13Aug11: The Maple Leaf (Rail Day 1)

We left Ithaca by van in the morning (Saturday) and drove to the Syracuse Amtrak station. The first rail leg of our journey was Amtrak's Maple Leaf from Syracuse, NY to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since this was a day trip we traveled coach on the Maple Leaf. In Toronto we were to have a two and a half hour layover before boarding the VIA Rail’s Canadian for Vancouver, B.C.

We left Syracuse around 1 pm, pretty much on time, headed west, and got about five miles. Then we stopped. There seemed to be a problem with a track switch. The train backed back into the Syracuse station and we sat there for nearly an hour until the switch was repaired.

Once we got going again there was freight congestion between Syracuse and Rochester. Every time we met an east-bound freight the Maple Leaf pulled into a siding and waiting for the freight to pass. By the time we got to Rochester we were over an hour behind schedule. West of Rochester we managed, somehow, not to lose any more time. Until we got to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

When we got to Canadian customs in Niagara Falls we were over two and a half hours behind schedule, and worried that we would not make our connection with the Canadian, which would not be running again until the following Tuesday. We didn't think the Maple Leaf could make up enough time to get us to Toronto before 10 pm. The train crew speculated that because the train was so late customs would go back to the more streamline system they had been using up until a few months ago and not take everyone off the train. No such luck. In fact Carol and I were chosen for a random luggage search.

While our luggage was emptied out and searched, including laptops and cell phone directories, our traveling companions, Marc and Phyllis, found a VIA Rail agent and asked about our chances of making our connection. No chance if we stayed on the Maple Leaf. Our only chance, and a slim one at that, was to hire a taxi to Toronto. It turns out that the VIA Rail people knew that we were on the Maple Leaf and needed to get to Toronto for the Canadian. They also knew the Maple Leaf was too late for us to make it and contacted Amtrak before we reached Buffalo and asked Amtrak to get us off the train in Buffalo and put us in a taxi to Toronto.  Amtrak refused to do so. Because Amtrak refused to do so we had to pay for the taxi out of our own pockets. With tip it was $US 210.

The taxi driver was very nice and skillful. And fast. At times we were going in excess of 130 Km/hr. Carol kept her eyes closed for much of this ride.  We got us to the Toronto station with less than ten minutes to spare. A VIA ticket agent was there waiting for us with our tickets. Fortunately the Canadian was not at the platform yet, so we had a short time to catch our breath. As it turns out the Maple Leaf did not get to Toronto until after 10:30 that evening.

17Aug11: The Cascades (Rail Day 5)

The third leg of our journey was aboard Amtrak's the Cascades. This leg was by bus from Vancouver to Seattle, Washington, then by train from Seattle to Portland, Oregon. We stayed in Portland for four days before taking Amtrak's Coast Starlight to Emeryville, California, to get the California Zephyr.

The bus left Vancouver about half an hour late, but there were enough passengers that they split it into two buses. One bus made all the scheduled stops and the other, which we were on, was express to Seattle with no stops except customs. We made good time on the highway. US customs was a breeze, just a glance at our passports and the bags through the x-ray scanner. As we approached Seattle we could see Mount Rainier in the distance. We actually got to Seattle about 45 minutes early, which meant we had about a three hour layover before the train portion of the Cascades left for Portland.

The train left Seattle pretty much on time. The Cascades was another day train for us, so again we traveled coach. The entire time we had the beautiful Cascade Mountains to the east of us, our left-hand side as we headed south. We steadily lost time on the way to Portland. Approaching Portland we saw Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Hood. This train has convenient monitors situated in each car showing the next stop and expected arrival times.  Based on the information on those monitors we are called our Portland friends, Ed and Sally, to let them know that we would be arriving a little later.  However we arrived in Portland around 9:00 pm, right on time, in spite of the fact that the monitor still indicated that we would not arrive there for at least 10 more minutes.  Lucky for us Ed and Sally showed up promptly anyway.