Grey Cup to travel across Canada on its own train for centennial celebrations

TORONTO – The Grey Cup will be riding the rails this fall.

Canada’s biggest football prize is travelling by train to more than 100 communities, including Iqaluit.

The trip celebrates the Cup’s 100th anniversary.

Wrapped with photos of CFL players and historical images of Canadian football, the Grey Cup 100 Train features a museum car filled with memorabilia.

There is also a team car built to resemble a dressing room and one dedicated to the Grey Cup itself.

Other stops on the tour include all eight CFL cities as well as St. John’s, Charlottetown, Moncton, Halifax and Quebec City.

The train departs Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station on Sept. 9 and will travel 4,100 kilometres. Its final stop is Nov. 17 at Toronto’s Exhibition Station, just a week before the 100th Grey Cup game.

“Every year thousands of Canadians make a pilgrimage to the host city,” CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said Wednesday as the train was unveiled at a rail yard in Toronto’s west end. “Now we get a chance to bring the Grey Cup to Canadians across the country.”

According to Cohon, the tour took two years to organize, including striking deals with Via Rail, CP and CN.

“It is a complicated undertaking,” says Cohon. “There are so many freight trains moving across this country. So where you can put your train, how long it can be in a station is all part of it.”