Today is my rail trip from Winnipeg (Manitoba) to Edmonton (Alberta). The trip was expected to take 19 hours, leaving at 11.45am today and arriving at 6.25am tomorrow, so I booked a single sleeper compartment again. I received an email last night, however, from Via Rail to advise that the train had left Toronto late and so I was advised that there may be a delay in Winnipeg.

I had packed the night before, so I had breakfast, bought a newspaper and some water and snacks for the train, and took a taxi to the railway station, arriving at around 9.30am. The train was originally scheduled to arrive at 8am, and not surprisingly given the email, it had not arrived by the time I checked my suitcases.

The train was expected to arrive at 10am. Then 12 noon. It eventually arrived at 1.40pm, with a depart time of 2.45pm. Really I wasn’t too concerned. I had a couple of magazines and some audiobooks, so I was set. Plus because we didn’t leave on time (when I would have had lunch), one of the Via Rail staff arranged for me to get some food and drink. There turned out to be an issue with one of the switches and one of the wheels, so there was to be a short delay as a couple of parts were sourced.

We got onto the train around 2.30pm, still waiting for the parts to arrive. There was some heavy traffic and bad weather that caused some delays. We had dinner at 6pm on the train, and I went to bed to read at 7pm still waiting to hear when we’d leave Winnipeg. The staff did everything they could to make us comfortable and to keep us regularly informed about how things were progressing. They were great. Some of the more regular passengers said that delays happen all the time, especially in winter, with snow etc. Eventually the train started to roll at 8.40pm, but then stopped and started a few times. We ended up leaving the station at 9.35pm, around 10 hours late. Which was fine with me because it meant I would get to Edmonton at a reasonable time, not 6.22am. Plus I believe the same with the train as with planes, I’d much rather be delayed and ensure that whatever I am travelling on is mechanically sound so I will not get stuck in the middle of nowhere, or worse. So I switched off the light to go to sleep.