Passenger Trains > Bus to BC

I was suppose to be a passenger on #510 to Vancouver to see the Wings defeat the Canucks, January 8. When I turned up at King Street, I got the dreaded bus announcement due to mud slides just north of the boarder. Amtrak did an excellent job handling this. There were two buses, one direct and one all stops. They even put the conductor and a management person on the bus. Snacks and juice were given out at the station and Business Class fares re-funded without even asking. Arrival into Vancouver was 40 minutes early in spite of a delay due to someone turned back at the boarder and the driver getting lost in downtown Vancouver. When I got home, I had a voice mail from Amtrak advising of the change that morning. They really had this down to a science even though they didn't know about the slide until 9:30P the evening prior. BTW, the fake ceiling at King Street is finally gone and what's above looks great and will be even better once restored. Hard to believe someone had the brilliant idea to cover it up in the first place!

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> I was suppose to be a passenger on #510 to
> Vancouver to see the Wings defeat the Canucks,
> January 8. When I turned up at King Street, I got
> the dreaded bus announcement due to mud slides
> just north of the boarder. Amtrak did an excellent
> job handling this. There were two buses, one
> direct and one all stops. They even put the
> conductor and a management person on the bus.
> Snacks and juice were given out at the station and
> Business Class fares re-funded without even
> asking. Arrival into Vancouver was 40 minutes
> early in spite of a delay due to someone turned
> back at the boarder and the driver getting lost in
> downtown Vancouver. When I got home, I had a voice
> mail from Amtrak advising of the change that
> morning. They really had this down to a science
> even though they didn't know about the slide until
> 9:30P the evening prior. BTW, the fake ceiling at
> King Street is finally gone and what's above looks
> great and will be even better once restored. Hard
> to believe someone had the brilliant idea to cover
> it up in the first place!


It's good to hear when Amtrak handles these situations well. Usually, we hear about them when they don't go well, as was recently the case at San Jose when 140 passengers showed up to board the bus to San Luis Obispo and there were problems (primarily at the bus company level, but also with Amtrak coordination).

On the fake ceiling at SEA, it might be easier to understand the rationale if one had to personally pay the heating bill for the station. In any case, this type of modification with flourescent lighting was (apparently) the rage in the 1960s.

The devil is making me ask this - Where is the boarder located at? and who is the boarder renting from?

fatdane Wrote:
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> The devil is making me ask this - Where is the
> boarder located at? and who is the boarder renting
> from?

He was making a run for the border.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> I was suppose to be a passenger on #510 to
> Vancouver to see the Wings defeat the Canucks,
> January 8.

As a Nucks fan, I can proudly say that we are the best team in the NHL. :)

Seattle Amtrak should get this right. They have had lots of practice. Everytime it rains a lot and a pebble falls across the tracks, Amtrak and the Sounder shut down for a minimum of 48 hours.

And is currently the case again. A slide south of Everett has loaded passenger trains annulled until some time Sat Jan 15.


cp1400