In 2020, Rocky Mountaineer celebrates an important milestone: 30 years of luxury train travel through the Canadian Rockies. That’s 30 years of epic landscapes from the comfort of your reclining seat, 30 years of chef-created meals that are as spectacular as the show outside of those oversized windows, and 30 years of memories and friendships cemented over a glass of local wine and wildlife-spotting. Since 1990, Rocky Mountaineer has welcomed more than two million guests from around the world.  

The very first Rocky Mountaineer journey left Vancouver on May 27, 1990.  When founder Peter Armstrong started the company, Rocky Mountaineer ran with just a handful of traditional rail cars and the one route. It has since grown to operating 70 rail cars and three awe-inspiring rail routes that travel between Vancouver and the Canadian Rocky Mountain destinations of Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. Along the way, they’ve launched two deluxe levels of service, including GoldLeaf Service—introduced in 1995—with its distinctive bi-level coaches with a dining room on the bottom and panoramic glass-dome windows at the top.  

Still family owned, Rocky Mountaineer is the largest privately held luxury tourism train company in the world. In 2016, the company made its largest capital investment to date and commissioned 10 custom-designed GoldLeaf Service coaches that were introduced into service during the 2019 season. It might be 30 years old, but Rocky Mountaineer has no plans to slow down—unless it’s for guests to capture an amazing photo of that waterfall the train is passing.