In February 2025, I travelled on The Canadian from Winnipeg to Toronto with my parents.
My mom and dad were coming to visit us in Toronto and had boarded the train in Vancouver. I was able to arrange my work schedule to accompany them for the second part of their trip but didn’t tell them I was joining them – I booked a last minute flight to Winnipeg and a lower level berth on the train. I was able to leave after work on Wednesday and be back in Toronto on Friday afternoon.
The train is scheduled to arrive in Winnipeg at 10pm and leave at 11:30pm. The last flight I was able to get into Winnipeg landed at 7pm so I found a quiet corner of the airport to work until they started turning off the lights. I was able to track the train online and knew that it was running a couple of hours late but still didn’t want to cut it close! After taking an uber to the station, I confirmed its timing and had some time to explore the station.
I got my first glimpse of the train when it ultimately arrived at 12:30am and I watched it slowly roll across the frozen Assiniboine River into the station.
There were a few passengers waiting to board the train in Winnipeg but I was the only person boarding in “Sleeper” class – the rest were in economy, likely heading to destinations in Northern Ontario rather than going all the way through to Toronto. After we boarded around 2am, I settled in to my berth but it was hard to sleep, between the station noises at first and the rocking of the train once we were underway. But also I was about to surprise my parents who were not expecting me to be onboard.
The next morning, as we rolled along through Northern Ontario, I made my way to the observation dome car where I knew my parents would be watching the scenery. My dad was there and was astonished to see me walk up the stairs into the dome. My mom came along shortly after for part two of the surprise.
For the entire day, the train travels through Northern Ontario with almost no cell cover, only two short stops in Sioux Lookout and Hornepayne, so we had lots of time to visit.
On the final day, we headed south through Sudbury, and more familiar territory in cottage country as we approached Toronto. I was still trying to squeeze in some work tasks but there was barely any reliable cell coverage until we were south of Lake Simcoe!
Finally we were in Toronto, rolling by our hiking and biking trails in the Don Valley
