A SESQUICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF CANADA ABOARD VIA RAIL PASSENGER TRAINS

摘要

The inimitable words of Joseph Howe, delivered nearly 167 years ago in a speech to endorse construction of the Intercolonial Railway, drift into a mind lost in quietude of the VIA Rail Canada station in downtown Halifax on a blustery January morning. The icy winds of a Nor'easter rattle the doors and windows of the Beaux-Arts-style landmark built (along with the attached Nova Scotian Hotel) by the Canadian National Railways between 1928 and 1930. Out on the platforms, snow swirls about the stylish stainless-steel lines of Tremblant Park, the classic Budd-built dome-observation that punctuates a 19-car train nudged up to the bumper post of the stub-end station. By noon, the station will be crowded with passengers waiting to board the train: VIA No. 15, the Montreal-bound Ocean.