Juneau to Jasper by Ferry and Train 16th - 20th Aug

The Ferry
Our two day ferry/cruise from Juneau to Prince Rupert was a hive of inactivity. After spending the first 20 minutes casing out the ship’s entertainment options we realised it boiled down to looking through the windows from the front observation lounge, open air views at the back from the solarium, the self-service cafe and the bar. So, naturally, we decided to have a couple of drinks in the bar on our first evening out on the water.
The rest of the trip was spent reading, with only the occasional trip to the bar until we reached what we were promised was the scenic highlight of the trip - the Wrangell Narrows. Also know as Pinball Alley. It is, as the name suggests, narrow. And also long. About 35 kilometres long and a maximum of a kilometre wide although the channel for shipping is only 300 metres wide at most points. We entered the narrows at dusk and saw the twinkling lights stretching in to the distance, in true superlative American style it was labelled one of the most ‘buoyed’ stretches of water in the world with its sixty plus flashing buoys. All very exciting and after the captain negotiated the first few turns successfully, and it got darker and darker we left him to it and went to bed. That was the most exciting part of the boat trip until we hit Prince Rupert the following day.

Manners and the Beastly Train:
The wonderful thing about travelling around isolated parts of North America is that people tend to be very friendly. I don’t suppose this is a particular plus when travelling in cars etc but it is if you’re travelling by bike - after cycling all day and battling the elements, it’s really very nice to be welcomed with a lovely smile and a ‘How are you?’ People you don’t know say ‘hello’ in the street (even in Anchorage - a relatively big city), you don’t need to ask people the way, they stop you and ask if you need help, delays are always apologised for and normal daily transactions are usually accompanied by friendly conversations. In one town a woman even came up and shook my hand and said ‘Welcome to Terrace’.

Unfortunately, this made it all the more shocking when we finally did encounter a nasty man in charge of checking people in at the Skeena Railway terminal in Prince Rupert. We had not received and did not find any information in regards to what food would be provided over the next couple of days and having only provided ourselves with breakfast (assuming, as anyone would, that there would be a dining car on a train travelling for two full days), we decided to ask. This man wanted to know what class we were in - ‘comfort’ (but should more realistically be called ’scum’), he informed us that we better get to grocery store asap because although there was a ‘cart with muffins’, there wouldn’t be enough food for everyone for the journey as the coach was full. I told the man that this information really ought to be advertised on the internet so that passengers could be prepared for the journey, but he made it quite clear that they didn’t do this so that the passengers were forced to buy food on the train and the railway company could therefore make more money with inflated food prices. Furthermore, the practicalities of getting into town and back on a bike, with less than half an hour before the train was due to leave, didn’t interest him in the slightest, but his unprofessional attitude and the pessimistic advice immediately affected my mood and I dreaded getting on the train, especially when faced with going hungry for the best part of the day (the train journey was 13 hours!). All was not lost, however, as a British family nearby overheard our conversation and asked the man the same question as they were equally as clueless as to what food would be provided. It turned out they were in ‘Totem Class’, somewhat more luxurious than scumclass, and had prepared for lack of food and therefore had a spare bag of bagels and a packet of Swiss cheese, which they very kindly donated to us! As it happened, the information provided by this silly man was highly inaccurate; there was plenty of food for the journey, but as members of scumclass, it was indeed only a cart with ‘take-outs’. The train journey lasted for two days (with a break for the night in Prince George); the first day lasted for 13 hours and the second for 9. Apart from the odd stop at a station where we had to go scurrying around for a shop to find food other than ‘take out’, we had no other food available to us (even in Prince George, we arrived so late that we were lucky to find a shop open at 930pm, and left at 7 next morning, before any shop opened). Coming from countries where train distances tend to be a lot shorter, and the availability of food on such journeys a lot better, and going to a country that was equally as developed as mine, if not more so, with train distances infinitely longer than back home, I would have expected some sort of adequate food provision, at least a dining car. But, no, the Skeena Railway wanted ‘comfort class’ passengers to eat their three day old pre-packed sandwiches, or starve.
My other issue with this most snobby of railway companies was access. On the first day of the journey, I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that as a member of scumclass I was not entitled to walk down the whole train, and as a result I did so twice and thoroughly enjoyed the view from the Bubble Car. Although (according to the customer services manager) I knew that apparently we did not have ‘access’ to the latter , no one was there to stop me. This was a strange train as the majority of the people were in ‘Totem’ or ‘Totem Deluxe’ (2 cars) and the minority was us lot in ‘Comfort Class’ (1 car). On the second day, I went for my usual walk, only to find the cart lady asking me if I was in Comfort Class, and on confirming that this was so, I was not allowed to go any further. I told her that no one had stopped me the day before and wondered why she was stopping me now, she checked with the manager, he confirmed that this was so - I was not allowed to go. I went back to my seat, seething with anger at being trapped in the one railcar. Although, on a slightly brighter note, it was noticed that the seats in ‘comfort class’ might actually live up to the name even if nothing else did - more leg room, more recline and perhaps even more comfort than in the Totem Deluxe car.

We were very happy to arrive in Jasper; I think everyone was relieved to get off the train - even those for whom the two day trip wasn’t a desperate search for edible, healthy food. The scenery on the journey, however, was excellent so all was not in vain, and we were now in the Rockies. Apologies for lack of photos, but opportunities for these are much better on bikes.
Recommendations for the future: if you find one day that you must buy tickets on the Skeena Railway make sure you don’t go for the cheapest tickets!

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