To Atlantic Tidewater by Rail

So yesterday I was riding Business Class from Toronto to Montreal. After a two-hour stopover in Montreal, I boarded VIA’s Ocean, the 3-times-weekly Montreal to Halifax overnight train which takes a leisurely 23 hours, give or take a bit. This train is equipped with VIA’s newest vehicles, the Renaissance cars, built in Europe and bought by VIA when their original planned use disappeared with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. The cars are a bit narrow by Canadian standards, so coaches have only 3 seats across (2 and 1) and the sleeper cars are cozier even than the ones in the heritage stainless steel cars on The Canadian.  At night, the back of the sofa folds down to become the lower bed, and the wall panel above it folds out and up to become the upper bed.  Each compartment has a private washroom and some include a shower unit too.    

 

Sleeper passengers (like yours truly) check in at a special desk just before boarding at Montreal’s Central Station and are given reservations in the restaurant car if they wish.  The first seating happens promptly after the train’s departure at 6:55pm, so I was actually seated at a table before the train rolled across the historic Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence.   Because I was travelling just a week early for the summer season, I paid a lower fare but meals weren't included in the fare.  However, the price was definitely right.  For just $35 including tax and tip, I got 2 glasses of wine, 2 fresh hot bread rolls, a delicious hot salmon and seafood ring main course with rice and vegetables, and very good cup of coffee.  Hard to argue with that, and the service was certainly very good.  The sleeping car attendant came by not long after I returned to my cabin to arrange a time for making up the bed, and so I sat and typed away on a writing project and watched the twilight slowly deepen outside the window.  At 9:30 she came back and set the bed up for me.

 

The train used to depart from the main line only briefly to stop at the station of Charny, south of Quebec City, but now goes right across the famous Quebec Bridge to the suburban station of Ste-Foy.  This necessitates a lengthy reverse back across the bridge, and helps to explain why the trip is a good hour longer than the last time I took it.  Unfortunately it was full night by the time of this interesting manoeuvre but  I did get a bit of a look – by moonlight -- at this century-old bridge which still ranks as a major engineering masterpiece of the world.  Also, of course, there’s a splendid view of the adjacent highway suspension bridge, all brightly illuminated.
 
After returning to the main track, it was time for me to hit the hay and there is nothing to see of the lower St. Lawrence valley in the dark anyway.  However, for early risers in summer (like this fellow), there are good views of the scenic hills in the Matapedia Valley as the train approaches the New Brunswick border.  It’s quite a sight as the road and railway hug the banks of the river while it squeezes between the ancient craggy Appalachian hills, all clothed in evergreen forest.  I then had a quick but efficient shower right in my own private bathroom.

 

The dining car opens for breakfast while the train makes a long stop at Campbellton.  Sadly, the menu is very limited since no food is now cooked on board.  There are only pre-made meals which are heated and plated in the galley.  I got a freezer omelette of the sort you would see on the buffet of a mid-price hotel.  At least there was a decent side of fresh fruit and the potatoes were generously sprinkled with herb seasoning.  The toast was made to order and the coffee was both hot and flavourful.

 After breakfast, I spent some time in the scenic dome car at the end of the train, enjoying the gorgeous views of the Baie de Chaleur, schmoozing with passengers, scarfing another cup of coffee.  By then, though, I was just about ready for a compensating nap after my relatively sleepless night!

 

 That nap refreshed me considerably, about an hour’s worth of refreshment to be precise, and at noon I was ready when the call came for lunch.  This was a much better meal.  I had a very good chicken rice soup, another glass of wine, a chicken Caesar salad, and even sprang for the dessert – a raspberry oat square which I was able to finish about 2/3 – and coffee.  When the train stopped at Moncton at about 2:00pm I hopped out to walk the platform and got a real surprise.  After the efficient air conditioning inside, the outside temperature was almost shocking at 29 degrees Celsius!  I made a comment to the car attendant about how the temperature would be a bit cooler at the harbourside station in Halifax, she promptly checked it on her cellphone – and voila!  Only 15 degrees!  I have to say that I am very impressed by the pride all the staff of the Ocean display in providing attentive service to their customers.

 

 

After lunch, I was content for quite a while to sit in my compartment, writing, reading, and just generally enjoying the sensation of being outside of normal time which is so much a part of train travel to me.  But then there is the eye-popping spectacle of the v-shaped mud trench, every inch of it soaking wet, which is the channel of the tidal Memramcook River at low tide.  Nothing else so graphically illustrates the extraordinary tidal range of the Bay of Fundy as seeing such a large river emptied right out twice daily!  In between the loops of the river you also can see the strange, scummy, algae-coated pools of the Tantramar salt marshes, another key link in the intricate ecosystem of the Bay of Fundy.

 

The track from Amherst to Truro and on to Halifax is a difficult route through rolling, hilly country, with many curves and stiff grades.  All the same, this single track was the busiest railroad in all of Canada during World War Two, as huge freight trains carried tons of supplies to Halifax for England-bound convoys, while equally long passenger trains brought thousands of soldiers at a time to be carried across in preparation for the invasions of Hitler’s Fortress Europa.  With the aid of complex planning and scheduling, and record-fast maintenance, the track always remained open and serviceable.  It’s quite a sight to sit in the dome car at the rear end and watch the entire consist winding and unwinding in front of you like a snake.  There are some spectacular views from the high plateau north of Truro.  Another particularly lovely stretch winds for miles along the shores of the aptly-named Grand Lake.

 

One of the delights of this kind of trip is meeting fellow travellers.  I had a number of entertaining conversations with others during my visits to the dome car, and this certainly helps to pass the time as well as entertaining all those involved.  Speaking of entertainment, there were PA announcements several times during the trip of live musical entertainment in one spot or another on the train.

 

And so at last, the train glided down the shores of Bedford Basin, where all those wartime convoys assembled, wound its way around the city through a deep cutting, and arrived at the waterfront Halifax Station at 6:30pm, in time for a slightly-late (by my normal 6:00pm standards) dinner.  It’s been quite a trip!