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Amtrak California Winter 2012

Ontario, CA and the Tri-Weekly Sunset Limited leaving L.A.

In our current COVID-19 world, I find myself working from home. The past two weeks have been extremely busy helping to manage bus service cuts due to driver shortages. It’s made me realize just how important public transit is, as an essential public service. Now is not the time though that I will be taking […]

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Winter 2012

An Uneventful, Unconversational Empire Service #280 Trip back to New York to End my Winter Trip

The rest of my trip earlier today on Train #280 was largely uneventful. I get so annoyed with a woman on her cell phone that by Rome I change to some other empty seats. We stopped for the usual freight traffic on the busy CSX Water Level route, loosing a bit of time so we […]

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Winter 2012

To Syracuse via Rochester including peering in on its Abandoned Subway

Greetings from Empire Service Train #280 where I am making a final no stopovers trip back to New York City (making any would have required a call to an Amtrak agent because only 3 can be made online), I am also now in the mood just to get back to New York. The train arrived […]

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Winter 2012

A slow 3 tickets Maple Leaf Trip across the boarder from Toronto to Buffalo

107 miles scheduled in almost five hours (average speed 22 mph) is the Maple Leaf I took today from Toronto to Downtown Buffalo. In reality the slowness is because of the boarder crossing and fact the VIA and Amtrak crews switch entirely including all of the food (and menus in the café car). It took […]

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Winter 2012

A Woodsy Chatty Day through Northern Ontario and Early Toronto Arrival

Greetings from a Starbucks in Toronto where I didn’t go because I was particularly hungry or thirsty (a final full VIA breakfast hit the spot) but needed to go to get wifi and more importantly find a youth hostel to stay in for at least tonight. Had I been in a US city I wouldn’t […]

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Winter 2012

A Spectacular Evening Leaving the Rockies and Well-Fed Day Through the Prairies

Greetings from the Panorama Lounge (where I am enjoying another cup of VIA’s one herbal peppermint tea and another cookie) in wonderfully historic 100 year old Union Station Winnipeg where we finally arrived at 9:00, and I just went for a cold half-hour walk in 3 degree (F weather) through the darkened downtown to stretch […]

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Winter 2012

A Great Day Skiing Jasper and Yesterday’s Snowy Ride Through the Rockies

Well today I had an excellent day skiing Marmot Basin. I woke up at 7:30 and found someone who was driving there and was decent enough to let me ride along. This meant I got there at 8:30 and quickly rented myself some terrible overpriced rental skis from the resort (simple heads that felt a […]

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Winter 2012

A Wonderful Beginning the First Quarter of my Journey Across Canada by Streamliner Train

Greetings from the HI Jasper Wilderness hostel that much to my surprise has Wi-Fi although the sign says extremely limited bandwidth (no videos, no Skype, I’ll be courteous and not update the website). I arrived here today shortly before 4:00pm Mountain Time after a ride that felt way to short and was exactly what I […]

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Amtrak Winter 2012

About to board the Canadian for a Transcontinental Journey!

Greetings from the small but nice Panorama Lounge at Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station where I await to begin by journey home across Canada to Toronto before taking the Maple Leaf back across the boarder to New York. I am sitting drinking a cup of peppermint tea and eating some Social Tea and Fruit Crème biscuits […]

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Winter 2012

An Epic 7 hour Adventure by Bus and Train to Vancouver because of mudslide, a Stalled Truck on the Tracks (that bottomed out), and Stuck Waiting for a Freight Train to go Through US Customs Due to a Shift Change

Greetings from Amtrak Cascades Train #516 as we slowly enter Vancouver, BC on a trip that has turned into an epic 7-hour adventure (3 hours late) just to get there by both train and bus. The main delays occurring in Mount Vernon where a tuck had staffed and grounded on a grade crossing and then […]