Vancouver to Toronto by Rail - Part 1 - "The Canadian"

Thursday, 18 September through Wednesday, 24 September 2025

We recently finished a trip with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, traveling from Vancouver to Toronto on VIA Rail's The Canadian. It was luxury first-class travel - private room and bath, dedicated lounge car with dome, and fine dining. This is a straight-through 4-day train ride, stopping only to change crews and re-provision.

The train had 2 engines and 22 cars. "Prestige" class (first class) had the last 4 cars on the train - a dining car, two sleepers, and a "Park Car" - a lounge car named after a Canadian national park, with dome viewing, a bar, and a "bullet" lounge at the very end. In all, the train was over 1/3 mile long. While we were taking a break in Jasper National Park (Alberta), I took this photo looking to the end of the train from about the middle.

Stairs from the Park Car lounge up to the dome. A snack and beverage bar is behind the stairs (under the dome), and a coffee station is to the right of the stairs.

The rounded end of the "bullet" lounge.

The dining car.

Lon sitting in our cabin set up for daytime use. At night, a murphy bed pulls down from the wall and completely covers this area. Moving around the room at night is a challenge.

Washing windows was a priority. In Jasper, two of these lifts were used to wash the dome windows on the four dome cars.

Looking to the from of the train from our dome car. There were three other dome cars (aka "activity cars") on the train.

We spent a lot of time stopped, waiting for freight trains to pass. Here, we're switching to a siding to give way to the freight train.