On planes, trains and automobiles

This entry is only tangentially about the standard topics of this blog as it features niece-cousins. However, it describes a lot fun things including one of the most spectacular train trips I have taken.

It started during a break at work when I casually looked at the schedule of the Canadian on Via Rail’s website. I noticed that this winter, the Eastbound Canadian leaves Vancouver at noon, meaning that given reasonable luck, the train would pass through the Fraser Canyon in daylight. (I had been through it twice before, but only late at night.) The idea fermented for a couple of months until I decided to do it. Carpe diem. The plan was to fly to Vancouver, spend some time with relatives, then catch the train on Tuesday and ride it to Edmonton, from where I would fly back to Montreal. The choice of Edmonton was based on the fact it had both a train station and direct flights to Montreal, and I had never visited it.

So last Saturday, I flew to Vancouver on an Air Canada 737 Max. I had actually chosen the flight partly because it was a 737 Max and in Air Canada service this means you can get a very nice seat on one for price of a preferred seat. As in, I had three seats to myself.

 Kevin, my cousin Kristine’s husband, met me at the airport in his red Tesla, of which he is a shade too proud. It was my first ride in a Tesla. It was a far cry from Alice’s Nissan Leaf. It showed the signs of someone who didn’t know when to stop with features such as outside door handles that automatically retract to lie flush with the door for aerodynamic efficiency. From my background in engineering, I would guess the net loss in drag would easily be offset by the added cost and complexity of the gadget. I think it was there to give the impression of modernity rather than actual modernity.

I was welcomed at Kevin and Kristine’s house with joy by Midnight the Labrador Retriever and with varying degrees of suspicion from Julianne and Elisabeth, the former asking her mother: “Where do you know this guy from?” ;-) (Alas, Kristine’s daughters don’t have as much experience with relatives as they might have, what with one thing and another. In hindsight, this is rather unfortunate given the tradition of hospitality to which Kristine’s and mine mutual Grandparents adhered.)

Anyway, I made myself at home in their guest quarters which are about the size of my condo! Over the course of the next few days, I also made myself useful to Kristine and Kevin doing various odd jobs including buying and installing chicken wire to make their rotting fence Labrador-proof. (My cousin and her husband are a trifle short in the hands-on skills department, not that I am terribly good. They make up for it in other ways.) I tried to convince them to consider taking the train across en famille. Elisabeth seemed interested, more so than an Alaskan cruise. However, I didn’t mention the absence of WiFi or even mobile service on much of the route! ;-)

While in Vancouver, the Boeing 737 Max situation evolved. I checked my flight out of Edmonton and was relieved to see I was due to fly on an Airbus.

Kevin drove me to the station on Tuesday morning. The weather was gray, but not oppressively so. After boarding, I had Canajun bubbly in the Skyline car and mingled with my fellow passengers. I was in the third sitting for lunch, sharing a table with an American man from San Diego and two Brazilian women as the Canadian crossed the Fraser at Mission. As the Canadian was picking up at least one passenger in Mission, it stopped with the dining car on the bridge at Mission. I pointed out for my table mates some gen-u-wine Canadiana heading downstream in the form of a tug hauling several rafts of logs. The Brazilians were amazed that the small tug could haul so much.

After lunch, I made my way to a dome car to watch the upcoming spectacle. As the Train entered the Fraser Canyon, I felt compelled to tell a young Chinese man to stop texting and look out the window. It was fantastic. One aspect that made it so was that the track clung to the sides of cliffs giving the impression of danger while being actually safe.* It was also more intimate compared to the massive splendour of the mountains near Jasper. Tunnels and bridges gave the feel of an “active” track rather than just a “railway”. As well, we could see Westbound freights the CN track on the other side of the river which gave a sense of scale. (Eastbound trains use the CP tracks.) At Lytton, both tracks moved into the South Thompson River Canyon for more dramatic clinging to canyon walls. Again, it was incredibly beautiful and wondrous.

Anyway, the rest of trip was good (aside from a relative lack of sleep as normal on the first night on the Canadian) with a notable exception. The exception was having to wait two hours just short of the station in Edmonton. It is an ill-wind that blows no good as the delay allowed me to have supper on the Canadian.

The next day, I rented a car in order to explore Edmonton. I must confess to having used its SatNav to navigate. Owing to various things, I did not plan my route well and ended up doing little other than shopping. This included the West Edmonton Mall which was less impressive than the hype. The day left me with a feeling of having been rushed.

Around midday, I checked into my flight. It was just after the check-in had opened and there were very few seats unselected and those were all middle seats! When I got to the gate this morning, there was an announcement saying they were looking for volunteers to give up their seats in return for $800 for future travel plus accommodation and food vouchers. I took this up on the grounds I wouldn’t mind a day or so largely doing nothing and $800 is nothing to sneeze at. So here I am relaxing in an airport hotel.

* Just to be clear for the record, while I believe CN, CP and Via Rail have safety in mind, the simple fact of the matter is that the tracks through the Fraser Canyon are inherently less safe than, say, the tracks across the open plains of Manitoba or Saskatchewan. However, the Fraser Canyon tracks are well within reasonable safety. Nonetheless, they give a wonderful frisson of danger.