CHICAGO – Canadian National plans to bring back its employee-center Santa Train for the 2018 with a broader reach. The railroad made the announcement with a Facebook post on Thursday:
“CN is delighted to announce it is expanding a decades-old tradition with a 2018 Santa Train that will provide more employees, their families and friends in more locations the opportunity to participate in festive holiday activities,” the post reads. “The 2018 CN Santa Train will be touring some of its customary sites as well as a number of other locations across its US network, from Michigan and Wisconsin to Illinois and Louisiana, starting towards the end of November. CN is pleased to continue and grow this holiday initiative that has brought happiness to generations of families over many years. CN will provide more details to local audiences in the coming weeks.”
Trains News Wire will provide more information as it is available.
This year is the 48th year of the Santa Train. It started out as an Illinois Central tradition running between local towns from Rantoul, IL to Kankakee, IL. As railroad rules and traffic changed, it was moved away from the main line and onto the Gilman sub, with a new list of towns. This is the first year CN is not doing the traditional IC Santa Train, choosing instead to do a modified version intended for employees, family, and friends.
This “decades-old tradition” is news to me. Can someone alleviate my ignorance with a brief history? Is CP getting too much of the glory? Since it’s on CN, will it run 15 hours late? Just curious.