'All Aboard' wins provincial 4H award
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- Published on Saturday, May 16, 2015
By Lainie Muir
Glenella 4H Beef Club
Glenella 4-H Beef Club member Lainie Muir won first place in the Junior One Person Visual category at the 2015 Provincial 4-H Communications Extravaganza, held April 18 in Brandon. Muir’s presentation was called “All Aboard” and was about the Canadian passenger train, Via Rail.
All Aboard
(The Canadian passenger train – VIA Rail)
All aboard!!
Hello judges, madam chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, and fellow 4-H club members.
Today I will be talking about the Canadian passenger train, VIA RAIL. I will share with you my personal experiences and fascination with the train, a bit of history and facts on VIA RAIL, and the reasons why traveling by train is a smart choice.
My first ride was with my mom and little sister, to meet my dad at Broomball Nationals. We rode the train from Union Station, Winnipeg to Melville, Saskatchewan. Our final destination was Regina, but Melville is the closet arrival station. Union Station is very old and very cool. When you walk in you will see what they call the Rotunda, and here is the waiting room where my family and I waited to board the train, which sadly they have modernized to look more like an airport. There is also a gift shop where you can purchase souvenirs such as a hat, a whistle, a t-shirt, binoculars, a collector’s map of VIA RAIL routes, a blanket, a water bottle, an umbrella and a collector’s item kit that includes a spoon, magnet, and key chain.
I appreciated how friendly all of the attendants were aboard VIA RAIL. While on the train, I learned that people from all over the country board the VIA RAIL to get from coast to coast or even just to go small distances. On the train, they had dome cars in which you could see the beautiful landscape from up above in, canteen cars to purchase snacks from, dinner cars and conference room cars. For the passengers, VIA RAIL had regular seat and sleeper cars. We purchased seats for dinner and to our surprise it was amazing! It was cooked right there on the train by a gourmet chef!
VIA RAIL carried people of all ages for all purposes. We met a lot of passengers who all seemed relaxed and happy hanging out, like I am here. I had a great time and would love to go again! Our farm, by Glenella, happens to have the northbound rail cut through our property. The train tracks are directly south about 100 yards from our doorstep.
This past summer, I kept a log of all of the trains that passed through our yard for about a week. VIA RAIL trains usually consisted of five cars and two engines. The most I saw had eight cars and two engines. Not many passenger trains go north so there were about three to four every week.
If I’m outside when VIA RAIL comes by our farm, I run out to the tracks, wave to the passengers, and see if I can get the engineer to blow the whistle. And sometimes he does. I think it’s really neat that VIA RAIL does pick-ups and drop-offs right in the town of Glenella. One day I would love to hop on from there and go for a ride just for fun.
VIA Rail is a network of passenger trains that circuit through BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC, PEI and NS. In 1977 VIA RAIL was given their certificate of incorporation. Over the years since 1981 VIA RAIL has suffered from multiple service cuts.
VIA RAIL’s fleet includes 396 passenger cars, 78 locomotives and 159 railway stations. Coast to coast and north to Hudson Bay, nearly 420 trains pass through Canada every week, on 12,500 km of track, serving 450 communities. VIA RAIL carried nearly 4 million passengers in 2012. I found all these facts on the VIA RAIL website.
Now I would like to explain why traveling by train is the sensible choice. Since VIA RAIL goes downtown in most major cities, it can get you to a bus stop or taxi close to your urban destination. This saves city traffic and navigation issues, pollution and stress of driving. Even for the rural destinations, especially some remote northern ones, VIA RAIL can get you there in relaxing comfort. VIA RAIL may be slower than air travel, but is more affordable. An example of this is when we took the train from Winnipeg to Melville. It cost us $60 for each seat, on sale, plus we could check in two bags per seat. If you were to fly the same route it would cost around $200 per seat and you would have to pay $25 plus tax for each bag you check in. If you were to drive, it would be the cost of fuel and mileage on your vehicle. Trains go no matter what the weather.
With more people aboard a train the pollution per vehicle, per person, is greatly reduced. On board the passenger train, all means of comfort are at your disposal. There is space to get up and walk around which is not the same for flying, driving, or riding a bus. It’s a more human way to travel!
From research on VIA RAIL I have learned that passenger trains are important and that VIA RAIL is a comfortable, dependable, economical, and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. VIA RAIL is cool to learn about and anyone who has ridden the train has got to experience meeting people from all over the country and taking in nature and landscape from a different perspective.
Traveling by train is just about the best way to travel. Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoyed my interest in VIA RAIL.
