Story and Photos by Justin Franz
FERNIE, British Columbia — After more than three weeks of crisscrossing the continent on a tour that began not far from the rocky coast of Maine, the Canadian edition of the CPKC Holiday Train entered the Canadian Rockies this week for the final stretch of its 25th season.
Since late November two identical Holiday Trains consisting of 13 brightly lit rail cars led by a Canadian Pacific GP20C-ECO have been touring the CPKC system, from Maine to Louisana, Quebec to British Columbia. The acquisition of Kansas City Southern earlier this year meant the beloved train covered new territory when it ventured south to parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisana for the first time ever. KCS’ own holiday train did an abbreviated tour in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to cover territory the CP trains couldn’t hit.
Kiesza performs in the bitter cold at Pincher Creek, Alberta, on December 12, 2023. At each stop, musical acts will perform for about 30 minutes before continuing down the line.
Aside from the brightly lit consist, the CPKC Holiday Train brings some cheer through concerts held on a specially outfitted stage car (a boxcar built to haul newsprint). But more importantly, the railroad uses the platform to make large donations to various food banks along the way. Organizers also encourage attendees to bring food bank donations to the event. Since its inception in 1999, the CP Holiday Train has raised $22.5 million and collected 5 million pounds of food for community food banks along CP’s network in the U.S. and Canada.
“The Holiday Train program is close to the hearts of our CPKC family. Our railroaders take great joy in joining communities across our network as they come together in the giving spirit of the holidays,” said CPKC President and CEO Keith Creel. “We are proud to support local food banks as we fight food insecurity by collecting food and raising money and awareness. I am grateful to all the railroaders and community members who have supported the Holiday Train over the past quarter century and made it such a success.”
While the overall train remained unchanged since it’s last run in 2022, there were a few signs that CP and KCS had merged to form “CPKC,” specifically on the side of one of the boxcars. However, other cars still said “Canadian Pacific.”
The U.S. edition of the Holiday Train began in Ontario before heading south toward former KCS territory. In the weeks since, it has been slowly but surely working its way through the Midwest and will end its run next week in Calgary. The Canadian edition began on former Central Maine & Quebec territory and has been working its way west to British Columbia.
On Tuesday, December 12, the train finally entered British Columbia when it crossed over Crowsnest Pass. The Canadian edition of the train usually visits this part of the CPKC system every other year, but due to the pandemic this year was the first since 2019 that the train visited the area on a public run (in 2021, the train was brought down to the Crowsnest to gather footage for the “Virtual Holiday Train”). The run from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Cranbrook, B.C., was among the busiest days of the trip, with a 7:15 a.m. call time out of Lethbridge and stops at Fort MacLeod, Pincher Creek, Coleman, Sparwood, Fernie, Jaffray and Cranbrook. This day’s run featured performances by artists Tyler Shaw and Kiesza. While Fernie and Cranbrook attracted some of the biggest crowds, hundreds of people attended the smaller shows as well despite the bitter cold weather. The train will make its final stops next week before returning to Calgary for the year. See the full schedule online.