A line of SUVs ground to a halt, horns sounding out before the reason for the hold-up became clear: a mule deer and her fawn trotted between the traffic, then hopped onto the pavement and carried on in the direction of the train station. I was in downtown Jasper in Alberta, Canada, a mountain town that’s reminiscent of a ski village, with wandering elk and gift shops selling bear spray at the counter.
Located in the middle of Jasper National Park, the alpine town of just 4,200 residents is a major junction on some of Canada’s greatest railway routes. Both The Canadian (a transcontinental passenger train from Vancouver to Toronto) and the luxury Rocky Mountaineer (whose routes include scenic trains in Western Canada and the Canadian Rockies) are a regular feature of the landscape, their carriages dwarfed by peaks gathered like a group of elders.
But there’s a third, lesser-known train that departs Jasper three times a week, pulling passengers into the farthest depths of British Columbia. Completed by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914, the line spans 1,160km, linking Jasper to Prince Rupert, a port city on Canada’s north-west coast. Known locally as the “Skeena” or the “Rupert Rocket”, VIA Rail’s Train 5 takes two days to make the journey, with an overnight stop in the city of Prince George. Compared with Canada’s more celebrated routes, it’s virtually unknown by international tourists, but is one of the world’s most beautiful train journeys – one that provides a major lifeline to local communities.