Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Amen to Don Corbin's comments on the ride to Prince George! The Fraser River canyon north of Lilooet is just unbelieveable. My wife and I "did" North Van-Prince George last fall as one leg of the "circle trip" Karl Zimmerman wrote of in Trains (which included the Skeena to Prince Rupert and the RDC's on Vancouver Island). Unfortunately, I have to rate the BC Rail trip the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. Even then there were clues BC Rail was looking to dump the train: -- On our 5-car train out of "North Van", the Prince George passengers (many of us tourists)were all shoehorned into one of the ex-SEPTA RDC-1s with the Amfleet-style seating for 80, while two other cars with the original-style leg rest seats (MUCH more spacious)were kept closed, ostensibly being held for "shorts" boarding upline (a few were picked up, but surely not two coaches worth.) Imagine riding 17 HOURS in the equivalent of airline economy coach seat. On top of that, my seat was up against the bulkhead for the radiator/exhaust piping and so could not be reclined. Can't think of a better way to discourage tourist traffic that is comfort-sensitive. -- The catering folks that BC Rail hired to provide the on-board service are really nice people and they serve some pretty tasty food, but the train crews were as surly and rude as any in the U.S. (let me qualify that remark by saying I'm an Amtrak Conductor). This was a major disappointment after being pumped up for many years by the railfan reports of super-friendly BCR crews. Couldn't even spare 2 minutes for a chit-chat with a fellow "rail". Needless to say, I didn't even bother trying to get any "professional courtesy" (I HAD hopes of a vestibule shot of the train along Seton Lake...oh, well) -- The RDC consist was arranged so as to require extensive switching at Lilooet, including having to break apart the two cars flipping back to North Van and wye each car individually, using two crews, of course! (the Budd cars have been rebuilt with modern desktop-style control stands at one end only, rendering them basically single-ended.) You don't suppose they were trying to inflate the losses to strengthen their case for discontinuance, do you? (YA THINK?) Personally, I really hope VIA steps in. A conventional train similar to the Skeena, with a two-tier accomodation (basic coach/"Totem Class" with a DOME!)I think would attract very respectable loadings, especially if it were coordinated with the Jasper-Prince Rupert service. Well, that's my $.02. Thanks for listening.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag