Canadian Railroads > The late, great Canadian, part 2: In which we leave Toronto, not

1). Arriving at the station with a half hour to spare, we board our "cabin for 2" (aka a double bedroom B in Wolfe Manor, Sleeper Plus class) and settle in. 

And I do mean settle. A few minutes prior to our scheduled 9:45 departure, an intercom announcement informs us that we have no locomotive crew. A substitute crew is on its way from Sudbury. Not exactly a local trip. Estimated departure: 3:30 PM, a little less than 6 hours late. The announcement effectively offers refunds and/or alternative travel arrangements for those that want it, and requests everyone else to remain on board. They also point out that there are opportunities to make up time en route, so we may not be 6 hours down at Vancouver. Nobody within earshot believes them. 

2). Fortunately for us railfans, there are interesting things to shoot, just outside the window. 

3). Hard to believe, but ihaven't seen an F40 in intercity service in several years. 

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1). Well you can't experience the Canadian without a seat in the dome, right?  The first few seats in the Park car are reserved for Prestige Class passengers. I'm not that prestigious, so I head for the totally vacant middle dome and take the railfan seat, front right. Not a lot of scenery going by just yet, but the intercom informs us that anticipated departure has been moved up to 1:30 or so.

2). After a few hours stationary, it seems like I'm beginning to hallucinate that things really are moving outside the car. But no. There's a newly installed, not-perfectly-curved window in the dome that's shape-shifting the surrounding GO commuter trains. Very strange. 

More to come in a few hours....

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This is as bad as Amtrak. Screw the passengers.
“If we have nothing else better to do, we might operate the passenger train……”

Posted from iPhone

Not so fast. The story gets a lot better. For me, and for VIA. 

 

1). A little after 2 PM, we begin to move. Our route appeared to me to be a detour, with no evidence that we were following a commuter rail route. There's some kind of construction project going on alongside. But I've been told since that this is the normal routing for the train. 

2). The sun sets early up here in November, and soon we're looking at a sunset over one of Lake Huron's many bays. I wasn't sure where I was, and wanted to know whether we would be in Parry Sound by dark, so I pulled out the iPhone and found....

3).....that the mapping feature lacked a bit of detail. I swear, I am not making this up. This display, which basically tells you that you are somewhere in the northern hemisphere, was all my iPhone had to offer for about an hour. Honest, I think paper maps might be a superior technology in this case. 

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Allow me to add that the on board staff has been superb throughout the last several hours, and that the overall passenger mood on board is really quite good. 

march_hare Wrote:
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> 2). The sun sets early up here in November, and
> soon we're looking at a sunset over one of Lake
> Huron's many bays. I wasn't sure where I was, and
> wanted to know whether we would be in Parry Sound
> by dark, so I pulled out the iPhone and found....

That is Lake Simcoe. The line doesn't come close to Lake Huron.
 

Presume they fed you lunch during your Toronto departure delay.  How is the food?

Thanks for the photos!  West out of Toronto is correct, not a detour.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/22 20:27 by viatrainrider.

MEKoch Wrote:
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> This is as bad as Amtrak. Screw the passengers.
>
> “If we have nothing else better to do, we might
> operate the passenger train……”
>
I offer no excuses for what happened on this occasion, but it important for readers to know that this is not normal. VIA's attitude is not to "screw the passengers".  The departure times at Toronto and Vancouver are almost always on time and arrivals at final destination usually early. 

Stay tuned. It works out nicely in the end. 

Thanks for the post, the fine images and commentary, and the calming remarks to the hotheads amonsgt us. Glad to know in advance that the rest of the story sounds like it will be positive and enjoyable, and am looking forward to it.

MC

march_hare Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> 3).....that the mapping feature lacked a bit of
> detail. I swear, I am not making this up. This
> display, which basically tells you that you are
> somewhere in the northern hemisphere, was all my
> iPhone had to offer for about an hour. Honest, I
> think paper maps might be a superior technology in
> this case. 

Lol! Well, that's still better than what we had in 1990.

Posted from Android