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SEATTLE, Wa. -- Rising in the dark of a damp winter morning to catch a 6:40 train is not the most appealing start to a holiday, even less so if the aim is to be at Vancouver's Pacific Central Station by the time U.S. customs and immigration facilities open at 5:30.

But the line-ups are shorter and the processing easier compared to flying, and the rewards of this little extra effort are great: Seats next to big picture windows on the right (west) side of the Amtrak Cascades train for the four-hour, 251-km run south to Seattle.

When the weather becomes cool and damp, there's little better than having a banquet of scenery brought, vista after vista, to your warm and comfortable seat.

While a mixture of over-familiarity and invasive security procedures has now made air travel about as thrilling as bus travel, there's still a little romance remaining about rail travel. The Amtrak Cascades may not be the Orient Express, but the vast and imposing station speaks of past glories, the huge locomotive throbs impatiently awaiting the signal to depart, and the brightly lit interiors of the sleek modern carriages glow invitingly. The sodium glare reflects off the tracks ahead until they vanish into the darkness, beckoning you on rather more effectively than the dead end of a runway.

The sky begins to pale as the train moves off and trundles slowly through a city now beginning to wake, damming rivers of traffic at suburban level crossings. The train then takes a route alongside the tranquil Fraser River past big lumber mills at the water's edge, surrounded by great rafts of floating logs, and a girder bridge that curves to meet both an equally dated road bridge and an elegant new cable-stay bridge for Vancouver's Skytrain metro system.

As the routes run parallel, cars and a Skytrain speed past mockingly. The Amtrak Cascades is far grander but more ponderous, although its speed increases after a perfunctory check of documents at the border. There are dreams of a high-speed rail corridor that will halve the four-hour travelling time from Vancouver to Seattle, but for now the streamlined nose on the locomotive is apparently for decoration only. Freight has priority, and there are occasional delays while something long and lumbering moves out of the way.

Speed is not anyway the point. The line meets and follows the coast, and as the day brightens there are views across grey seas to tiny islands bristling with pines. Vast flocks of water birds wheel, settle, and take off again; tall blue herons patrol estuaries whose mud flats are thronged with other waders.

On board a line forms in the buffet car. As might be expected of a train bound for the self-branded caffeine capital of America, the coffee is hot and fresh.

Children are given hats of stiff paper marked "Junior Conductor," and move around the carriages forming new friendships, sharing games consoles, and leaving their parents to gaze peacefully out of the windows.

South of the border the train moves through farm and horse country, with red-painted barns and neat clapboard houses, stopping occasionally at small stations surprisingly busy with porters and new passengers.

The train survives on heavy subsidies from assorted American and Canadian authorities along its route, but ridership numbers now make it one of Amtrak's most popular services, and it has recently been announced that a second daily service, originally started for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, is to be continued.

The remainder of the route hugs the coastline until entering the long tunnel to Seattle's King St. Station, whose elegant hall is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar restoration.

By now the early start is long forgotten and assorted hotels, the city's historic centre, and its waterfront are just a short walk away. But for those for whom the journey is more important than the destination, a 6:50 evening service back to Vancouver even makes this a feasible day trip.

DETAILS

The Amtrak Cascades has two southbound and two northbound services daily, with multiple supplementary bus services both on the same route and providing onward connections. Some trains continue south to Portland and Eugene, Ore. Full details of services and online ticket booking can be found at amtrakcascades.com. Telephone information and booking: 1-800 872 7245.