven Sisters range. Then it’s into the home stretch with the Skeena River flowing by our side, its green water often overtaking us.

“You know, at five miles an hour, 10.30 is the best possible time,” says Jean-Francois when we ask if we’ll reach Prince Rupert on schedule at 8.30pm. He likens the train’s speed to that of a butterfly, but adds that it’s greatly improved since COVID, when more tracks were added.

When I ask one of the American retirees if she would recommend VIA to others, she hisses, “Never!” In her defence, an earlier VIA train she took from Vancouver to Jasper arrived nine hours late. By contrast, the Dutch businessman just shrugs. “We have lots of time,” he smiles.

Yes, Canada’s VIA trains require a certain mindset. But if you have it, you’ll be richly rewarded.

+ Suzanne Morphet was a guest of Tourism Jasper and Destination BC, neither of which have influenced or read this story before publication.

fact file

+ The VIA train between Jasper and Prince Rupert runs three days a week year-round. Price per person starts at $163. viarail.ca/en

+ The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge offers a wide range of accommodation for couples and families. fairmont.com

+ The Crest Hotel in Prince Rupert overlooks the harbour, within an easy walk of sites of interest. Cresthotel.ca