CPKC Holiday Train Raises C$1.8MM
Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
Video Screenshot Courtesy of CPKC
Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) on Dec. 22 announced that the 2023 CPKC Holiday Train program raised a record C$1.8 million and collected more than 160,000 pounds of food for local food banks and food programs in the U.S. and Canada over the last four weeks.
Completing its 25th year, the CPKC Holiday Train has raised more than C$24.3 million and collected approximately 5.3 million pounds of food for community food banks in Canada and the U.S. since its inaugural journey back in 1999, according to the Class I railroad.
Additionally, the CPKC Holiday Express train this year visited 20 communities in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi raising US$200,000 for the Salvation Army.
“Once again, people in big cities and small towns across the CPKC network came together to celebrate the season and support their local communities,” said CPKC President and CEO Keith Creel. “We wish to thank the hundreds of thousands who gathered to see the Holiday Train over the past four weeks and express our gratitude to all those who gave so generously to support local food banks.”
CPKC Holiday Train concerts ran between Nov. 21 and Dec. 19, featuring performances by musical artists Virginia to Vegas, Trudy, Anyway Gang, Tyler Shaw, Kiesza, Seaforth, Tenille Townes, Breland, MacKenzie Porter and Dallas Smith.
This year’s Holiday Train concert tour stopped in 191 communities in six Canadian provinces and 14 U.S. states and for the first time traveled to communities south of Kansas City, Mo. in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.
CPKC also operated the Tren Navideño, a specially decorated train adorned with lights and festive scenes, bringing the holiday spirit to nine communities across Mexico as part of a unique holiday tradition running since 2010.
Separately, CPKC’s railroaders selected a livery design that the Class I railroad says, “captures the essence of our heritage while symbolizing our bright future.”
A video of the new CPKC locomotive livery on the freshly painted Little General, a quarter-scale model of a GE AC4400 locomotive, is available here.
CPKC first introduced the livery design in a June 28 LinkedIn post. The winning design was selected from five finalized options that were presented to all CPKC employees through an internal survey. Thousands of votes were received and tabulated.
