The west of Ontario was still a mystery for me until I boarded ‘The Canadian’ and started my journey across Canada. ‘Via Rail’ operates train service on behalf of Canadian Government. ‘The Canadian’ is their flag ship transcontinental train which runs between Toronto and Vancouver. The journey takes 4 days to complete and covers 4466 Km through 5 of the 10 Canadian provinces distinctively Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Colombia.
The plan to travel across Canada by train - was an old one. I even reserved tickets once and had to cancel it due to employment reasons. The previous dry run gave an understanding of what the trip encompasses and the best time to travel. An insight to my research was that the country will be covered in snow if traveled before May which leaves no distinction between the terrains one wishes to see. On the other hand the train fare doubles starting in June. It is mighty hard to find seats during the month of May as most of the travelers are informed and usually reserves their tickets in advance.
This two-year dream or missed opportunity finally came true on May 30 2009. I had two tickets for the last train that pulled off from Toronto Union Station in May 2009 charging half the usual fare. I reserved a private double bedroom with two berths and an ensuite toilet. The shower was separate and was common to the car. This train had other fancy things in it, for instance, the observation dome car which provided a 360 degree view around the track.
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The travel map
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I loved trains since childhood and remember both my grandfathers taking me to the nearby signaling station to show me trains. I have taken lengthy train rides many times both in India and in the USA. I have travelled in India as far up north to Delhi and east up to Lucknow from all the way south. The scenic experience of travelling to Delhi is very different depending on whether one travelled via the Konkan rail track or through the Vijayavada Junction. I happened to like the Konkan experience for its untamed natural beauty until the track hits the industrial parks which then are all the same. There used to be neither dome cars nor dinning cars per-say during my time in Indian Railway trains. The meal order was taken before a major station, and then meal is boarded from that designated station which then is served in your coupe once the train starts rolling again.
America also has a huge rail network operated through Amtrak. I used to take them often on Friday evening on my return trip to New York from Philadelphia. I shared the dining car with the usual crowd drinking beer and having hotdogs. One curious thing I recall now was having my data network not even disconnecting once as I worked throughout the ride to New York. I have traveled south up to Virginia, north up to Boston and west up to Chicago from New York. I have also had the privilege to travel across the US Canadian border from Penn Station New York to Union station Toronto - crossing over at Niagara Falls. During my travel to Chicago couple of years ago, I passed through Kalamazoo Michigan where I saw huge factories shutdown and abandoned to be haunted. It was gloomy to see such huge warehouses left empty. When looking back, I think it certainly was a premonition for the economic crisis America faces today.
I have come far in life from India and the USA. Now that I am primarily settled in Canada and this article happens to be about ‘The Canadian’ experience. By far, Trans Canada trip was the longest train ride I have taken. We heard the first call for ‘The Canadian’ at 9:30 PM and the passengers were asked to board it from platform 16. As the train was about to depart, we all assembled in the dome car to wave goodbye to the skyscrapers of Toronto. I should admit food was my least concern throughout the trip. It started off with champagne and a good luck toast for our onward journey. Through the glass window ceilings we could see the BMO building and the CN Towers standing tall and blinking their lights - waving us bon voyage. At 10:00 we pulled out of the station - going west for a while then came back a Kilometer or two to switch track and headed north around the Georgian Bay.
Once we crossed the city limit, darkness wrapped around the train like thick black woolen blanket. From the dome car, we could see the headlight of the train peering through the thick branches of trees around and then dissipating at some unknown distant point on the track. Everyone had enough Champagne and fun and by midnight, they all started retiring back to their own coaches. I and my partner were the last ones to keep looking at signal lights that turned from green to red as the engine rumbled and passed them behind. We kept staring at the darkness and the narrow light beam that led us through it. I was half drunk and became emotional as I felt - I was just like the train, which couldn’t see a mile ahead in life but has to keep running on the faith of the awaiting destiny. I don’t remember when we retired to bed but certainly the rocking of the train didn’t stop me from sleeping, on the other hand, gave me the comfort of a cradle.
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The train / & / The compartment
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The next day break was beautiful. We had overslept but were still on time for breakfast. I liked the dining car the best pre-ceded only by the dome car. My partner commented and it’s true that they fed us to obesity. The big breakfast was tasty, fish filet for lunch was gourmet followed by an absolutely phenomenal Rib eye steak dinner. The occasional champagne served with salmon, ham and liver orderves followed by juice, coffee, fruits and other snack were a diet that one could easily get used to and can soon turn to be a costly habit to shake off. The entertainment car played movies and the passengers sat around watching it and playing cards all day. If I were to tell you one thing that I missed the most in the whole trip- it would be the smell of diverse land as we passed one landmark after the other.
The part of the journey through the province of Ontario is called the Canadian Shield. It’s mostly lakes and pine trees that you see through out. Fishing and camping in the wild are some of the hobbies that Ontarians have taken up due to abundance of lake and wilderness. I was surprised to learn the train used to stop and pick up hikers and fishers at any location just by showing up and waving their hat. Now the system needs you to call in 48 hours ahead so that the train driver gets an advance notice where and whom they should be looking for. I personally witnessed people getting off at places in the middle of uninhabited land. There were some shacks at far sight and the lake that stretched beyond anyone’s eyesight. I have lived in cottages not too far from human settlement. However, seeing their enthusiasm, I wished I was brave enough to venture out in the backwoods where the only thing one can count is on oneself.
As the train drew us further north, we passed through a patch of snow. I could see snow coming down on the train hitting the windows and turning into water on contact. I felt bizarre thinking that those snowflakes have lost their purity and their wings to float in the sky. Now they will have to find their own way to the river by crawling through the earth and finally reaching the ocean from which it can seek deliverance and be sent back to the mountains where they belong. The train stopped at Hornepayne for half an hour to restock food and water. We were allowed to get off the train for some fresh air and to have some contact with the dirt. We walked to the front of the train to see the engine that drove us. To my astonishment, it was not one but two engines that pulled the train. The engines were painted yellow and had the Canadian flag drawn on its sides. We took pictures standing in front and side of the engine before we were asked to get on board back again.
One lake followed the other and the day went by without much change except the occasional rain and the scheduled meals and the surprise drinks. Ontario is huge like Andhra Pradesh in India or Pennsylvania in the US, it never finish once you enter it. We were getting tired of the same scenery and people started introducing themselves. The crowd consisted mostly of retirees and a couple of newlyweds. We were mistaken for newlyweds and I tried to correct them on couple of occasions. Then I went with the flow of the audience’s assumptions. The differences didn’t stop at age. We were also the only east Indians in the train. The term east is added to precisely point out that we were Indians from India. All my life, I have never distinguished myself to be proud or less proud of any race or religion. I have also come to accept that there is diversity among people and the diversity is here to stay. More often the differences are healthy and everyone gets to taste different lifestyles. But at times it has some negativity to it and one should make a conscious effort not to be drawn into that black hole. I have always challenged the concept of freedom and each time it became more profound and redefined as I explored its reach. At first, freedom meant independence, then it was freedom from financial liabilities and now the new struggle is to free myself from ignorance.
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The Canadian shield / & / The snow shower
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Most people I talked to in the train were trying to find true value of life as they have finished living through their youth and adulthood. They looked at me enviously for I had the opportunity to do this journey while being still young. There were, of course, disconnects between the generations that they were part of and the one I grew up in. Whatever the differences, we sure had one thing in common to talk about – The Train Ride. Personally, I feel youth is very relative. I envy the fresh graduates for they have the immeasurable opportunity to grow beyond their wildest dreams. I know it because I had the opportunity to live one. Nonetheless there is a strange feeling that I have spent too much of my strength to get up to this point in life and when looking back, it’s not too far from the beginning itself. We see others as successful because they happened to do things that we have put aside or shied away due to shift in our own priorities in life.
Finally, the change in scenery came as we crossed over to the province of Manitoba the next day morning. The prairies had begun and the view shifted from the lakes to green pastures that never ended even at the horizon. There were roads that ran parallel to the train tracks and there was this red car that chased us for a good 20 minutes but finally gave up and went north. We reached Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba around 8:00 AM. One thing worth mentioning about Winnipeg is the spring run. To protect the city of Winnipeg from being flooded by water during the spring, a ditch is made around the city to collect the excess water which then is dumped into the lake nearby.
The train was scheduled to leave Winnipeg at 12:00 PM. This gave us a window of 4 hours to tour the city. We walked around downtown and saw some beautiful buildings and parks. Few notable things about this city is that it lies on the longitudinal center of Canada and it is where the red river and the Assiniboine river come together to be called as the Fork. The Fork is an interesting hangout place with parks along the sides of the rivers and some interesting outdoor artworks. The Mexican depiction of the Sun being the center of their living and its portrayal through a magnificent stationary art around the celebration circle was impressive. The town hall, the legislative building and hotel Fort Garry are some of the key architectural attractions that got our attention. We also paid a quick visit to the train museum housed in the Via rail station of Winnipeg.
I thought the prairies were more beautiful than the Canadian Shield part of the travel. We could see flat land paved for agriculture and cattle herds grazing gracefully. Another mind bogging view was to watch how low the clouds base was and to see it raining at some town probably hundreds of kilometers away. I wished it rained on our train as well, and in a few minutes I could see thunder and lightning moving towards us. It was fun to watch the rain pour over us and clean the dome windows off the insect remains from last night. The only comparison to such visibility of the rain approaching us from far away was during my trip to Bangaram in Lakshadeep Islands, India. The contrast between the two occurrences being that I was aboard a boat in the Arabian Sea then and now it was in the train on this green pasture land.
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The prairies / & / The graze land
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Same day evening, we crossed over to the province of Saskatchewan. The land layout is pretty similar to that of Manitoba except for fewer lakes around the track. If you were a miner, you would have key interest in this part of the country. One could see huge Potash mines puffing smoke through their chimney at a distance. I was fascinated by the amount of untapped natural resources Canada has to offer to the world. The train reached Melville around 6:00 PM and stopped there for almost half an hour for fresh water and horsing the dirt off the train. Then, We kept on moving through cities with interesting names like Saskatoon and Bigger. We were almost done with Saskatchewan as we went to sleep and found ourselves in the province of Alberta the next day.
The train stopped in Edmonton for almost an hour. Our eagerness to see the town became unpromising as we found out that the train station had been moved from downtown to the outskirts. The only comfort against our disappointment was that we could see the skyline of Edmonton. The province of Alberta has flourished with the discovery of oil in the neighborhood. Edmonton being the capital city has also grown fast in time. One thing we assumed before we packed for our journey was that the train will provide wireless internet access inside it. When we asked about that at Toronto station, the conductor laughed at us saying you won’t even get cell phone signals once we were out of city limits. He even made an announcement about that fact after our chat. Edmonton turned out to be our chance to connect to the outside world. We got out of the train and quickly booted our laptops on to send emails informing our families about our location and whereabouts.
As we moved on from Edmonton, we started seeing the mountains or the Rockies at a distance. We reached Jasper, a town in the middle of national park that was surrounded by beautiful mountains. I wish I could come back to Jasper in an RV and spend some days wandering and hiking as part of a soul searching exercise. This is a cute little town set up for the convenience of people visiting the national park. I could, by far, compare this place to Sedona in Arizona, USA for its clean fresh air. Sedona had red rock mountains that were small compared to Jasper which had huge mountains with snowcaps. Everyone was crazy taking pictures and wandering around for cool things to buy from the boutique stores on either sides of the street. The train only stopped in Jasper for couple of hours for adding an extra engine to pull us through the mountains. If I were to do this trip again, I would certainly break my journey at Jasper for a couple of days and then indulge in taking the freshness of nature as much as I can hold.
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The river / & / The mountain
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The mountains continued posing its reflections on lakes around the train track. The day was crisp and had no fluffy clouds to hinder our view of the mountains. This helped us to view the top of Mount Robson, the tallest of all peeks in the region. Usually Mount Robson doesn’t give eye contact to humans and always holds its head above the cloud base. But we were lucky to see its snow covered peaks. For me, the Rockies were the tumult of the entire journey. I found significant calmness in my mind as we curved and winded around the big mountains. People jumped from side to side of the dome car to get better pictures. I just looked at those big mountains as if there laid my salvation. The train kept moving and we kept seeing one beautiful frame after another. The day gave its way to the last night in the train and the views of the mountains started disappearing.
The nights were romantic. The comfort of company was sweet and illusive as we gazed through the moon lit windows of our private room to the lakes, the prairies, the mountains and the rivers that swing by us. The chatters were naughty and the scenes were censored. The three nights have served a life time of memories and steered passion and controversy that will stay all through our life. Feeling alive individually is great in itself but the significance of sharing it with another is even greater. Someday someone will relate these moments we lived in their own lives. It may not be embellished with all the colors we have seen but they too will interpret the same things under the same brilliance of sun and mind.
We woke up the next day seeing the Fraser River flowing alongside the track as a comfort companion. We were done with the mountains and now it was the valleys in the province of British Colombia. The morning was bright and we were ready to end our train journey to begin exploring the city of Vancouver. The suburbs showed its face then gave way to the high-rises as we crossed across from New Westminster township to Burnaby and finally to Vancouver. The train was an hour late but we never complained as the ride was unique and joyous than our imagination or expectation. During the train trip, we made plans on what to see in Vancouver and Victoria Island which again is a story in itself. Life is too short for the things one could do with it but it may turn out to be long and dragging if we lose sense of what we are here in this world to do. Even this three-day journey relates so much to an entirety of life and its unique phases. This makes me think if I just lived a life within a life.
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The waterfall / & / The valley
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This article is dedicated to a good man and a mentor, my grandfather who passed away on July 1, 2009. His wisdom or time can neither be substituted nor relived.
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