North America's finest passenger train

In a blog titled Amtrak’s Best Train? We’ve Got a Winner, I wrote that the Coast Starlight between Los Angeles and Seattle has become the premier U.S. passenger train. And I promised, in the due course of time, a bake-off between it and VIA Rail Canada’s Canadian, which operates between Toronto and Vancouver, B.C. And I cautioned you not to presume which train would emerge on top. Journeys on both trains are fresh on my mind, so here goes.

I am going to divide the competition into six parts, each weighted equally at 20 points: Equipment, scenery, food, railroad action, and service. Did I say six parts? Yes, the last part is called “your heart skips a beat.” In other words, given the choice of a free trip on either train, with one minute to decide, which would I prefer to take because my heart skips a beat at the thought?

Equipment. No contest here. The Canadian gets 20 points. Superliners are great cars, but they come without domes, rear-facing observation lounges, and soft mattresses (not to mention comforters). Let’s stop there. I don’t think any of you want to argue this point.

Scenery. I’m going to go with the Coast Starlight. 20 points. You get almost three hours alongside the Pacific Ocean, one of those hours interrupted by almost nothing but a close ocean view. You have the Santa Susana and Cuesta mountain grades, the fecund Salinas Valley, the Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound. The Canadian gives you nice but not great western mountains (you must ride the Rocky Mountaineer to get the great mountains), the prairies and the wooded lakes region above Lake Superior—nice but not enough to tip the balance in its favor.

Food. A tie: 10 points apiece. The Canadian’s food is good though not great, and it is consistently prepared and has great variety, no lunch or dinner menu ever being repeated during a trip. But hold it: The same can be said of the Coast Starlight. You have the main diner, with a menu that reads like that of every other Amtrak diner. But first class passengers also have a choice of eating in the Pacific Parlour Car, whose menu is also ever-changing with each meal. The parlor’s food is also good but not great. In fairness, we have a draw.

Railroad action. This goes to the Canadian, for 20 more points. Some would say too much action. Canadian National’s freight trains smother the Canadian and were largely the reason for my train’s 15 hours-late arrival into Toronto this week. But by god, those CN trains are out there to see, their impending arrival at a siding announced by a take-siding signal for our VIA train.

Service. Surprise: I vote for the Coast Starlight. Service has two big aspects. One is the friendliness and energy of the on-board crew. Nobody I’ve ever met faults the on-board crews of the Canadian (they change in each direction in Winnipeg, Man.). But I’ve noticed in recent Coast Starlight trips that Amtrak’s people are every bit as helpful and courteous. Those of you who ride Amtrak’s east coast trains will probably think I’ve been smoking dope, but these LA-based folks on the Starlight are the equal of their brothers north of the border. The other aspect of service is simply getting you there. The Starlight does that, reaching its end points on time 79 percent of the time thus far in fiscal 2014, and Canadian so far this year does not. Through no particular fault of VIA Rail, the Canadian is hour upon hour late virtually every trip (no stats for on-time performance are visible to me on VIA’s web site). To put this another way, in a story in Trains two years ago I called the Chicago-Seattle Empire Builder the “All American Train.” Given its almost absolute lack of consistency the past year, as host railroad BNSF has struggled (just like Canadian National) with unprecedented traffic demands and harsh winter weather, the Builder has lost that title and the Coast Starlight gained it. And to continue on this point: I allowed in my planning for an arrival this week in Toronto of eight hours late, which is shameful in itself to the reputation of the Canadian. But the train turned out to be almost twice that many hours late arriving. If it were an isolated instance, I could understand. But it is not. It is, instead, poor service. Twenty points for the Starlight.

In case you’ve been counting, we have a tie, which pretty accurately reflects my own appraisal of these two great trains. So I thought of a nice way to break that tie. I’m just home from the trips. The phone rings, and it’s Jim Wrinn at Trains Magazine, saying that in view of my many years of authorship, Kalmbach Publishing wants to give me a railroad vacation two weeks hence. Take my pick, says Jim, but hurry because I have both companies on the other line: Will it be the Canadian or the Coast Starlight?

You’ll find me aboard the Starlight. I think of my two-day trip on that train (my thoughts buttressed by many, many others going back 40 years) and my heart skips a beat. I think of the Canadian and I remember crashed hopes, ultra-late arrivals, forfeited airline tickets, and wasted money. Right now the memories of trying to adjust my post-Canadian plans while only occasionally being in contact via the internet with the outside world are crowding out the nicer moments. Would I say the same if I’d planned on a 24-hour late arrival? Probably.

I love both of these trains. But until VIA Rail can deliver a product that routinely gets to the other end within three hours of the advertised, it is going to have trouble satisfying its customers and enlarging its audience. The Coast Starlight leaves me nothing to be desired other than perhaps a thicker mattress and a comforter instead of a baby blanket.—Fred W. Frailey