The Winnipeg–Churchill train (formerly known as the ''Hudson Bay'' and, before that, ''Northern Spirits'') is a semiweekly passenger

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

operated by

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

between

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

and Churchill, Manitoba. It is the only dry-land connection between Churchill and the rest of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The service, which runs through Manitoba and Saskatchewan, travels on the Canadian National Railway line north to The Pas, where it transfers to the Hudson Bay Railway, passing through Wabowden, Manitoba, with a spur from Thicket Portage to Thompson, and Gillam on its way to the

Port of Churchill The Port of Churchill is a privately-owned port on Hudson Bay in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Routes from the port connect to the North Atlantic through the Hudson Strait. , the port had four deep-sea berths capable of handling Panamax-size vesse ...

on Hudson Bay.

Schedule

The northbound train leaves Winnipeg at 12:05 on Tuesdays and Sundays and is scheduled to arrive in Churchill two days later at 09:00. The southbound service departs Churchill at 19:30 on Thursday and Saturday evenings and reaches Winnipeg at 16:45 two days later. An additional weekly service operates in each direction between

The Pas The Pas ( ; french: Le Pas) is a town in Manitoba, Canada, located at the confluence of the Pasquia River and the Saskatchewan River and surrounded by the unorganized Northern Region of the province. It is approximately northwest of the provinc ...

(departure at 02:30 on Fridays) and Churchill (departure at 19:30 on Tuesdays). The trip takes approximately 45 hours each way.

History

An unnamed mixed passenger train connecting with the ''Winnipeg–Churchill train'' at The Pas previously served

Lynn Lake Lynn Lake is a town in the northwest region of Manitoba, Canada, approximately from Winnipeg. The town is the fourth-largest town in Manitoba in terms of land area. It is centred on the original urban community of Lynn Lake. The town was named ...

, but this service was truncated to

Pukatawagan Pukatawagan is a First Nations community about north of The Pas in Manitoba. It is part of the Mathias Colomb First Nation. It can be reached by train from The Pas by a branch of the Keewatin Railway Company, a passenger service provided by Vi ...

in 2003 by the then track owners

OmniTRAX OmniTRAX, Inc. is a transportation and transportation infrastructure holding company based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It primarily owns or operates railroads, with a network of 25 regional and shortline railroads in 12 U.S. state ...

citing a loss in freight traffic making the service unprofitable. Via still operates twice weekly service from

on behalf of the

Keewatin Railway The Keewatin Railway Company is a First Nations-owned shortline railroad that operates in northern Manitoba, between The Pas, and Pukatawagan. This is Canada's second First Nations railway, the first being Labrador and Northern Quebec's Tshiueti ...

which now owns the Sherridon Subdivision.

2017 flooding

Service between Gillam and Churchill was suspended on May 23, 2017, when flooding heavily damaged the track bed and bridges. Because supplies had to be flown in by air when train service was suspended, prices skyrocketed in Churchill. Repairs of the track began on September 8, 2018. By October 31, 2018, the track was repaired, and passenger services resumed with train 693 on December 2. VIA_Winnipeg-Churchill

References

External links

*
Winnipeg-Churchill train
at Via Rail Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson Bay (Train) Passenger rail transport in Manitoba Passenger rail transport in Saskatchewan Via Rail routes Night trains of Canada