Train trip in winter?
 

Has anyone done the VIA [or Mountaineer] trip from Edmonton to Vancouver in the winter months? I think the snowy scenery would be beautiful but am wondering if I would be better to wait until spring? Any input??

I have taken quite a few winter train trips. The train is heated and comfortable in the winter and the scenery is beautiful. You actually have a clearer view because where there are deciduous trees along the tracks, they have lost their leaves so there isn't a screen of trees with leaves blocking the view.

There can sometimes be unavoidable delays in the winter though - if it gets *really* cold out (below -30?), equipment may malfunction (metal machinery and bitter cold don't get on well together). This isn't as likely though in BC, it happens more on the prairies. One time, we took the train from Winnipeg to Jasper, and had booked sleeping accommodation. We woke up in the morning to discover that we had only travelled an hour west of Winnipeg and then there had been a breakdown.

Also, in the mountains, in western Alberta and into BC, avalanches can block the tracks and delay trains occasionally. This usually occurs in the early spring though. We took the train from Vancouver to Jasper around the 10th of March last year, during the first thaw. Not only was it mild and thawing, but also pouring rain. The predictable result was snow slides - we left Vancouver and ran on time until Mt. Robson, one hour west of Jasper, and then were delayed for 12 hours due to several slides that came down. They would get one cleaned up, and down would come another! Actually, I was just as happy sitting in the train on a piece of track that was out of the slide danger until that evening when it cooled off and the snowpack set and stopped sliding! My husband, who works on the railway, says there is always one day like this in the early spring on that piece of track - the first mild/wet day brings all the slides down, and it was just our luck to be there then.

The only consideration regarding a winter trip is that there is a lot less daylight, so less chance to enjoy the scenery.

Thank you for your input - very helpfull!! Is there still snow in April, or has most of long-ago melted?

In April, most of the snow is gone at lower elevations (the valley bottom where the train tracks are), but there is still snow on the mountains. Snowstorms in April are not rare n the mountains (even in May), but usually at lower elevations it will not stick around for long.

april is one of the favorite months to ski in the rockies. usually nice warm weather (in comparison to the winter we've just come through) but still enough snow on the ski hills.

Maxster, is skiing possibly part of your plans? If so, then you will want to come during the first half of April. Marmot Basin, at Jasper (www.skimarmot.com) usually closes about the third week in April, no matter what the snow conditions. (There just aren't enough late season skiers in the area to keep it open - even last year, when conditions were great.) Sunshine Village, near Banff (about 3.5 hours' drive from Jasper) stays open into May - it is up on the continental divide and gets more snow, and being closer to a major airport (Calgary), gets more skiers. Other ski resorts in the Alberta Rockies close in April, most of them around the same time as Marmot.

Actually we are not skiers - we just decide that it would be fun to take the train in the winter for a view of the snowy scenery... It will be a short trip, but we are always interested in seeing new things. thanks for the help!