posted
The pieces are finally in place for me to take this trip. I'd been waiting for the Canada Line in Vancouver and the Central Light Rail in Seattle to open before I could do this. I'll be going from Toronto to San Francisco by train.
I start by flying from Boston to Toronto next Friday, May 7. I only have one night in Toronto because of the tri-weekly schedule of the Canadian. If I wait until Tuesday, I won't have enough time in SF. National Train Day, appropriately enough, is when I'll be boarding The Greatest Train in the World for the four night trip to Vancouver. It cost quite a bit but I will be in a roomette. Gotta get my Dome Car fix.
When I get there, I'll ride the entire Skytrain system, a lot has opened since I was last there in 92. One thing I haven't been able to find out is whether or not the Olympic trolley line will be running. I think it may only be running on weekends, which is no good because I'll be there Wed. to Fri.
This will be the first time that I'll be riding the Cascade Talgo. I might have liked to take the morning train but it leaves at 6:40 and I'm not getting up before dawn to get there an hour in advance for customs. As a result of taking the evening one, I'll only be in Seattle for about 19 hours. One thing I haven't been able to find out is if the Waterfront Streetcar is still running with the old Melbourne trolleys. If anybody knows any thing about it, I'd really appreciate the info.
Next, I'll be taking another Cascades to Portland for two nights. This will be the first time that I'll be visiting Portland. They have quite an extensive light rail system and a downtown "Streetcar" line. As in Seattle, the "Streetcar" is a separate operation from the "Light Rail". I'm not sure why.
The Coast Starlight will be the first long distance Amtrak I'll have ridden in seven years. I expect them to be eternally grateful to me for spending money to ride it. I "officially" gave up on Amtrak's LD trains ten years ago when the Capitol Ltd. was held for almost two hours in Chicage waiting for mail cars from the Texas Eagle. The two LD trains I've taken anyway since then were both ridiculously late. They have a lot to prove. I will be in a sleeper, so I'll be able to use the Pacific Parlor Car.
If they still had the North America Rail Pass, I might have skipped San Fran & gone home on the Builder & Lake Shore. I did that ten years ago (that's when I had the experience on the Capitol) and went Halifax-Montreal-Toronto-Windsor/Detroit-Chicago-Washington-Atlanta-New York-Boston. Didn't have enough vacation time to go all the way across.
I'm actually spending four whole days in SF. Since the last time I was there, the BART line to the airport has opened, as well as the 3rd St. trolley line. There have also been extensions to the San Jose (VTA) trolley system, which I'll check out when I "Loop the Bay" by train. (MUNI-CalTrain-VTA-Amtrak-BART) Unfortunately, the Giants won't be home. I still haven't been to AT&T. I have a friend in SF and we'll try to catch the A's-Tigers game Thurs. afternoon.
I fly home to Boston on Sat. 5/22, so I'll have all day Sun. to recover, get my pictures developed & do laundry. Does anybody know where I can find some good garage/punk bands in these cities?
Posts: 49 | From: Brookline, MA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sorry, Metsox, I see that the Waterfront Trolley was "temporarily" suspended in 2005 because the carbarn was demolished to make room for an art museum. Now the Alaska Way viaduct is to be torn down this year, which would cause another suspension if they had restarted. I haven't found anything saying they've returned. The cars are stored until they are restored - or sold. Is your Halifax - Boston trip posted anywhere? I'd like to read it!
Posts: 510 | From: Richmond VA USA | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I find it interesting that people "give up " on Amtrak for being a few hours late ( or more) but keep on flying even after spending a lot of time sleepinf on the airport floor. I don't hear them saying never again. People seem to disconect the lateness and misery of flying with traveling by air and yet constantly complain about train travel
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm back. Overall, I'd say it was a good trip and definately worth taking.
The Canadian was 19 cars long when it left Toronto. The consist was; 1 baggage-dorm, 2 coachs, 3 "Skyline" dome-lounges, 2 diners, 7 "Manor" sleepers, 3 "Chateau" sleepers and a "Park" dome-observation. I was in Chateau LaTour, the 11th car overall. I had a lower duplex roomette, which seemed a little cramped at first, until I figured out how to squeeze my suitcase under the seat. The advantage of the lower room is that the bed doesn't pull down from the wall but slides underneath the upper room in front. This made it much easier in the middle of the night, after awhile, didn't even need to open the door.
As on Amtrak sleepers, all meals were included, the food was quite good and the menu changed each day. Lunch and dinner were by reservation but breakfast was first come, first served.
The first day was spent in the Canadian shield, which was actually quite scenic. The second day featured a four hour stopover in Winnipeg. I walked around for awhile and went to the railway museum in the train station.
A "Panorama" car was added at Edmonton. This is a car with huge curved windows that go all the way up to the middle of the ceiling. It has long distance coach seats but was put in the middle of the sleepers and became the 10th car. I think the idea was to give people a near-dome type view without having to climb up stairs. After all, the majority of the sleeper passengers were elderly.
I was never particularly impressed by the F40PH engine. But after seeing just two of them pull a 20 car train over the Rockies, I have to pay them their due.
About five miles after Hinton, the gateway to the Rockies, it was announced that the train would be backing up to the station because of a sick passenger. I just happened to be in the bullet lounge at the back end of the train, so I got some video shots of the train going forwards. The way I heard it, the passenger in question was revived sufficiently to stay on the train.
The third day in the Rockies was the high point of the trip, literally and figuretively. The weather was clear but the front of the domes got dirty pretty quickly, making photography difficult. I got better results out of the side windows.
We arrived in Vancouver an hour early on the fourth morning. That's because the schedule's been padded to four days. I'll pick up the story again in Vancouver in a few days.
Posts: 49 | From: Brookline, MA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Great report - your description of your accomodation reminds me of what we used to know as 'slumbercoaches'.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Vancouver Trolley using the Boeing cars is now a thing of the past. Seattle Streetcar the Slut is fun to ride as is the seattle Light Rail.Have a great trip!
chris
Posts: 711 | From: Santa Ana | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sounds delightful, and I cannot wait for more. I'd love to be able to afford to do this some time soon.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I spent most of my time in Vancouver riding the Skytrain. Two lines have opened since the only other time I was there in 92; plus an extension of the one line that was operating then. The Skytrain is completely automated, which means that you can see out the front window. There are two types of trains on the Expo and Millenium lines, which have a long section of shared track. I like the newer and longer cars better because they have a single "railfan" seat directly facing the front window. The older, short cars have a little passageway at the eand of the car between what looks like two unused cabs.
I first rode was the Millenium Line because a lot of it runs alongside the CN line used by the Canadian and Amtrak's Cascades. I had wanted to get a video shot of the inbound Cascade from Seattle but it was early and I passed it before I could get to the station where I planned to get off. Instead I stayed on all the way to the Columbia station in New Westminster , where it joins up with the older Expo Line. I then took the Expo Line over the spectacular bridge (for Skytrain only) to Surrey and from there back downtown.
The Canada Line just opened last year and is not considered a "Skytrain" line, probably because it runs underground through Vancouver before emerging onto a bridge over the Fraser River. The line then splits into two elevated branches, one going to the airport and the other to Richmond. I think of it as another Skytrain line anyway because it's another automated, high-platform rapid transit line. It also has a good front window.
On the way back from Richmomd, I got off at the Olympic Village station to see if the trolley line was running. It wasn't but there was an old European trolley on a storage track, which I was able to photograph.
That evening, I took the Millenium Line to the Sperling station to get a video shot of the outbound Cascade. There was a nice footbridge over the CN tracks, which allowed me to shoot it coming and going. While I was waiting for it, I got some shots of the Skytrains going by. There were plenty of good spots to photograph the Skytrain, mainly because most of it is elevated.
The next day, I was able to get some shots of the West Coast express commuter trains. They run from the Waterfront station, which was the old CP terminal and is now also used by all three rapid trainsit lines, as well as the Sea Bus ferry to North Vancouver. Amtrak and VIA use the Pacific Central station about a mile east of downtown. Forunately, the Skytrain goes there also.
I wasn't able to ride the West Coast Exp. It's a rush hour only operation, so I wouldn't have any way of getting back. If they ever build the "Evergreen" branch of the Skytrain, I'd be able to take it to Coquitlam. That would give me incentive to come back.
I never got a chance to get any video shots of the Canadian. The next departure was Friday evening after I'd left on the Cascade and the next arrival was Saturday morning.
Vancouver's Chinatown was a bit dissapointing. There weren't very many restaurants open and the place was pretty deserted. I manged to have a decent meal there anyway. After riding the Canada Line, it became obvious that Richmond was the real Asian community. Almost all the signs there are in Chinese, Korean or Japanese.
On Friday, I went to Granville Island, a Fisherman's Wharf type of tourist trap. At first, I thought I would have lunch there until I realized there were so many street musicians that there was no escape from them. This made me lose my appetite immediately. I can't stand whiney folk music (which all of them were playing), so I had to get out of there as fast as I could. I hopped on the first "Aquabus", which was a dinky little boat, that was available. Once I got to the mainland, I got right on the Canada Line and headed straight to Richmond, where I had a nice dim sum meal.
One thing I was looking forward to was riding the Cascades Talgo trains for the first time. Passengers are advised to get to the station an hour in advance for customs so I made a point of getting there at 4:15 for a 5:45 departure. The sign said they would start customs inspections at 4:30 but they didn't start until about 4:50. As a result the train left 15 minutes late.
The Cascades are actually very nice trains. There's also some very nice scenery along their route. Unfortunately, when a quality European product is put in the hands of an operator that is incapable of operating it in the manner for which it was built, it's, well uh, Amtrak. For openers, Talgos are much lower than conventional trains and the F59PHs that pull them were built for double deckers. The "shark fins" at the ends of provide a slight cosmetic improvement, but they still look ridiculous. They're also equipped for full sit-down meal service but only have a snack bar.
The southbound schedule is padded to 25 minutes longer than the northbound. Even so, we only stopped for 13-14 minutes for customs. I couldn't help but wonder why we had to stop at all after inspection in Vancouver. Is spite of everything, we were still in serious danger of an on time arrival in Seattle.
But wait! There was still time for something to happen and it did. First the emergency brakes went off and they had to inspect the train before it could get moving again. Then around Everett, we had to creep along at 20 MPH for several miles because the signals weren't working. We arrived in Seattle about 25 minutes late.
I'll cover Seattle and Portland in the next installment.
Posts: 49 | From: Brookline, MA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Looking forward to hearing about Portland. Where will you be staying in Portland? I will be there at the end of August via the Empire Builder. I hope you enjoy Seattle and Portland!
Posts: 498 | From: New Hope, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't have much time in Seattle, just one night and then the train to Portland left at 5:30pm the next day. The main reason for stopping there was the new Central Light Rail line. This was the 57th city in which I've ridden the subway. The line qualifies as a subway but just barely.
Here's how I define a "subway". Any full-scale urban rapid transit line with high level platforms qualifies, regardless of whether in runs underground or not (i.e. Miami). A light rail/trolley/tram/streetcar line has to have at least three consecutive stops underground to be a "subway". The central transit tunnel does have three underground stops. The trolleys share the tunnel with buses and the stations are very spacious. The cars remind me of the ones in New Jersey on the Hudson-Bergen and Newark lines. The interior layout is almost identical but the Seattle cars are a bit flashier on the outside.
A major problem was that the trolleys were only running every half hour because of "track maintenance". This really limited my photography opportunities because I just didn't have time to get off at an intermediate stop and wait a half hour for the next one. All I could do was take it all the way down to the airport and right back downtown again.
Seattle also has a separate "streetcar" line that goes north from downtown to Lake Union. It runs entirely in the street with smaller, European type cars. It must be run by the same company that runs the Portland Streetcar line, which is also run separately from the "MAX" system there. The cars are the same in both cities and all stations have a "sponsor", which is mentioned in the prerecorded announcements.
Between the two trolley lines, I took the time to walk up the waterfront and as I'd heard, the Waterfront Streetcar wasn't running. At least I got to ride an ex-Melbourne trolley in San Francisco. I also didn't have time to ride the monorail but at least I'd ridden it the only other time I was there back in '77.
Even though there's no customs, everybody has to check in to board the Cascades to Portland. They assign seats and I made a point of asking for a window. They did give me a window seat but it was in a group of four seats facing each other. This meant no fold down tray and no leg room at all. The train left ten minutes late because the "thruway" bus from Vancouver was delayed at customs. This is perfectly understandable; after all, they only give it 1:45 between the bus's arrival and the train's departure times. I never saw a mad dash of people jumping on the train just before it left so I don't know if the bus actually showed up or they just decided not to wait for it after all.
When I walked forward to the snack bar, I noticed there were a lot of empty seats, so I figured I'd try to move after Tacoma. However, they made an announcement that everyone has to stay in their assigned seats. Not wanting to be sent to the Principal's office, I stayed put.
For the second day in a row, the signals conked out. As a result, we had to creep along at 20 MPH for a much longer stretch than the night before. The train arrived in Portland 43 minutes late. It ain't our fault!
This was the first time I'd ever been to Portland. There's no subway but this is the 92nd city in which I've ridden some form of rail transit. The MAX light rail system has a very generous "free rail" zone in the downtown area. I stayed at the Doubletree at Lloyd Center, which is four stops east of the Willamette River and the last stop in the free rail zone. This allowed me to go back downtown after checking in and it didn't cost me a dime.
Sunday was my full day in Portland, so I bought myself a day pass. I rode the entire Blue Line, which is very long. It goes from Gresham to Hillsboro. I didn't ride it all at once, I stopped downtown to have lunch and ride the "streetcar". The difference between the Portland and Seattle street cars is that in Portland, they accept all MAX tickets. I didn't see anything in Seattle about them accepting Sound Transit tickets, so I just assumed I had to pay separately.
In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have ridden the entire Blue Line, at least on the west side, where I shouldn't have gone past Beaverton. It just took too long and prevented me from riding any of the branches on the east side. On the way back from Hillsboro, I remembered that I'd dropped off 7 rolls of film at the Lloyd Center Mall and they might be closing at 6. It turned out that they did close at 6 and I made it with about two minutes to spare.
If I could have gotten up early enough on Monday, I might have tried to go out to Beaverton to ride the WES Diesel railcar to Wilsonville. But I just couldn't force myself and decided to stay within the free zone. The Coast Starlight would be leaving at 2:20pm, so it wasn't worth it to get another day pass.
Portland's Union Station is one of the nicest on the Amtrak system and an extra bonus was that there's a Metropolitan Lounge. This meant that I could leave my bags there and not have to go back to the hotel to get them. The weather was nice, so I took the opportunity to get some shots of the Cascades and the "Baby Builder" I also got a video shot of and inbound Cascade from Seattle from the overpass.
Next time I'll finish up with the Starlight and San Francisco.
Posts: 49 | From: Brookline, MA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Coast Starlight was the one train on this trip I was skeptical about. I'd read plenty of horror stories about it being incredibly late but also that it had gotten better after the big mudslide.
When I boarded the train, the attendant told me that there was a place for me for lunch but I had just eaten before I got on. I just couldn't wait until 2:25. There were two bottles of champagne in my room. I brought one to dinner that night and brought the other one home. I finally got around to drinking it about a week ago.
The weather was beautiful when the train left Portland but soon became overcast and started raining. This prevented me from doing much photography but I was able to get some video shots out of the back window.
For both dinner and breakfast, I opted for the diner instead of the Pacific Parlour Car. The diner menu was more appealing for both meals. The steak dinner was OK but just didn't compare to the food on the Canadian.
One dissapointment was that the movie theatre in the Pacific Parlour car wasn't working.
The next morning, the attendant asked me if I was getting off at Martinez or Emeryville. I wanted to say Richmond, to see what kind of reaction I'd get but I told the truth - Emeryville. The train arrived in Emeryville exactly on time at 8:10 am. I wish the train did stop in Richmond so I could take the BART to San Francisco instead of the Ambus. My hotel was within walking distance of the Powell St. BART/Muni station, so I took the BART two stops from Embarcadero after getting off the bus at the Ferry Building.
The first priority was to ride the latest extension of the BART to the Airport and Millbrae. Most of this line is underground so there wasn't much to see. I took the train to Millbrae, where there's a connection to the Caltrain commuter line. I thought about taking the Caltrain back to SF but I didn't have a schedule and couldn't see one from inside the fare gates. Not wanting to wait forever for the Caltrain, I took the next BART back downtown and got off at Montgomery (the next stop after Powell) so I'd only be charged the minimum fare.
The other thing I had to check out was Muni Metro's 3rd St. line. This is a very long line that goes all the way to the southern border of the city at Sunnydale. Unlike the older lines that run in the street, this one had all high level island platforms. It was interesting because it went through parts of the city where I'd never been before and I got see how one neighborhood transitioned to the next.
I stayed in San Fran for four days, longer than anywhere else on this trip because I have a friend there. He lives in the northwest corner of the city by the ocean. The problem is that it's a torturous bus ride to get there. To avoid this, I decided to take the N-Judah trolley to the next to last stop and take the 18 bus one mile up the beach.
Muni Metro has this cool video display that shows where all the trolleys on the entire system are positioned. When I got to the platform at Powell, I noticed that the next N wouldn't arrive for quite a while and that it would be better to backtrack to Embarcadero so I'd be able to get a seat (it was rush hour). I did get a seat but the train was packed almost imediately and crept along. By this time, there were several trolleys backed up behind us, so they decided to turn it around at 9th Ave. Of course it took some time to turn the thing around because they had to throw the switches by hand. I finally was able to get on the next one to 46th Ave. but then I had to wait about anther 20 minutes for the 18 bus to show up. I finally got to my friend's place after 7. It probably would have taken less than half the time if I'd taken the bus directly. Conclusion: the Muni Metro is a modern version of Boston's Green Line.
On Wednesday it was time to "loop the bay" by train. I started by taking the Muni Metro to the Caltrain station. Caltrain has some of the new "lozenge" shaped cars for their "Baby Bullet" trains but rush hour was over so I got a local with the older "gallery" cars. They had been modernized on the inside and were actually quite pleasant.
The San Jose area VTA light rail system has been extended all the way to the Mountain View Caltrain station. We arrived about five minutes late just as the trolley was pulling out. Turned out the next one wasn't for another half hour. One guy who had just gotten off the train was really mad and decided to take a cab or something. I took the time to photograph the next northbound Caltrain and go for coffee. I took the trolley to the Tasman junction and then took the Alum Rock line to the Great Mall, which was huge. It was all on one level, so I really couldn't compare it to the Eaton Centre in Toronto. The food court had a Mongolian barbecue, which I did for lunch.
After lunch I, took the trolley into downtown San Jose. By this time it was raining and I decided I'd rather take the 3 pm Capitol train instead of the 4:20. So I got off the trolley and waited for the next one, which went to San Jose's main station at Diridon.
The Capitol was the first unreserved Amtrak train I've been on in a long time, ever since all the trains in the NEC became all reserved. The double deck "California" cars are so much nicer than the Amfleets. The last time I was in SF, I had to go all the way to Richmond to catch the BART but they've since added a station at the Oakland Coliseum, which makes looping the bay much quicker. From Coliseum, it's a 23 minute BART ride back to Powell, I was back at the hotel before 5.
Thursday, my friend, his wife and I went to the ballgame in Oakland. This was my idea to attend this game because it was a day game. The weather can get pretty cold at night in the Bay Area. I had hoped the Giants would be home because I've never been to AT&T but I've been to the Coliseum a few times. My friend offered to pick me up but I really wanted to take the BART, so he gave me my ticket the night before. The Tigers beat the A's 6-2.
Afterwards, we drove back to their place. My friend and his wife spoiled me rotten, treating me to several meals and the ballgame. They would not let me pay for anything. After awhile, I felt pretty guilty and embarrassed.
Friday was the last full day of the trip, so I planned the whole day for train riding. T started by taking the BART out to Pittsburg. From there I took it back to MacArthur station in Ooakland to take pictues and shoot video. Ater a few minutes, I was hasseled by a station attenbant, who told me photography is not allowed. This was particularly annoying because before I left, I had checked the website that monitors this sort of thing and their comments about BART indicated that it was OK.
I spent the rest of the day in San Francisco, staying close to downtown. I rode the historic trolleys on the F-Market line and the cable cars.
Saturday was time to go home. I considered trying an alternative way of getting to the airport other than BART because I was still mad. However, I had just over the amount of the fare on my ticket and it would be too much trouble to try to get it refunded so I took BART anyway.
Posts: 49 | From: Brookline, MA | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
