Holiday Train comes to Belleville this afternoon

By Katy Burley

BELLEVILLE – Today is the day! The Holiday Train is arriving in Belleville this afternoon.

The tradition involves hundreds of thousands of lights and a live show featuring well-known performers – including Jim Cuddy from the band Blue Rodeo and singer Melanie Doane, who has had seven Top 40 singles in Canada.

The train has five stops on the agenda for today, and the first is Belleville. The “holiday on wheels” will arrive at 1:30 p.m., just south of Belleville General Hospital on Keegan Parkway in Bayshore Park.The train will also stop in Trenton, at 2:45 p.m. It will then travel to Brighton, Bowmanville and Oshawa.

Everyone who plans to attend is asked to bring a donation of a non-perishable food item or money. The donations will be used in the community.

The CP Holiday Train started in 1999 with just a few lights on a freight train that stopped in just a handful of communities. Over the years it has raises more than $7.4 million and collected more than 3 million pounds of food in Canada and the U.S.