Canadian Pacific’s (CP) Holiday Train comes back to Hamilton for the first time in a couple years after the pandemic relegated the display to virtual performances.
The 14-car train, decorated with hundreds of thousands of LED lights and holiday designs, arrives Tuesday night around 7:45 p.m. beside Lawrence Road just south of Gage Park.
A fundraiser on rail, the procession travels across Canada and the United States raising money, food and awareness for food banks.
The boxcar stage will also feature performers Lindsay Ell and Jojo Mason during a 30-minute free concert.
“So there are about 168 stops on our tour and it takes about three weeks for us to bring our two trains,” CP media relations manager Salem Woodrow explained.
Woodrow says the train earmarked to cross Canada, east to west, left Montreal last week and will finish it’s journey in the Vancouver area over the next three weeks.
The U.S. train is on its way into the midwest and will return to Canada via Saskatchewan in mid-December.
Donations for the food bank can be done with either cash or donations of non-perishable food like tuna, beans, rice, pasta, cereal and baby food.
More than $21 million and 5 million pounds of food have been collected since the first tour in 1999.
Hamilton Police says Lawrence Road will close between Cumberland and Kensington avenues from 4:30 p.m. to approximately 10:00 p.m.