Hi, excellent video, definately the best travelogue of the Rocky Mountaineer i've seen. Your scenic views are wonderful with superb narration, most enjoyable and informative, thank you.
When I took this back in the 1990s, it went all the way to Calgary. I did the return trip as well. Back then the Rocky Mountaineer left from the VIA Rail station.
Lovely review, Thibault. Follow the river is great memory of mine on trains. Starting night before in Copenhagen, watching early morning fisher men akong Saune(?) S Belgium, approaching Paris around 10 in the morning. 1980s and 90s. Sleeper trains welcome back !
It's an amazing journey through the Rockies, and you're right - the Gold Leaf would be worth it for the platform and upper deck alone. The fact that it goes the CP route through Banff is also massive. On the downside, it's really just a rail cruise and not a journey. That music playing? Sheesh, no thanks! Missing a sleeper car experience and only running outside winter is a downer. That's where Via's Canadian trumps the RM for me. The Canadian's a complete hark back to the golden age of trans-continental travel that doesn't really exist any more. Missing the Canadian Shield during winter is a huge hole in an itinerary.
Thibeault, this is one of my favorite videos you have done. I would love to do this train with my wife and maybe my kids, as it would show the great part of western Canada.
One if the best videos you've done. I did the across Canada & gold Rocky Mountaineer many moons ago, in opposite direction. Think i should think about doing it again as i seem to have forgotten heaps.
I guess it depends on the route, but I'm a bit surprised they don't fit. Doesn't the US have double stacked intermodal trains and Super Liners running around everywhere?
I'm so glad you had the chance to see this amazing part of our country. It makes me sad that most of us Canadians can never afford to take this same journey. I wish we could take this trip, but it's priced so high ordinary Canadians can't afford it.
Great video !! This trip is on our bucket list !! Thank you ! I noticed several times in the background music playing, was that throughout the car or someone playing their own.
back when VIA Rail ran transcontinental service as The Canadian (and the Super Continental via Edmonton), it had sleeping cars. The disadvantage is that half of Calgary-Vancouver was done in darkness. They *tried* to schedule it such that you'd see stuff going east that you missed going west. The advantage of the hotel stop is that you do the whole route in daylight. (in winter the daylight hours are too short to do the whole trip in daylight).
You didn't mention it, but some years ago, CP (now CPKC) and CN struck a deal to share their tracks between south of Aschcroft (Basque) and Mission BC (east of Vancouver) so that they could each run more trains. CP's tracks are used for eastbound trains, and CN's for westbound trains. After you switched to the CN tracks, you were beyond the shared double tracks and ran on CN tracks with CN trains in both directions. Rocky Mountaineer would normally factor those delays to pad the schedule. But sometimes when a train is late and misses the "meet", the other train has to wait, and it is always the shorter 20 car passenger train that waits instead of the very heavt 100+ car freight train.
Rogers Pass (between Revelstoke and Golden) is technically the Selkirk mountains. Between Golden and Field is the Purcells, and between Field and Canmore , the Rockies. (they are usually lumped into just the Rockies to make things simpler.
took this train in 2022 in early october. the service is fantastic, and view sometimes were boring, as it was nothing but trees on both sides. very definetly do gold service, it is worth it.
Three Valley Lake Chateau is a seasonal resort. Basically only open in the summer. Plenty of vlogs in the UA-cam platform. Like the Mountaineer, it is a bucket list item due to the historical and recreational venue it is. It is very elaborate.
One plus point. Because the line isn't electrified the views aren't obstructed by pylons and overhead catenary. However, the rickety telephone poles sometimes get in the way.
In Canada, the mountains on coast are called the Coastal mountain range, not the Cascades. Once you turn left at Hope, you are already out of them and along the dry area of the Fraser, you are already considered in the interior plateau and out of the coast mountains. South of the border, there is interaction between north american, pacific and juan de fuca plates that grew the Cascade mountains, but not sure if the Coast mountains are technically the same because the Juan de Fuca plate has less impact north (hence Vancouver island wasn't pushed into the coastal mountains).
Is this journey about lillte more than a month old, if m not wrong I spotted Rocky mountaineer at the station that time, and yes spotting it for the first time was as amused
I can't find specific reference to Three Valley hotel. But the portion of complex facing the trans canada highway has restaurant, shops and vintage rail car still open. Canadian Pacific was a huge company which not only ran passenger trains, but operated resorts/hotels all along its transcontinental routes so it the traffic to hotels gave the railways revenues and vice versa. Also, Glacier House at top of Rogers Pass (before current tunnels dug) was needed for food because CP left the heavy dining cars at Golden on the east and Revelstoke on the west to save the weight of pulling the train up the pass. And it found that people wanted to stay there to go hiking so added big hotel behind the restaurant/station. Canadian Pacific Hotel kept only the Banff Springs and Lake Louise resorts on the Calgary-Vancouver stretch by the 1960s and after Canadian Pacific decided to cease irs existence and started to sell everything, the remaining hotels not yet sold went to a no-name brand called Fairmont. (Canadian Pacific Hotels was very respected and known as luxury hotels). The sleeping cars in its trans continental fleet were named after its hotels. With all of this, the proximity of the Three Valley hotel to Revelstoke makes me think this may have been built along the trans canada highway and not a reilway hotel (and the fact I can't find reference to it as ever being part of CP Hotels.
I took this route from Calgary to Vancouver in 1985. It was a Via Rail train from Toronto to Vancouver called _the Super Continental._ As a Canadian, I can say this trip is way over priced.
Fabulous trip and certainly now on my bucket list. The only thing I think I would find rather annoying (and I know my partner would hate it) is the loud music onboard. How long is this on for please, as it would certainly be a deal breaker for him?
Wow. I'm glad it's not just me. That and the announcements would be a definite dealbreaker for me. I don't want to take trips like this to get narration and/or a soundtrack. Quiet is my choice of soundtrack.
Revelstoke is in the *Selkirk* Mountains. The Rocky Mountains are further to the east, and the train won't enter them until it passes the town of Golden. Sometimes facts aren't good for marketing, apparently, and I wish tour companies, etc. would stop it.
Ah, affluent seniors who have cashed out the business assets (or who have very successful and attentive rich offspring to treat them to an expensive trip in "Gold Leaf") are the prime customers. Yes I saw a few affluent younger Asians about too. The internet monetization system has a few of you along for the ride as well. But let's face it. Most others will never do this train, and are relegated to Amtrak here in the States and Via Rail in Canada. At least the ocean liners of old had immigrant class/third class for the working people.
I took it in 1995. It hasn't changed. I found the constant live commentary to be very annoying. They should have state-of-the-art digital commentary available in many languages with passengers given air buds. The staff should be available for specific information if a passenger requests it.
amtrak isnt meant to be a luxury train, on amtrak i can travel 100 miles for $30, this one cost 3000. You must be european, making uneducated statements like this. I would pay 100 times the amount of money to go the same distance
Does the Rocky Mountaineer follow the same track as the Canadian? I have ridden the Canadian and i just do not think that you can justify the difference in price!! ! !
Is there piped in music playing everywhere? Or do they have QUIET CARS? Crappy piped in oldies/classic rock would be a big dealbreaker for me. I don't go on trips like this to have a soundtrack; I like QUIET.
Given how much you praise the various train stations in your videos (rightly, I would add), riding a bus to a hotel and back the next morning on a freight siding doesn't look much like luxury to me. To each their own I guess -- the U.S. train that supposedly terminates in Moab, UT, lets people off at a freight siding some distance from Moab. Must work -- they're doing big business.
Trivia: most of the single level cars are ex CN Rail 1950s cars that were totally rebuilt. When VIA Rail was forced cut its trans continental service at end of 1989, the cuts were so severe across its network that it abandonned half of its fleet, and got rid of all the ex CN cars. The folks who started Rocky Mountaineer were friends with the then prime minister who killed VIA Rail and got him to ensure the remaining VIA service used the less popular route via Edmonton instead of the one via Calgary which they took. A company in Moncton New Brunswick (IRSC) got the contract to rebuilt some ex CN coaches that RM got for nearly free and did an amzing job, even putting on much larger and curved windows. Alas, the same government then cut a contract to renovate more VIA cars midway and sent ISRC into bankrupcty. The double deck cars were built by Stadler in Switzerland. (being a private company, they didn't have to "buy canadian" so got more reliable rolling sock from an existing factory with experienced workers).
Beautiful video! However the division of SilverLeaf and GoldLeaf is pointless elitism. Passengers should be provided with earbuds if they want to hear announcements. I would rather do without so I can enjoy Mother Nature without audio distractions.
It's funny how many trains in america are basically joyrides for wealthy pensioners instead of a means of transport for regular people. Almost like a cruise, but on land.
@@lalakerspro Let me enlighten you. Most Europeans know more about the world than Canadians (or Americans for that matter) ever will. I notice you still haven't learned about capitalization of proper nouns.
@lalakerspro last I checked, America was a continent that both Canada and the US happen to find themselves on. I used the term on purpose because it's the same situation: many trains aren't meant for transportation, as most people will fly or drive between cities, but as sort of a tourist activity for pensioners. That's why nobody seems to mind the overly complicated boarding procedures for example. And yes, I have ridden plenty of trains both in the US and Canada, that's where my observation comes from. I probably rode more trains in america than most people in the US or Canada ever will.
Nice report. Too bad you had to inject a comment about the railroads lack of investment on infrastructure. Perhaps you can enlighten the civil engineers on how they could build a third track through the Frazer Canyon. Even if they wanted to, I doubt the environmentalists would stand for it. I’m sure the Rocky Mountaineer’s contract with CN and CPKC does not give their trains any priority.
Hi, excellent video, definately the best travelogue of the Rocky Mountaineer i've seen. Your scenic views are wonderful with superb narration, most enjoyable and informative, thank you.
What a great trip, great train, great seating, great meal, and great landscape. This trip is so special because you bring your family.
When I took this back in the 1990s, it went all the way to Calgary. I did the return trip as well. Back then the Rocky Mountaineer left from the VIA Rail station.
Wonder why it was changed
Lovely review, Thibault. Follow the river is great memory of mine on trains. Starting night before in Copenhagen, watching early morning fisher men akong Saune(?) S Belgium, approaching Paris around 10 in the morning. 1980s and 90s. Sleeper trains welcome back !
It's an amazing journey through the Rockies, and you're right - the Gold Leaf would be worth it for the platform and upper deck alone.
The fact that it goes the CP route through Banff is also massive.
On the downside, it's really just a rail cruise and not a journey. That music playing? Sheesh, no thanks!
Missing a sleeper car experience and only running outside winter is a downer. That's where Via's Canadian trumps the RM for me. The Canadian's a complete hark back to the golden age of trans-continental travel that doesn't really exist any more. Missing the Canadian Shield during winter is a huge hole in an itinerary.
What an amazing journey, I'm inspired to go next year.
I'm glad you FINALLY Got to take the Fabolous Train! This IS definitely a Tourist Train but the Views are well worth the trip and price!
It really is!
Thibeault, this is one of my favorite videos you have done. I would love to do this train with my wife and maybe my kids, as it would show the great part of western Canada.
Glad you enjoyed it!
One if the best videos you've done. I did the across Canada & gold Rocky Mountaineer many moons ago, in opposite direction. Think i should think about doing it again as i seem to have forgotten heaps.
What a great train journey. Very nice carriages. You are absolutely right to recommend the Golden. Thanks!
The Gold Leaf car is the best train car I have ever seen. I wish they were in the U.S Rocky Mountaineer. If only they can fit in the tunnels.
I guess it depends on the route, but I'm a bit surprised they don't fit. Doesn't the US have double stacked intermodal trains and Super Liners running around everywhere?
What a gorgeous journey! And how wonderful you were able to share it with your parents - family travel memories are the best!
Awesome views ❤
I'm so glad you had the chance to see this amazing part of our country. It makes me sad that most of us Canadians can never afford to take this same journey. I wish we could take this trip, but it's priced so high ordinary Canadians can't afford it.
Thank you so much that was spectacular.
Thank you. Very beautiful.
The man with the bag pipes has good air. This looks like this would be so much fun. Loved the scenery
Nice video! Spectacular scenery. Comfy seats. Good food. Thanks Thibault🥰👍👍👌👌🚈🚈
Great video !! This trip is on our bucket list !! Thank you !
I noticed several times in the background music playing, was that throughout the car or someone playing their own.
It was throughout the car :-)
Nice train and route👍
نعم إنها رحلة عظيمة وحلوة كثيرآ..! شكرآ لك 💒🩷💐
great video!!!
Loved every minute of your epic journey thibault, hope your mum and dad enjoyed it as well, 😊
Wow is so breathtaking!!!🩵
Great Video
Amazing footage, love your long distance railway trips.
Danke!
Fantastic!!!😎
Thanks!
back when VIA Rail ran transcontinental service as The Canadian (and the Super Continental via Edmonton), it had sleeping cars. The disadvantage is that half of Calgary-Vancouver was done in darkness. They *tried* to schedule it such that you'd see stuff going east that you missed going west. The advantage of the hotel stop is that you do the whole route in daylight. (in winter the daylight hours are too short to do the whole trip in daylight).
You didn't mention it, but some years ago, CP (now CPKC) and CN struck a deal to share their tracks between south of Aschcroft (Basque) and Mission BC (east of Vancouver) so that they could each run more trains. CP's tracks are used for eastbound trains, and CN's for westbound trains.
After you switched to the CN tracks, you were beyond the shared double tracks and ran on CN tracks with CN trains in both directions. Rocky Mountaineer would normally factor those delays to pad the schedule. But sometimes when a train is late and misses the "meet", the other train has to wait, and it is always the shorter 20 car passenger train that waits instead of the very heavt 100+ car freight train.
太美了，身临其境的感觉，喜欢这种沉濅式视频效果
Rogers Pass (between Revelstoke and Golden) is technically the Selkirk mountains.
Between Golden and Field is the Purcells, and between Field and Canmore , the Rockies. (they are usually lumped into just the Rockies to make things simpler.
at 28:13 is Cragellachie, named after the original in Scotland.
I have been to both, and they are both well worth a visit
Boa tarde simplys lindo trem luxuoso lindo motanlha lugar 3:01
Boa tarde simplys Boa viagem trem luxuoso gostei lindo a montanha 1:40
Saya sepertinya ikut naik kereta mewah dengan melihat video ini.. terimakasih ya❤
What a great journey. I took the Golden Pass train once in the Swiss Alps. A mini version of this trip experience. Similar type of train.
Thats some nice views!🔥
New SimplyRailway? Hot damn I've got lunch plans now
Hello great video
My trip was cancelled in 2020 because of covid and i never got back. Next year. Thanks for the inspiration.
took this train in 2022 in early october. the service is fantastic, and view sometimes were boring, as it was nothing but trees on both sides. very definetly do gold service, it is worth it.
We took the same route you were on in Gold Leaf too. We didn't have the same overnight hotel in Kamloops.
Three Valley Lake Chateau is a seasonal resort. Basically only open in the summer. Plenty of vlogs in the UA-cam platform. Like the Mountaineer, it is a bucket list item due to the historical and recreational venue it is. It is very elaborate.
This whole journey makes me think of the Gordon Lightfoot classic "Canadian Railway Trilogy"
One plus point. Because the line isn't electrified the views aren't obstructed by pylons and overhead catenary. However, the rickety telephone poles sometimes get in the way.
Nice video.
What is the time of the year for this trip?
There’s an elevator on the train? You’ve gotta be kidding me. I have never ever heard of a train having an elevator that’s impressive.
Wait! Thibault, you have parents, and they like you? Good for you. I have very good memories of traveling with my parents.
In Canada, the mountains on coast are called the Coastal mountain range, not the Cascades. Once you turn left at Hope, you are already out of them and along the dry area of the Fraser, you are already considered in the interior plateau and out of the coast mountains. South of the border, there is interaction between north american, pacific and juan de fuca plates that grew the Cascade mountains, but not sure if the Coast mountains are technically the same because the Juan de Fuca plate has less impact north (hence Vancouver island wasn't pushed into the coastal mountains).
Is this journey about lillte more than a month old, if m not wrong I spotted Rocky mountaineer at the station that time, and yes spotting it for the first time was as amused
Thank you for coming to Canada. You reported correctly except the lol? I wouldn't want music playing in the train. I wish I could do this trip.
I can't find specific reference to Three Valley hotel. But the portion of complex facing the trans canada highway has restaurant, shops and vintage rail car still open. Canadian Pacific was a huge company which not only ran passenger trains, but operated resorts/hotels all along its transcontinental routes so it the traffic to hotels gave the railways revenues and vice versa. Also, Glacier House at top of Rogers Pass (before current tunnels dug) was needed for food because CP left the heavy dining cars at Golden on the east and Revelstoke on the west to save the weight of pulling the train up the pass. And it found that people wanted to stay there to go hiking so added big hotel behind the restaurant/station. Canadian Pacific Hotel kept only the Banff Springs and Lake Louise resorts on the Calgary-Vancouver stretch by the 1960s and after Canadian Pacific decided to cease irs existence and started to sell everything, the remaining hotels not yet sold went to a no-name brand called Fairmont. (Canadian Pacific Hotels was very respected and known as luxury hotels). The sleeping cars in its trans continental fleet were named after its hotels.
With all of this, the proximity of the Three Valley hotel to Revelstoke makes me think this may have been built along the trans canada highway and not a reilway hotel (and the fact I can't find reference to it as ever being part of CP Hotels.
What a fantastic journey! Do you have to fly back to Vancouver from Banff, presumably at your expense?
I took this route from Calgary to Vancouver in 1985. It was a Via Rail train from Toronto to Vancouver called _the Super Continental._ As a Canadian, I can say this trip is way over priced.
Fabulous trip and certainly now on my bucket list. The only thing I think I would find rather annoying (and I know my partner would hate it) is the loud music onboard. How long is this on for please, as it would certainly be a deal breaker for him?
Wow. I'm glad it's not just me. That and the announcements would be a definite dealbreaker for me. I don't want to take trips like this to get narration and/or a soundtrack. Quiet is my choice of soundtrack.
Does this train pass by the Morant's curve?
Revelstoke is in the *Selkirk* Mountains. The Rocky Mountains are further to the east, and the train won't enter them until it passes the town of Golden. Sometimes facts aren't good for marketing, apparently, and I wish tour companies, etc. would stop it.
Do they have music playing all the time?
Ah, affluent seniors who have cashed out the business assets (or who have very successful and attentive rich offspring to treat them to an expensive trip in "Gold Leaf") are the prime customers. Yes I saw a few affluent younger Asians about too. The internet monetization system has a few of you along for the ride as well. But let's face it. Most others will never do this train, and are relegated to Amtrak here in the States and Via Rail in Canada. At least the ocean liners of old had immigrant class/third class for the working people.
🌹🌹🌹
I took it in 1995. It hasn't changed. I found the constant live commentary to be very annoying. They should have state-of-the-art digital commentary available in many languages with passengers given air buds. The staff should be available for specific information if a passenger requests it.
Amazing journey but I think the chat would annoy the piss out of me
Cost?
3000$
@@SimplyRailway thats not to bad for all you get, thank you!
3000 each?
Amtrak can‘t hope to hold a candle to this premium experience!!!
How many candles can you hold for this experience at $500 for 100 miles travel. Be sure to document it on YT when you take this trip.
amtrak isnt meant to be a luxury train, on amtrak i can travel 100 miles for $30, this one cost 3000. You must be european, making uneducated statements like this. I would pay 100 times the amount of money to go the same distance
Does the Rocky Mountaineer follow the same track as the Canadian? I have ridden the Canadian and i just do not think that you can justify the difference in price!! ! !
They run on different tracks so its a different view than the Canadian (both views are great:)
Is there piped in music playing everywhere? Or do they have QUIET CARS? Crappy piped in oldies/classic rock would be a big dealbreaker for me. I don't go on trips like this to have a soundtrack; I like QUIET.
a bagpiper? maybe accidently ended up in scotland...
bag pipes are a music of war, thats why they are horrific
and unbearable
Given how much you praise the various train stations in your videos (rightly, I would add), riding a bus to a hotel and back the next morning on a freight siding doesn't look much like luxury to me. To each their own I guess -- the U.S. train that supposedly terminates in Moab, UT, lets people off at a freight siding some distance from Moab. Must work -- they're doing big business.
Trivia: most of the single level cars are ex CN Rail 1950s cars that were totally rebuilt. When VIA Rail was forced cut its trans continental service at end of 1989, the cuts were so severe across its network that it abandonned half of its fleet, and got rid of all the ex CN cars. The folks who started Rocky Mountaineer were friends with the then prime minister who killed VIA Rail and got him to ensure the remaining VIA service used the less popular route via Edmonton instead of the one via Calgary which they took. A company in Moncton New Brunswick (IRSC) got the contract to rebuilt some ex CN coaches that RM got for nearly free and did an amzing job, even putting on much larger and curved windows. Alas, the same government then cut a contract to renovate more VIA cars midway and sent ISRC into bankrupcty.
The double deck cars were built by Stadler in Switzerland. (being a private company, they didn't have to "buy canadian" so got more reliable rolling sock from an existing factory with experienced workers).
Damn, so that's why you can't take a via train to Calgary
Dod ag atgofion yn ôl.
Beautiful video! However the division of SilverLeaf and GoldLeaf is pointless elitism. Passengers should be provided with earbuds if they want to hear announcements. I would rather do without so I can enjoy Mother Nature without audio distractions.
It's funny how many trains in america are basically joyrides for wealthy pensioners instead of a means of transport for regular people. Almost like a cruise, but on land.
I've been on cruises that were by far cheaper than this.
this is a luxury train, you think all trains in america are like this? And this is canada by the way. Do you europeans even know the difference?
@@lalakerspro Let me enlighten you. Most Europeans know more about the world than Canadians (or Americans for that matter) ever will. I notice you still haven't learned about capitalization of proper nouns.
@lalakerspro last I checked, America was a continent that both Canada and the US happen to find themselves on. I used the term on purpose because it's the same situation: many trains aren't meant for transportation, as most people will fly or drive between cities, but as sort of a tourist activity for pensioners. That's why nobody seems to mind the overly complicated boarding procedures for example.
And yes, I have ridden plenty of trains both in the US and Canada, that's where my observation comes from. I probably rode more trains in america than most people in the US or Canada ever will.
Nice report. Too bad you had to inject a comment about the railroads lack of investment on infrastructure. Perhaps you can enlighten the civil engineers on how they could build a third track through the Frazer Canyon. Even if they wanted to, I doubt the environmentalists would stand for it. I’m sure the Rocky Mountaineer’s contract with CN and CPKC does not give their trains any priority.
Why I heard the voice with Taiwanese accent “how how chu”meaning “yummy “?
Nice video