58 BCBusiness JANUARY 2016
entrepreneur Peter Armstrong (who
took over the service from
VIA Rail),
targets an international market, with
British Columbia representing just
20 per cent of the 60,000 to 80,000
passengers the company hosts each
year. Its key markets are Australia, the
United Kingdom and the United States—
with the States, thanks to a lower
dollar, being a key growth market (the
top five U.S. markets: California, Texas,
Florida, Illinois and Ohio).
On a brisk but sunny Tuesday
morning in late September—the last
week of operations for the 25th season
of Rocky Mountaineer—a fairly homo-
genous group of 750 passengers board
one of the nine GoldLeaf cars en route
to either Jasper or Banff. GoldLeaf
is the top tier of service at Rocky
Mountaineer, with glass-domed
seating and a separate dining car
(prices start at approximately $2,000
for the three-day, two-night Banff
route), and tends to attract well-off
retirees who have time and money to
burn. (SilverLeaf service doesn't have
the full glass domes or the dining car.)
For the few locals on the train, it's
a perspective on B.C.'s interior that
they've likely never had: hugging the
Fraser River, then the Thompson, the
train weaves through a rugged land-
scape made famous in photographs
and watercolours but rarely experi-
enced firsthand. At 50 kilometres an
hour, it's a leisurely journey—taking
over nine hours just to get to Kamloops
from Vancouver—but one that's ably
narrated by James Brejcha, a part-time
actor and comedian. We learn why
Simon Fraser gave Hells Gate its name,
what gives Rainbow Canyon its array of
colour and where Sergei Rachmaninoff
had to unexpectedly abandon his
concert piano. Filling the gap of story-
telling sessions is an endless supply of
nourishment: two elaborate sit-down
About the journey
(Clockwise from left) Passing by
Mount Robson, B.C.; GoldLeaf
Service Dome Coach; bagpiper
send-off at the Vancouver station
The Rocky MounTaineeR RouTes foR 2016
First Passage to the West
Vancouver S Lake Louise S Banff
Journey Through the Clouds
Vancouver S Jasper
Coastal Passage
Seattle S Jasper, Lake Louise or Banff
Rainforest to Gold Rush
N. Vancouver S Whistler S Quesnel S Jasper
W
seaTTLe
VancouVeR
WhisTLeR
kaMLooPs
JasPeR
Lake Louise
Banff
QuesneL
W Rocky Mountaineer's season runs from
the end of April to the beginning of october
(604) 488.0866
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