The Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CP) Holiday Train will be making stops in the Eastern Townships in Lac-Mégantic, Sherbrooke, and Farnham on Nov. 24. 

For 24 years, the CP Holiday Train has been spreading joy across Canada and the United States. 

Additionally, the CP Holiday Train supports food banks by raising money, food, and awareness for food insecurity. It encourages people to do their part and support their local food bank. 

“Since the program started in 1999, the CP Holiday Train has raised more than $21 million and five million pounds of food,” said Salem Woodrow, spokesperson for the CP. 

The CP Holiday Train makes 168 stops across all provinces where the CP operates and eight states in three weeks time. 

“The train program starts in Montreal and continues generally south, and then west across the country. There are two CP Holiday trains. There is one that we call the U.S Train because it operates in the U.S and Canada. The other train is called the Canadian Train and that one operates only in Canada,” said Woodrow. 

Woodrow described what people can expect to see as the train passes through their communities.

“The CP Holiday Train is about 14 rail carts, about 1000 feet in length, decorated with hundreds of thousands of LED lights in a festive holiday design. A really fun fact about the CP Holiday Train is that you can see it from the sky,” said Woodrow. “It is so well lit and bright it is just a fabulous sight for people of all ages, especially the kiddos.”

After acquiring the Central Maine and Quebec railway a few years go, explained Woodrow, the CP is finally bringing its program to the communities of the Eastern Townships, Quebec, and Maine. 

“With the program coming back this year after two years of the pandemic, we are finally able to bring our beautiful train to life to these communities,” she noted. 

The CP Holiday Train will be passing through Lac-Mégantic at 12:15 p.m., Sherbrooke at 5 p.m., and Farnham at 9:15 p.m.

“The performers are Brittany Kennell and Don Amero. Brittany Kennell is from Beaconsfield, Quebec and she is the first Canadian on NBC’s “The Voice.” Don Amero is of Cree and Métis descent and a folk singer from Winnipeg,” said Woodrow. 

The CP Holiday Train brings our beautiful train to life and puts on a free holiday themed concert, said Woodrow, but really it’s a tremendous amount of work and support from each community’s food bank to bring some sort of truck or collection area. 

“So when folks come to the holiday train and they bring either food or money donation for the food bank, they will be able to drop it off directly with the food bank. One of the really important pieces of the CP Holiday Train is that everything that is raised and collected in the community, stays right there in the community,” added Woodrow. “For some of the food banks, the train’s stop is one of the main fundraisers for the next 12-months.”

For more information about the CP Holiday Train and its scheduled stops in the Eastern Townships, visit the CP website. 

Listen to the full interview below: