OLYMPIC GAMES - Investment opportunities aplenty aboard Alberta Train to Whistler

The crunch of snow boots against gravel and the huff and puff of travellers gasping fill the morning air as anxious riders heading up to Whistler grab their boarding passes and hurry to board the Alberta Train.

Around 5:45 a.m., and after a quick scan of their tickets, those headed out of Vancouver to catch all the Olympic action outside the city hop up the steep staircase on the loading platform and jump aboard their assigned boxcar.

Leaving from North Vancouver's Pemberton Station, one of the most coveted and most talked about locomotives in Western Canada toots its horn and fires up the engines.

"We're on our way," says the Travel Alberta host, as the service staff hand out champagne and orange juice to all the passengers aboard for the Wednesday morning ride.

If nothing else, the much-talked-about $7-million luxury train and Olympic marketing project is a place to sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.

The eight-car double-decker Rocky Mountaineer train was commissioned by the Alberta government as a mobile Olympic pavilion to cart potential investors and foreign delegates to events up in Whistler.

The multi-million dollar machine has 70 seats available each day for those looking to travel to Whistler, however, it's going to cost you. A $499 daily ticket will get passengers from Vancouver to Whistler and back. The premium package, for $1,000 per person, includes food and drink and transportation to the train platform in North Vancouver from downtown Vancouver.

Of the 70 reservation-only seats available, 16 are held for government ministers and potential investors. On Tuesday night, even Canadian gold medalist Maelle Ricker took a ride to her favourite playground in Whistler.

Jon Mamela, vice-president of marketing for Travel Alberta, says the train experience is aimed at attracting business investment opportunities and to build the province's public profile.

As part of the Olympic marketing package, media kits were distributed in the form of an iPod Touch.

The piece of cutting-edge technology, loaded with photographs of many popular Alberta travel destinations, was used to help reduce the province's environmental footprint at the 2010 Games, Mamela said.

The idea was to reduce waste caused by over-printing press releases and paper photographs.

Mamela also said the train is a great way to attract investment opportunities for the province of Alberta. The opportunities created by interacting with industry partners from Calgary, Edmonton, Jasper, Banff has been invaluable, he said.

He explains that the breakfast and dinner service on board the Alberta Train highlights Alberta's food industry.

"It's an opportunity to try Alberta cuisine through a variety of tastes, flavours, food products that represent the entire province."

Sandy Best, director of public relations for Lake Louise ski resort and proponent of the Alberta Train, said the opportunity to mingle with other industry professionals on the trip is second to none.

"I am gobsmacked," he said. "Some of the people on this train, if I wanted to get to see them professionally, I might get 15 minutes in the room; they'd be on their crackberry, the phone will be going and in 15 minutes I've gotta pitch everything I can."

"Here, I get six hours," said Best. "Going up I get to know them, find out what their thinking about, what their concerns are..."

For those feeling a little peckish, the breakfast was served up right. Aprikat beer battered "Mountain Pass Pancakes" with a side of boar bacon and maple syrup were definitely the talk of the trip, while the "All Aboard Omelette" - slathered in creamy Gouda cheese and stuffed with Italian sausage - was also a popular choice.

Once the train hit Whistler, passengers were free to spend the day as they wished. Soon after arrival, people were whisked away on one of the three shuttle busses ready to cart them to either a specific Olympic event venue or to Whistler Village itself.

Once travellers made their way back aboard the locomotive around 4:30 p.m., it was time to eat, again.

The dinner menu featured a few more local prairie mainstays. The "Braised Elk on a Ciabatta Bun" and "Skewered Beef", a AAA Alberta beef striploin, also featuring aprika beer, both filled the bellies of those on board.

Besides trying to dine the cash out of possible investors, the Albertans offered a little wine and cheese in the bar car on the ride back to Vancouver.

On Wednesday evening specifically, the party car was playing the quarterfinal men's ice hockey matchup between Canada and Russia on all of its six flat-screen Wi-Fi TVs.

The bar, filled with a wide variety of choice bottles of wine, beer and cocktails, was the place to be as the train rolled back into the station in North Vancouver around 9 p.m. Between the game and the large assortment of boozy drinks, rubbing shoulders with the corporate elite was an almost sure thing.