Travelling by train in Canada: VIA Rail is Canada's rail operator, serving the 2nd largest country in the world. From Halifax on the Atlantic coast to Vancouver on the Pacific, its comfortable trains link almost all the major cities. Take an organised train trip to Canada, a vast and welcoming country, with one of our train + hotel + excursions packages, or climb aboard Canada's luxury train, the Rocky Mountaineer.
INDIVIDUAL (9 days, no overnight stay) It's the world's most beautiful scenic train! Aboard the luxurious Rocky Mountaineer, discover the famous Canadian Rockies and their natural parks.
Prices from: 4350 €
INDIVIDUAL (9 days, no overnight stay) Immerse yourself in the Canadian wilderness and go whale watching. A wonderful train/bus trip through Quebec, departing from Montreal.
Prices from: 1840 €
INDIVIDUAL (7 days, no overnight stay) Embark on a picturesque adventure through snow-covered landscapes, where frozen rivers and pristine forests create a magical backdrop.
Prices from: 968 €
INDIVIDUAL (10 days, no night on board) An ideal way to discover the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City route. The perfect train journey for your first discovery of
Prices from: 1925 €
INDIVIDUAL (12 days, 4 nights on board) Admire Canada's magnificent landscapes on board a panoramic train! A 4,500 km journey from east to west, from Toronto to Vancouver.
Prices from: 3095 €
Canada is an ideal destination for a train journey. It's a safe and original way to discover its vast expanses and magnificent landscapes.
The first Canadian train saw the light of day in 1836, near Montreal. Subsequently, railway development played a major role in the very constitution of the State of Canada. Originally, British Columbia, a region completely to the west of what is now Canada, did not belong to the Canadian Confederation. It was the train that convinced its leaders to join. In 1871, it agreed to join Confederation as a new province on the express condition that the transcontinental railway would link this Pacific province to the eastern provinces within ten years.
Today, train travel in Canada is the responsibility of Via Rail, a public company. This company was created in 1978 by the Canadian government. Before that, two historic carriers shared the market : Canadian Pacific and Canadian National. But with the profitability of rail transport declining, the services offered by these operators were no longer up to scratch.
To win the 1974 national election, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (father of the current Canadian Prime Minister) promised the population that they would soon be able to travel by train in Canada on a rail service worthy of what existed in the United States with Amtrak. That's how Via Rail came into being, and how we're now able to offer you magnificent package train journeys in Canada.
For the record, VIA Rail has used the same logo since its inception. With one small difference: the little red maple leaf (symbol of Canada) was added a little later.
Canada is huge, covering 10 million km². It is the largest country in the world after Russia. Its maximum east-west width, from Cape Spear to the Alaskan border, measures 5,514 km as the crow flies (more than five times the size of France). While there is no train journey in Canada that connects these two points, it is possible to cross the country entirely by choosing a rail route further south. You can travel by train from Halifax to Vancouver. Between the two cities, the railways run a line linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
In all, you can travel over 6,000 km by train in Canada. To cover this distance, you'll need to board just three different trains running on Via Rail tracks.
From East to West, the trains you'll be taking on this great Canadian train journey will be :
Canada's best-known touring train is the Rocky Mountaineer, no longer owned by VIA Rail. When it was launched by Canada's national rail company in 1988, it bore the long name of "Canadian Rockies by Daylight", before being renamed "Rocky Mountaineer" the following year. Since 1990, Rocky Mountaineer has been privately owned and is now one of the largest luxury tourist train companies in the world.
During the tourist season, from April to October, the Rocky Mountaineer takes passengers from the secret lakes of the West Coast to the summits of the Canadian Rockies, the famous mountain range straddling Alberta and British Columbia. A legendary train, it is now considered to be one of the most stylish trains in the world, and offers three routes crossing British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, and Colorado and Utah in the United States.
The Rocky Mountaineer is the only Canadian panoramic train (although Le Canadien between Toronto and Vancouver also has panoramic cars) and perhaps the most beautiful panoramic train in the world. For lovers of organised train trips in Switzerland, it will remind you of the visual comfort of the Bernina Express or the famous Swiss train, the Glacier Express.
The most luxurious of its services, GoldLeaf, takes place in a double-decker glass-domed carriage, while SilverLeaf is a single-decker glass-domed carriage. Both types of car feature oversized windows and swivel reclining seats to make the most of the splendid views of the Western Canadian landscape.
As well as these must-see train journeys in Canada, there are many other local trains and original or unusual tours.
When planning your package train journey in Canada, you'll quickly realise that Sleeper Class Plus is the sleeper night train option. It is available on the Canadian and on the Ocean train.
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