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From a glance at the map, this riverside city of 60,000, only 20 miles from Montreal in eastern Canada, is most of a continent away from Expo 86 on the Pacific coast in Vancouver, British Columbia.
As a matter of fact, however, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and its twin city of Lapraire are very much part of Expo and what is perhaps the greatest of all anniversary years in the story of train travel, the past and the promise of tomorrow.
It was 150 years ago this July 21 that a small wood-burning locomotive pulled two railroad cars 14 1/2 miles between Saint Jean-sur-Richelieu and Lapraire, as the economic elite of Montreal celebrated the beginning of Canadian railway history.
Fifty summertimes later, on July 4, 1886, the CP Pacific Express arrived in Port Moody in British Columbia 139 hours after leaving Montreal, to complete the first transcontinental trip by passenger train in Canada.
Special Pavilion
Both the 100th and 150th birthdays of Canadian rail transportation are celebrated in a special exhibit pavilion prepared for visitors to Expo by VIA Rail, Canada's passenger railway counterpart of Amtrak. VIA Rail is using the history of Canadian rail travel as a curtain raiser for a dramatic look into the tomorrow of train travel.
After more than two decades of decline in rail travel in the Automobile Age, VIA took over the passenger trains of Canada in 1977 and started the renaissance that is flowering this year. Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways now concentrate on freight trains.
Travelers to and from Expo have accelerated the renaissance by booking train accommodations at a record-setting pace.
And there's a timely incentive for taking the overnight train across the Rockies. Calgary will be host city for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Preparations are so far ahead of schedule that the slope facilities at Nakiska ski area near there can be previewed. The new Olympic Center in Calgary is open for simulated ski and bobsled runs for family fun, before visitors head off to such nearby...