The Armstrong Collective looks to expand service on the newly rebranded Canyon Spirit while also exploring new opportunities along the original Canadian route.
Over the past 40 years, numerous companies have tried to revive the “golden age” of rail travel with mixed success. Some tour train operators, like American Orient Express, made a big splash only to fade due to self-inflicted wounds or economic forces beyond their control.
But Rocky Mountaineer and Canyon Spirit, owned by Vancouver-based Armstrong Collective, are an exception to the rule. Since 1990, Armstrong’s trains have carried nearly 2.5 million passengers, operating on more than 2,000 route-miles in both the United States and Canada, all the while working closely with Class I partners, including CPKC, CN and Union Pacific. The company employs more than 1,000 people during its operating season, which usually stretches from April to October.
After three decades of operating in western Canada, Armstrong expanded its popular Rocky Mountaineer excursions to the United States, with service between Denver and Moab, Utah, beginning in 2021. This spring, five years after that train was inaugurated, it has been expanded to Salt Lake City and rebranded Canyon Spirit. And officials with the company say they are not done yet.
While today the company is known for offering quality service aboard trains traversing stunning scenery, it came from humble beginnings. In 1990, Vancouver businessman Peter Armstrong purchased the right to operate a Vancouver to Banff tour train that VIA Rail Canada had inaugurated a few years earlier, to bring back passengers who had been lured away by scenic motor coach tours through the Canadian Rockies. Today, those original routes—the First Passage to the West to Banff, and Journey to the Clouds to Jasper—are among the company’s most popular. Those two trains, plus a third that (for now) operates along the former British Columbia Railway, move upwards of 90,000 passengers annually. The two flagship trains run from Vancouver to Kamloops, B.C., where passengers are put up in area hotels before continuing their journey to either Banff or Jasper.
While the term “tour train” might conjure up images of old-fashioned railcars poking along a scenic and lightly used branch line, Rocky Mountaineer’s operation is anything but sluggish. Its two most popular trains operate on CN and CPKC’s busy transcontinental routes, while its U.S. train—Canyon Spirit’s Rockies to the Red Rocks—runs on UP’s former Denver & Rio Grande Western main line, which also hosts Amtrak and BNSF trains. To keep up with busy freight railroads, Rocky Mountaineer has a robust maintenance facility in Kamloops, B.C., the halfway point on its two Canadian routes, that keeps a fleet of more than 100 pieces of rolling stock in main line condition. In fact, while the Federal Railroad Administration informed the railroad that it could follow brake system requirements for tourist and excursion railroads, Rocky Mountaineer/Canyon Spirit holds itself up to a higher standard, equivalent to those used by Amtrak.
For years, the U.S. was the railroad’s top market for passengers, but pandemic-related border closures changed all that. So, the company got creative: If they couldn’t bring passengers to Canada to ride their trains, they would bring the trains to the passengers. That’s how the Rockies to the Red Rocks was born in 2021, running between Denver and Moab. After steady growth over the past few years, the company decided to extend the run to Salt Lake City this spring, helping the train tap yet another market (and add another connection to a major international airport). At the same time, the company decided to stop using the Rocky Mountaineer name in the U.S. and instead go with something more reflective of the American southwest, thus the name Canyon Spirit. A spokesperson for Armstrong Collective said that demand on the U.S. route has been “incredible” and that some runs this year are already sold out. Ridership has been so good, they said, that they’ve added additional cars to the consist and will be running a second train along the route starting in 2027. The present run takes six days to go from Denver to Salt Lake City and return, with stopovers in Glenwood Springs, Colo., and Moab, Utah.
The company is also revamping its offerings north of the border this year, with a new train that for the first time ever will connect Banff and Jasper. The new Passage to the Peaks route is being offered in June and July of this year, while the FIFA World Cup happens in Vancouver (which will undoubtedly make finding accommodations there challenging, even for an established entity like Rocky Mountaineer). One train that will not be returning is the Rainforest to Gold Rush, which runs from Vancouver to Jasper via the former British Columbia Railway. With CN looking to abandon parts of the route, Rocky Mountaineer has said 2026 will be the last year for the train. The discontinuance of that train, however, will enable additional equipment to be sent south to the U.S. for expanded Canyon Spirit service.
Officials are hopeful the Rocky Mountaineer and Canyon Spirit are not done growing. The spokesperson said the company is always looking to expand, particularly in the U.S., but that it’s too early to say where that could happen or exactly what that would look like. One reason for optimism are demographics. Most of the railroad’s passengers are 55 and older, who are either retired or on their way to retirement.
“When we look at the demographic changes in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, we see great opportunity there,” said CEO Tristan Armstrong in a 2025 interview. “There’s going to be a pipeline of people growing into this market.”