4 days and 4 nights between rails: this is how life in the Canadian is organized

Recording between Toronto and Vancouver in the Canadian is embarked on a four -day and four night trip, 4,466 kilometers long. Offering a gentle trip to hundreds of unknown people confined in cars three meters wide requires an entire organization.

Different traveler classes

There are three classes in the Canadiens: economics class, more-bed car class and prestigious class.

The economy class is the cheapest. It consists of seats which can be extended to sleep, but which do not lie down completely. This class has an activity car, a panorama car but no meals. Passengers must take their food or buy sandwiches and other snacks on the train.

Then comes the more car-bed class. Introduced by Via Rail in 1992, it is made up of individual cabins, cabins for two people as well as seats in the corridors that turn into a bed at night. The cabins have a seat that is converted to a bed, a toilet and a sink, but no shower. Each car has a common shower.

This class has a panorama car, an activity car and a restaurant car: indeed, the price for this class is more expensive, but all meals are included.

The last class, which is at the back of the train, is the prestigious class. Inaugurated in 2014, it is the most expensive class and it at a level of comfort higher than others. Here, no seats in the corridors that turn into a bed, just bedrooms with private shower, toilet and sink. It is also the only class where are accessible cabins for people with reduced mobility.

The Prestige class has a slightly different panorama car: in addition to the upstairs view, it has access to the latest train wagon with windows on the sides, allowing you to see the entire landscape on both sides of the train at the same time.

Passengers in this class also have access to a cocktail bar and can have their meal delivered directly to their cabin.

The organization of the wagons

The order in which the cars are located is always the same: after the locomotive, you can see the luggage car, to which no one has access to the end of the trip. Then come the cars of the economy class, then those of the Plus car class and, finally, that of prestige.

Passengers are not quite free to move on the train: they must stay in their respective classes and respective areas. This means that there can be several restaurant cars, but that passengers will only have access to only one and that they should not be mistaken!

Finally, each class has an activity car and a panorama. The organizational model is reproduced as many times as necessary if there are more passengers and the company must add wagons.

Who are staff members and what are they doing?

To ensure that everything works well on the train, many staff members are distributed in multiple cars and everyone has their role and routine.

First of all, there is the director of service on board. It is he who oversees all the other employees, present in all classes. He is responsible for the safety and well-being of passengers and spends a lot of time walking all the wagons.

There are many of the wagon: there are about one per car. They take care of ensuring the comfort of the wagon they are responsible for.

It is them, for example, who take care of making the beds every night and putting the seats in the morning. It is they, too, prepare the cabins when new passengers go up on the train and who ensure that the shower is clean and functional. Finally, they answer all passengers’ calls when they have a specific request.

The work of animators is confined almost exclusively to activity cars: they organize the multiple entertainment for passengers (alcohol tasting, bingo, films, concerts, etc.), keep an up -to -date information board and make sure that coffee, water and small snacks are always available for free.

The restaurant car is the kept hunt for servers and cooks. Their work is both simple and complicated: simple, because it is a question of nourishing and serving passengers at the table, but complicated because of the unpredictable and incessant movements of the train.

In reality, these are real balancingists. The kitchen is very small and only two people hold in the cramped space. The servers must slalom between their colleagues and the passengers, all without overthrowing a drop. At the rate of three meals a day, with two to three services per meal, the pace is intense and it is not uncommon for applause on the part of passengers to greet the excellent work of the servers.

At night, only one person is on duty for the whole train. The night attendant manages everything that can happen throughout the train when people sleep, and allows his colleagues to rest.

With the Director of Service on board, it is the employee who walks the most on board the train since, once per hour, he must go up and down all the cars to ensure that everything is fine.