Canada or USA trans-continental train - which one?

The train network in the US sucks.

Go to Canada.

Have done the zephyr and loved seeing both Rockies and Sierra mountains. We took a chance and upgraded ON train at a discount, but I’d book a sleeper car next time we loved having space, beds, and private bathroom too.

You've probably seen all of these links but here they are again. As long as you get to KAMLOOPS BC in daylight you'll have captured the "best" part of the Rockies. You wouldn't go wrong spending a couple of days in Jasper before carrying on to Vancouver

https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/Guide_Toronto-Vancouver_En.pdf

https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/prestige/Rockies-Pacific_Toronto-Vancouver-Canadian_classes-and-trains-cars_pre-launch.pdf

https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/111139179-1-Sales-tools_Anglais_WEB.pdf

https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan/train-schedules/toronto-winnipeg-jasper-vancouver

I haven’t been on any of the Canadian trains but growing up I took the train from Chicago to the US west coast every summer. We always took the southern route through Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Great views of the petrified forest and Arches National Park. If your end point is San Francisco, Portland or Seattle you change trains in LA and head up along the Pacific Coast.

At least on the US side of the border, the views from the train don’t get interesting until you get west of Chicago.

It’s my understanding that passenger trains play second fiddle to commercial trains. My experience from Santa Barbara, CA to Palms Springs was a nightmare. I left at mid morning and my 6 PM arrival was at 6:30 AM the next day. We sat on the side spurs for hours and hours. Delays are notoriously long. Don’t do it unless you have a lot of time to burn.

Go Canada: More Mountains, US route has more Prairie and Wheat fields .September may have some autumn leaves. Canada does have some tourist custom trains; they can be spendy, but probably is worth it if you are coming from NZ. But if I were you could take Amtrak from Vancouver you would see quite the variety of Scenery and city Stops in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. Not so posh, but not so dragged out. If you want to go to the other Coast, I would fly. Trains run more often between the Northeast Coast cities. A lot more commuters.

It’s a 4 day journey from Toronto to Vancouver. By VIA rail. Friends did the trip from Vancouver to Toronto and crossed the Rockies at night and said that the Prairies got boring (Canadian joke for everyone that has taken the train or car cross-country is that we need to edit Saskatchewan and parts of Alberta and Manitoba!). There are two routes through the Rockies - the more scenic is probably the one via Banff but Jasper is pretty gorgeous too.

Maybe fly across to Calgary or Edmonton and pick up a rental car and drive through the Rockies?

We have done the train from Vancouver to Banff. I would pick Canada in a heartbeat!

Interesting - I've checked VIA - toronto-vancouver - their discounted births are already sold out - now around $3000/2 pensioners! Flying to Edmonton is making a lot of sense at the moment...

If you're thinking that , here's what I would do. Fly to Calgary , make your way to Banff , make your way to Lake Louise , make your way up one of the most beautiful highways in the world , the Icefields Parkway to Jasper , and board the train in Jasper enroute Vancouver ... that's what I would do.

https://icefieldsparkway.com/file_uploads/ParksCanada_IcefieldsParkway_map.pdf

You don't want to ride trains in the US except the NY/Boston/DC route. My husband and daughter took the train from Birmingham to New Orleans and they could have driven there in less time-I think the delay was 7 hours.

We did an Alaska cruise from Vancouver and I reserached taking the Canadian train to the Canadian Rockies.
A four day tour on the train was going to cost over $2000 US per person.
I found a great bus tour that saw more places for $650 US pp. We did Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.

Also, I found that the transcontinental Canadian Rail trip was very expensive. Further, the long passage over the plains would be a bit boring.

However, the Canadian Rockies are amazing, I highly recommend such a trip. The US rail trips are also expensive and not so impressive, still, perhaps a short one that does the Rockies.

I would hesitate to recommend any American train options. I once attempted to travel across my childhood home state of Pennsylvania to see it from another angle but it seemed as though I could have cut another Forbes Road in the amount of time it took. Amtrak between Detroit and Chicago used to be an acceptable option when I wanted to quickly see an art exhibit and dart home quickly but there have been recent incidents that would discourage me. You've got to be super flexible and account for delays, interruptions and inconveniences.

Only a few of these answers seem to actually answer your question (and I can’t either). I did the VIA Rail Toronto to Vancouver with a 3 day stop in Jasper in 2019 and loved it (trip report) - Saskatchewan and all. Sounds like may not be possible at this point.

One of my goals is to take the Zephyr; I haven’t checked recently because some of the dining options were still not what I wanted (Covid). But I will do it at some point.

Neither of these are about transportation but about experience. So yes, be very flexible with your schedule and it was a little pricy for a single sleeping compartment, but it was right for me at the time. So I would say if you just want scenery, head to a Rocky Mountains location and stay. If you want the additional train experience, add the train.

A friend took the train through Canada, starting in the west I believe. I’m sure the same route is done in reverse. The train stopped at night and the passengers stayed at nice hotels along the way. He really enjoyed it. Sadly he passed away earlier this year so I can’t ask him for more details, but perhaps you can do a search if something like that interests you.

My H and I have taken many US trains cross country. As sometimes we have taken them separately I will combine our thoughts here. We love the trains...with bed, of course. It's a beautiful, relaxing way to cross the country and to get an idea of how beautiful, interesting and extensive the country is. I have not YET taken the train through Canada, but it, too, is on the list. Taking a train is about the journey. So here are our thoughts. Always get a bed via roomette or the bedroom. One ideal way to travel would be to get two roomettes across from each other so you have a view on both sides at all times. We have gotten roomettes each time and shared, but we get along well and haven't minded the upper bunk. It depends on one's size. At almost 70's and into 80's, respectively, we will either get two roomettes or a bedroom next time. You'll need to study what works for you.

From Boston, it is easy to take the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, about 22 hours, overnight. It will arrive so that you can get on one of the cross country trains without an overnight stay in Chicago. My DH found the Southwest Chief the most interesting, traveling east to west, but it goes through the Sierra Nevadas, which he loved, not the Rockies. I traveled this line west to east so I missed the mountains. We found the scenery on the Zephyr to be beautiful through the mountains, through the plains, etc. We actually took the Zephyr both directions and felt both directions were equal. You get very varied terrain by taking any of these cross country trips.

DH thinks the scenery between the Zephyr and the California Starlight (along the west coast) to both be wonderful. But, they might have taken the Observation Car off the Starlight, so check that out if you decide to do the Southwest Chief (LA) and the Starlight to get to SF. DH says the Empire Builder was enjoyable, but it is not on the top of his list. If you want to go to Glacier National Park, it would be the train to take. He found the part through Oregon interesting, comparing the east and western part of that state.

There's a large component of people who love these trains. I think most of the naysayers for the US long distance trains are people who haven't spent any or much time on them. Oh, and the interesting people you meet on this end of the trains is wonderful!

Unfortunately, I can not yet compare these to Canada...someday though!

I haven't taken a train in years and the last one was Auto train from Sanford FL to DC (well really Lorton VA) and back.

BUT, I live in the edge of the mountains in N. Idaho near the Empire Builder Amtrak route. The train goes thru the Idaho/Montana Rockies in the middle of the night. Yes, eastbound it stops in Spokane WA after midnight, Sandpoint ID at 220A and across the mountains to Libby MT at a bit after 5A. And yes, we passed on buying a house near the Amtrak (and freight) tracks because of the disturbance during the night.

https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/schedule-results.html

Westbound it leaves Whitefish MT at 10:20 PM heading thru the scenic MT and ID Rockies.

https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/schedule-results.html

The passenger trains to yield to freight traffic. You can check on the amount of delays but they are not as bad on the Empire Builder now as they were a few years ago when they were hauling a lot of product out of the Bakken Oil Fields in Eastern MT and Western ND. At that point the delays were 6 hours plus as passenger traffic was shunted to a siding to yield to the freight haulers. One of my nephews was at university in LaCrosse Wisconsin and took the train home to Northern ID a few times in winter. Yes, they had 6 hours delay every time. Thank goodness he had a friend who could be "on call" and pick him up 6 hours late. The Spokane train station is not a location where I would go in the middle of the night and would barely feel safe in the middle of the day.

To me this kind of journey depends on a lot of things. Train enthusiasts love it regardless of the delays, poor food, crazy schedule. People who are just using it for transportation to a gorgeous sightseeing area may prefer to fly or drive for a more efficient trip or at least do their train portion as a very short part of the overall trip. Your trip, your choice.

Whenever it comes down to making tough travel choices / decisions, I invariably get the Seals and Crofts earworm "We May Never Pass This Way Again"

A number of years ago we took the train across Canada starting in Quebec City and finished in Vancouver. It was a great trip! At the time they allowed extended stop, so we spent several days along the way in Toronto, Winnipeg, Banff, and Calgary. We rented a car to visit Banff and Jasper National Parks. It’s a wonderful trip if you have a few weeks.

Wow so many responses thank you so much! Interesting that there seems to be a majority of Americans leaning towards the Canadian options LOL.

I should have said up front I very aware that taking the train is not an efficient form of transport in North America (it isn't in Australia or NZ either). Its more about the journey than the destination in this case. We do like trains and have done a 3 d/2 nights across Australia from Adelaide to Perth a few years ago.

I think I've got 2 options I might price up :
a) train NY-Chicago, a few day in Chicago (never been there) and then the California Zepher to SF. The downside of this route is that we were in SF this year, which we loved but I'd rather go somewhere different.

b) train NY-Montreal and then fly to Calgary - hire a car for @periscope suggestions of self-driving and then get on a train for the last section Jasper- Vancouver. I'm leaning to this one as I'd like to go back to Vancouver (I worked there in the 80s but partner's not been to Canada) - but we could also do Vancouver as part of a planned future Alaska trip...

So many choices - I need more spreadsheets I think!

@Wray - thanks for your comments re roomettes/bedrooms on Amtrak - it's quite confusing - I'd confirmed that the upper bunk is fine for me - but it hadn't occurred to me that we'd only see out one side of the train hmmm...

@Pam - yes annoying to miss the best scenery overnight!

The other issue we're going to start to run into is length of trip. This is on the end of a 26 cruise ex Boston - an my partner said he didn't want to away for so long next year (we were away for 3.5 months this year LOL. We'll see...

Hmm, I've never been on a cruise, but I am not sure I would want to spend several days/nights in a compartment on a train after many nights in a cabin on a ship. That's a lot of time spent in closed environments.

There's only 7 days at sea out of 25 - and as the cruise is north to Greenland and Iceland - they will be very long days on land with late departures and almost midnight sun. We'll need a rest. The only things we do in the cabin is sleep and change - and often the cabin is larger than hotel rooms we've had on land

One other caveat is to know that in the US Mountain West (and possibly the Canadian Mountain West) in late August/September there can be smoke drift from wildland fires from near or far away. I think I remember that your partner has some health issues so just mentioning this in case they are respiratory-related. Last summer the smoke here in North Idaho Panhandle was not bad at all, just a couple of weeks of intermittent poor air quality. Previous years we've started in mid-July and run thru Sept (when the snows put out fires). No way to tell what this coming year will be. We've gotten smoke drift from bad fires in California as well as bad fires north of us in British Columbia.

On the other hand....if by any chance you come thru Coeur d'Alene we'll have a special Meet up group at a local French Bakery to welcome you to the area, whether it's our regular 1st Saturday meeting day or not, lol!!

I didn’t know the name Zephyr was still in use, it comes from the name of a model of train once extensively used in the Midwest by Burlington (now merged into BNSF, Burlington Northern Santa Fe).

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/streamliners-burlington/

This is a few years old.

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/which-is-better-empire-builder-or-via-rail-canadian.71469

There is a bus connection between Grand Forks ND and Winnipeg MB

That's news to me!

Periscope: I deleted that because I couldn’t confirm that it still runs.

I'm considering a cross-country train trip as a retirement gift to myself. I'd really like to be a hobo for a month and let someone else worry about the transportation so I can see the countryside.

Question: Do U.S. train stations have rental car counters, taxi stands and hotel shuttles like airports do?

You tube has many videos of people chronicling these journeys. Maybe watch a few and see what you think. US trains tend to cross Rockies in the night, so watch the schedule.

I don’t know about Canadian rails, but Amtrak uses freight line tracks thus freight trains have priority. The delays will be arduous.

The delays will be arduous.

I've never known that to be the case. The pull-overs for priority freight trains are built into the schedule. The only real cause of delays are equipment malfunction or weather.

Just an update. We are now planning on Canada for the trans-Continental rather than the USA. It seemed logical to see Quebec/Ontario as we were in the area (Boston) and its not an area you ever just randomly end up in when flying ex NZ. I've priced Canada Rail - but it makes Amtrak look cheap. The rooms are all book for September (already!) and open bunks would be fine except a ) they are about C$4k for 2 and b) there is no power outlet so my partner couldn't use his cpap which is a problem for 4 nights.

So its looking likely we'll fly to Calgary hire a car to see the Rockies and still debating whether to train to Vancouver or maybe fly to Victoria

The trans USA thing is still on the list though for a future time

I , too, watch Jeb Brooks and Grounded Life Travel. And 'Downie Live' does good videos as well. Quite recently he did the most southerly US station to the most northerly via the AMH, with lots of very interesting stops which was a fantastic series.
As an outsider looking in, someone from the UK, it always amuses me how much American people malign Amtrak. I have travelled quite extensively on Amtrak (including trans-continental) and I don't think they are as bad as many people think they are.
Outside a few areas they may not be mass transit, but as an overland journey I just love them.
I have maybe been lucky but I have not experienced a really severe delay yet. The worst was around 3 hours but on a train that has travelled from Florida to LAX (before Hurricane Katrine closed the Florida to New Orleans pax route) that is very reasonable and is far better than I would expect on an average UK journey, mile for mile.
It's rather like outsiders love UK trains, but those of us who live here and use them frequently often have a different perspective.
One of the other little things which is good about US train termini is how you can get mass transit info for that city at the station (or could before Covid). I have done that across the nation, and it's planted lots of ideas in my mind. You can never do that in the UK. Seattle King Street is just one example- i arrived there after 8 at night from Vancouver BC, and just walking out the front door picked up a whole sheaf of bus timetables, to really interesting places. I immediately wanted to spend a week there.
For good measure at 11pm that evening I walked into Seattle Ferry Terminal and amazingly could pick up a ferry timetable not only for WSF but every ferry of every operator in the Puget sound and beyond into Canadian waters. Unimaginable in the UK.

We have done both the Rocky Mountaineer (we spent a night in Vancouver, took the train, and had one night in Jasper and 3 in Banff) and the California Zephyr. The Zephyr was fun (we took our kids) but the Mountaineer was much better. Periscope's suggestions are excellent, the plan you developed as a result looks great to me.

Edited to add: now I see you are possibly going to skip the Rocky Mountaineer. I'd recommend taking it if you can.