Father & Son want to take an 24-36 hour overnight,sleeper class, trip on a great Canadian train. Can someone suggest a train and an itinerary. Last year I went on this blog for a similar recommendation and anyof youkind folks advised California Zephyr. Scenery was great; the famous Zephy is in decline; a disappointment. Thank you
I ride the Ocean often.....here's links to a couple of my Trips Reports. Westbound the Ocean departs Halifax at 1pm and into Montreal at 10 the next morning. Eastbound it's out of Montreal at 7pm and arrives Halifax at 5:30pm the next day. Trains run 3 days a week each way.
Last Spring:
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/an-‘ocean’-mileage-run-with-lots-of-photos.74981/
And a Winter run in a snowstorm this past January:
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/dashing-thru-the-snow.76865/
And the interesting back-up move the Ocean makes at Quebec City:
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/backing-the-ocean-from-sainte-foy-to-joffre.77199/
Thank You, your links and photos have made my decision for me. I'm not sure when we will be able,or safe, to travel again but THE OCEAN will be our choice.
In the early 1990s I rode the Ocean/Gaspe line, and it stopped at Levis right at the ferry landing to Quebec City. Why was the route changed.
When I took the train to Halifax, both times I stayed at the Nova Scotian. Now a Westin, it originally was a CN hotel, and it is still attached to the station. Convenient and within walking distance to downtown and the waterfront.
At the Montreal end, there is the Queen Elizabeth hotel. It was also a CN hotel, but is now a Fairmont. Also connected to the station.
MidlandMike When I took the train to Halifax, both times I stayed at the Nova Scotian. Now a Westin, it originally was a CN hotel, and it is still attached to the station. Convenient and within walking distance to downtown and the waterfront. At the Montreal end, there is the Queen Elizabeth hotel. It was also a CN hotel, but is now a Fairmont. Also connected to the station.
We also stayed at the Queen Elizabeth the times we spent a night in Montreal. If you do not want to eat in the hotel dining room, you have a wide choice of eating places in the station. As you know, you take an elevator up to the hotel desk.
The last time we stayed in Montreal, we came in from Moncton in the morning, and left for Albany the next morning. When I made the reservation (before we left here), I asked about arriving in the morning from Moncton, and was told that we would be able to use the room right after coming in.
On that last trip, we boarded in Jasper, changed trains in Toronto, and again in Montreal on our way to Moncton.I would not think of such connections now.
On our trip back from Halifax, we changed in Montreal--and went through Toronto to Windsor because there were many in our car who were going to Windsor.
Johnny
MidlandMike In the early 1990s I rode the Ocean/Gaspe line, and it stopped at Levis right at the ferry landing to Quebec City. Why was the route changed.
CN abandoned the this line along the waterfront in Levis in 1998 and the Ocean now passes through the Joffre freight yard south of the city. It now serves Quebec City at the suburban Ste-Foy station.....crossing the Quebec Bridge then backing 3 miles out to Joffre yard to return to the mainline. (you can see this back-up move in the link I provided above)
No longer do you get the view of the city and the Canadian Pacific Railway's iconic Chateau Frontenac Hotel (now a Fairmont) while stopped at Levis Station. The view below is the 'Scotian' at Levis back in Jan '77.
Here's a bit more on the ferry crossing over the river from Levis:
https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/ferries-ferries-and-still-more-ferries.56250/page-16#post-837335
That's a pretty good ice jam in the last photo. Did the ferry run all winter?
MidlandMike That's a pretty good ice jam in the last photo. Did the ferry run all winter?
Yes....the ferries run all winter. Heaviest ice is in Jan and Feb but if you look at the pictures in the link I posed above you will see a lot of the ice is gone when I was there the first week of March. The St. Lawrence is still tidal at this point.
Three of us rode aboard the Canadian from Capreol to Jasper in Prestige Class and it was a splendid trip. We were booked for a Toronto departure but CN traffic was such a mess that delayed the Canadian's return to a point when VIA Rail would not be able to turn the train for its scheduled departure back to Vancouver; they annuled the Canadian at Capreol. All Prestige passengers were ferried by Air Canada from Toronto to Sudbury where taxis took us to Capreol; we were onbaord the westbound Canadian by 11PM. Sleeper Plus and Economy passengers did not have this luxury and were instead put aboard at 10PM on charter buses to Capreol, arriving at 5AM. Prestige Class passengers were overnighted in their cabins while VIA Rail continued servicing the train in Capreol for its westbound operation. We left Capreol on time but did encounter other delays along CN's route. We were glad to depart the Canadian when we reached Jasper as then we knew our schedule would finally be back to being as planned.
We spent our time in the Canadian Rockies at the Fairmont Banff Springs before we headed to Vancouver aboard the luxurious Rocky Mountaineer in its Gold Leaf service. Let me know if you would want to see my travelog and photos of this trip and I will send the link to you.
The three of us were planning to see the other coast by taking VIA Rail's Ocean between Montreal and Halifax for a holiday from 1 to 12 June but the plague has closed the US/Canada border, tentatively until 30 June. We'll wait to see what happens by early May before canceling our reservations for rail, hotel, VRBO, and rental car. The reopening of the border is what currently drives our plans.
“Things of quality have no fear of time.”
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