Canadian Pacific Holiday Train goes virtual 'due to the pandemic'

MILWAUKEE - Like so many things in 2020, the popular Canadian Pacific Holiday Train is going virtual this year.

The "Holiday Train at Home" concert, scheduled for Dec. 12, will "raise food, money and awareness for people who struggle with hunger," CP officials announced on their website.

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Everyone is invited to watch live at 7 p.m. CST on the Canadian Pacific Facebook page, and, if you can, offer support to those in need.

Canadian Pacific will donate $1.24 million to 201 food banks in communities that would normally host the Holiday Train. The company's website says that donation will bring the total amount of money raised at CP Holiday Train stops to $19.05 million since the train's inception in 1999. Benefitting food banks have also received 4.8 million pounds of food donations at local Holiday Train events.

"For more than two decades, the CP family has supported Canadians and Americans in need through the CP Holiday Train program," said CP President and CEO Keith Creel on the company's website. "In a year full of challenge and loss, we will host this concert as a call to action for the train's supporters to donate generously if they can this Christmas season. The spirit of the Holiday Train will come alive even though the train itself will not operate due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

CP intends to resume operating the annual train tour in 2021. The train did make stops in southeast Wisconsin in 2019.