On the Canadian Holiday Train, crowds will experience Canadian music legend Valdy, who is one of the country’s most prolific musical story tellers. Joining Valdy will be young Ottawa rockers, Brothers Dube’ and Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer and long-time Holiday Train favourite, Tracey Brown. Bringing holiday cheer and the important food shelf message on the U.S. Holiday Train will be veteran Milwaukee folk-rocker Willy Porter, who has a fan base that includes the U.S., Canada, the UK and Europe. Along with Willy on the Holiday Train stage will be Nashville country-music recording artist Sydney Grigg.

“The magic of the Holiday Train is phenomenal,” says producer Randall Prescott, who is into his 10th year of putting together the entertainment for both trains. “To be able to bring this level of talent to thousands of people on this musical roadshow for food bank programs is very special and something I am proud to be a part of.”

Starting the last weekend of November and going until December 17, two Holiday Trains will stop in about 150 communities in eight U.S. Midwest and Northeast states and six Canadian provinces in the fight against hunger.  Each Holiday Train features 14 rail cars decorated with hundreds of thousands of technology-leading LED festival lights and other decorations. One of the cars is a modified boxcar that has been turned into a traveling stage for performers.  Since its launch in 1999, the Holiday Train program has raised close to $5.6 million and about 2.5 million pounds of food for North American food banks.  Everything raised in each community stays there for local distribution for those in need.

City.Mobi

Also in Canada today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Montreal.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Montreal.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.