Winnipeg–Churchill train


The Winnipeg–Churchill train is a semiweekly passenger train operated by Via Rail between Winnipeg and Churchill, Manitoba. It is the only dry-land connection between Churchill and the rest of Canada.

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 and Churchill.
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 on Hudson Bay, taking approximately 45 hours each way.
An unnamed mixed passenger train connecting with the Winnipeg–Churchill train at The Pas previously served Lynn Lake, but this service was truncated to Pukatawagan in 2003 by the then track owners OmniTRAX citing a loss in freight traffic making the service unprofitable. Via still operates twice weekly service from The Pas to Pukatawagan on behalf of the Keewatin Railway which now owns the Sherridon Subdivision.
Service between Gillam and Churchill was suspended on May 23, 2017, when flooding heavily damaged the track bed and bridges. 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.