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www.transportaction.ca
Wow - that's an understatement!Jake Landau rode Amtrak/VIA Maple Leaf and boy was he unimpressed
The Maple Leaf train from Toronto to NYC is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because I'll be damned if I ever ride it again.
If you love your family, you will never let them ride this train.www.jakelandau.ca
Cascades is a bit different, no? There are no intermediate stops between the US border and Vancouver, just as the St Lambert stop will be deleted from Adirondack if one day the clearance facility ever opens at Montreal Central.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no intention to create a direct Toronto-Chicago train, just to run a Chicago-Detroit-Windsor train, which would connect with a VIA train…
Could they instead have only pick ups one way and one side and drop offs the other side? For example Chicago-> Toronto, train only picks up on the USA side and only drops off on the Canada side. For Toronto -> Chicago, it only picks up on the Canada side and only drops off on the USA side? Then have all stops have some sort of way of preclearance?
There may be the ambition to eventually provide Chicago-Detroit-Toronto through services, but all of the plans I am aware of and which acknowledge the sensitivies of the relevant border protection agencies assume a cross-border facility in either Detroit or Windsor…
The thing about that article though is that it isn't just the border itself, but the crew changes to permit through service on Amtrak equipment as a VIA operated internal service, and the impacts on/changes to services provided.
Not sure I follow, are we still talking about that rant/blogpost from Jake Langan you posted?
I don't think any part of the LDS routes are faster by train than car. Part of that is the padding to keep it on time, and part of is is the need to side it due to freight movements. You would think that isn't a problem as it is directional running in that section.
The eastbound trip does not take that long though it's still much longer than driving. I believe the train arrives in Vancouver quite early in the morning and waits until a "normal" wake up time, since this is a sleeper train VIA does not want to force passengers to wake up and detrain at 3 or 4 in the morning. I'm not sure if it arrives in Vancouver in advance of the "official" arrival and you can exit early if you wish, or if it just sits in a yard or siding. This also allows the train to end its run "on time" even if it's several hours delayed.
I see that now. Over nine hours from Vancouver to Kamloops. That’s mad.
I've taken the Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver twice. Part of that is likely because the train is in Jasper in the afternoon one day, and then need to arrive in Vancouver in the morning. So either they arrive super early in the morning, or they go through the Rockies overnight. (This is opinion/conjecture)
