21 APRIL - 20 MAY 2006 - UPDATED (click on the map to enlarge it) The itinerary continues to evolve, and now stands as follows... note a longer stay in Halifax in order to meet up with a certain young lady, who yesterday purchased tickets to fly out and join me for the last train ride back to Montréal. By the end of the trip I will have spent two weeks in VIA Rail's 'Comfort' class (economy), so we might consider upgrading from the comforts of 'Comfort' class to the slightly more comfortable comforts of 'Comfort Sleeper' class. Confused? It's just a matter of relative comfort really... ;-)
I entertained a few ideas about adjusting to the itinerary to include more of the south and east of the USA, but I think I'll have to leave that for now, and possibly do a mini trip in the summer.
All times are as scheduled, expect a lot of late running south of the border...
MAY
Fri 21 ‘Adirondack’ dep. Montréal 09:50 arr. Schenectady 16:23
Fri 21 ‘Lake Shore Ltd’ dep. Schenectady 19:16
Sat 22 arr. Chicago 09:30
Sun 23 ‘California Zephyr’ dep. Chicago 13:50
Mon 24 arr. Denver 07:15
Tue 25 ‘California Zephyr’ dep. Denver 08:05
Wed 26 arr. Emeryville 16:49
Thu 27 in San Francisco
Fri 28 drive to Santa Barbara
Sat 29 drive north, ‘Coast Starlight’ dep. Emeryville 22:02
Sun 30 arr. Seattle 20:30
APRIL
Mon 1 in Seattle
Tue 2 ‘Amtrak Cascades’ dep. Seattle 07:45 arr. Vancouver 11:40
Tue 2 ‘Canadian’ dep. Vancouver 17:30
Wed 3 arr. Edmonton 17:30
Thu 4 in Edmonton
Fri 5 in Edmonton
Sat 6 ‘Canadian’ dep. Edmonton 18:20
Sun 7 arr. Winnipeg 11:20 / ‘Hudson Bay’ dep. Winnipeg 20:45
Mon 8 on board the ‘Hudson Bay’
Tue 9 arr. Churchill 08:30 / ‘Hudson Bay’ dep. Churchill 20:30
Wed 10 on board the ‘Hudson Bay’
Thu 11 arr. Winnipeg 08:05 / ‘The Canadian’ dep. Winnipeg 12:25
Fri 12 arr. Toronto 20:00
Sat 13 VIA Corridor dep. Toronto 15:10 arr. Montréal 19:48
Sun 14 ‘Ocean’ dep. Montréal 18:30
Mon 15 arr. Halifax 16:20
Tue 16 in Halifax
Wed 17 in Halifax
Thu 18 in Halifax
Fri 19 ‘Ocean’ dep. Halifax 12:35
Sat 20 arr. Montréal 08:15
*j*
8 comments:
It will be interesting to see how an apparent "food fan" like yourself copes with Amtrak meals.
Especially since full meal service is being removed from many Amtrak trains, starting during the period of my trip :'(
VIA trains are indeed much more expensive, but then they do seem to offer more reliability and comfort. The Canadian is also very specifically aimed for tourists now, whereas Amtrak can't seem to decide whether to offer long distance trains for once-in-a-lifetime tourists or for budget travellers... watch this space for a comparison :-)
*j*
what is your source for the discontinuance of meals on some trains? If true, it's bad news.
Extensive discussions amongst those who know at:
http://forums.amtraktrains.com/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=4984&s=74bfb00c5aafe42a04fc713280d1148e
(this includes dates for the changes per route)
hey...just an idea but you should think about stopping a day in Jasper rather than 2 in Edmonton!
I don't know anyone in Jasper, but I have lots of long lost friends in Edmonton... and also I have no money, so couch surfing is the order of the day :-)
jaspers awesome though...but i just remembered, you probably couldn't anyway because the train doesn't go through every day so you probably couldn't get off one day and on the next.
Sorry :(
have fun though! It sounds great.
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