# Public transport in NE USA and SE Canada



## v v (Mar 25, 2022)

Mods, if this is in the wrong section please feel free to move it.

We may fly into NYC with our final destination being Halifax NS. There is a public transport option of Greyhound to Montreal, train to Halifax which looks interesting, but are there any other regular public transport routes possibly through Maine or directly to Quebec City that I haven't found as yet. 

If we fly we would like to start our next journey in NYC if possible, although of course we could fly directly from Europe to Montreal or Quebec with an onward train.

Lookiing for expert advice as we have never been to Canada so don't understand how that country works yet.

Thank you


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## John Santos (Mar 26, 2022)

There is (or was) a ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia. It used to terminate in Halifax, but I think it now (for the pre-Covid, summertime definition of "now") terminates in Yarmouth. I don't know if there is any public transportation between Yarmouth and Halifax. This will probably all change in the aftertimes; when is your trip?

Anyway, if the ferry is still running and there is way to get from Yarmouth to Halifax, you could take the NEC or Acela from NYP to BOS, subway, taxi, Uber or Lyft to BON (a couple of miles), the DownEaster to Portland, ferry to Nova Scotia, Ocean to Montreal, and onwards. Or you could take the Adirondak to Montreal, Ocean to Halifax (once the border opens.)

I was considering a Boston->Portland (DownEaster) -> Halifax (ferry) -> Toronto (Ocean) -> Vancouver (Canadian) -> Seattle (Cascades) -> LA (Coast Starlight)->Chicago (Chief or Sunset/Eagle) -> BOS (Lake Shore Limited circle trip, but then they changed all the schedules and then Covid... :-( Also, I forget whether the Ocean and Canadian connect somewhere (Montreal, Quebec City or Toronto) or if you need to take VIA from Montreal to Toronto. It will all be different anyway.


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## AmtrakMaineiac (Mar 26, 2022)

John Santos said:


> There is (or was) a ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia. It used to terminate in Halifax, but I think it now (for the pre-Covid, summertime definition of "now") terminates in Yarmouth. I don't know if there is any public transportation between Yarmouth and Halifax. This will probably all change in the aftertimes; when is your trip?
> 
> Anyway, if the ferry is still running and there is way to get from Yarmouth to Halifax, you could take the NEC or Acela from NYP to BOS, subway, taxi, Uber or Lyft to BON (a couple of miles), the DownEaster to Portland, ferry to Nova Scotia, Ocean to Montreal, and onwards. Or you could take the Adirondak to Montreal, Ocean to Halifax (once the border opens.)
> 
> I was considering a Boston->Portland (DownEaster) -> Halifax (ferry) -> Toronto (Ocean) -> Vancouver (Canadian) -> Seattle (Cascades) -> LA (Coast Starlight)->Chicago (Chief or Sunset/Eagle) -> BOS (Lake Shore Limited circle trip, but then they changed all the schedules and then Covid... :-( Also, I forget whether the Ocean and Canadian connect somewhere (Montreal, Quebec City or Toronto) or if you need to take VIA from Montreal to Toronto. It will all be different anyway.


The CAT ferry is supposed to start up again this spring but from Bar Harbor not Portland. I believe you can get from Portland to Bar Harbor by bus.

Edit: You would take Greyhound or Concord Coach to Bangor then Downeast Transportation Bangor to Bar Harbor.





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Downeast Transportation Home
 





downeasttrans.org


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## MARC Rider (Mar 26, 2022)

John Santos said:


> There is (or was) a ferry from Portland to Nova Scotia. It used to terminate in Halifax, but I think it now (for the pre-Covid, summertime definition of "now") terminates in Yarmouth. I don't know if there is any public transportation between Yarmouth and Halifax. This will probably all change in the aftertimes; when is your trip?
> 
> Anyway, if the ferry is still running and there is way to get from Yarmouth to Halifax, you could take the NEC or Acela from NYP to BOS, subway, taxi, Uber or Lyft to BON (a couple of miles), the DownEaster to Portland, ferry to Nova Scotia, Ocean to Montreal, and onwards. Or you could take the Adirondak to Montreal, Ocean to Halifax (once the border opens.)
> 
> I was considering a Boston->Portland (DownEaster) -> Halifax (ferry) -> Toronto (Ocean) -> Vancouver (Canadian) -> Seattle (Cascades) -> LA (Coast Starlight)->Chicago (Chief or Sunset/Eagle) -> BOS (Lake Shore Limited circle trip, but then they changed all the schedules and then Covid... :-( Also, I forget whether the Ocean and Canadian connect somewhere (Montreal, Quebec City or Toronto) or if you need to take VIA from Montreal to Toronto. It will all be different anyway.


I don't think the Bay of Fundy ferry ever went from Portland to Halifax; it ways just went to Yarmouth. Back when I took it in 1976, there were two routes -- one was Yarmouth to Bar Harbor on the _Bluenose_, run by CN, the other was the Bay of Fundy Line from Portland to Yarmouth, which had two ships, one which did a daytime crossing, the other which did an overnight run. I didn't see any public transportation that connected Yarmouth with Halifax, but I wasn't really looking, and there were more rural intercity buses being run in 1976 than there are now.


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## MARC Rider (Mar 26, 2022)

AmtrakMaineiac said:


> The CAT ferry is supposed to start up again this spring but from Bar Harbor not Portland. I believe you can get from Portland to Bar Harbor by bus.
> 
> Edit: You would take Greyhound or Concord Coach to Bangor then Downeast Transportation Bangor to Bar Harbor.
> 
> ...



Basically, in the US, once you get out the cities or get dropped off at your small town bus or train stop, you really need a car to get anywhere. In many places, even if there's bus service, it isn't always very convenient, and in many small towns, there isn't even taxi service available. I don't know how people who can't drive manage, especially if they don't have family members with cars.


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## v v (Mar 26, 2022)

MARC Rider said:


> Basically, in the US, once you get out the cities or get dropped off at your small town bus or train stop, you really need a car to get anywhere. In many places, even if there's bus service, it isn't always very convenient, and in many small towns, there isn't even taxi service available. I don't know how people who can't drive manage, especially if they don't have family members with cars.



Even in densely populated Europe we live 25 miles from the nearest bus stop, urban living is where the bulk of the population are.


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## MARC Rider (Mar 26, 2022)

v v said:


> Even in densely populated Europe we live 25 miles from the nearest bus stop, urban living is where the bulk of the population are.


"Densely populated" Europe has similar population densities to most of the eastern United States. My only real experience with traveling over there was a trip to the UK in 1985, where it seemed that public transport from large cities to rural areas and access to towns and smaller cities in the hinterlands was way better than anything we had in the US, and back then, and back then, the intercity city bus network in the US was much more robust, serving many more smaller towns and cities with more frequency than it is today. Most Americans also live in urban areas, but public transportation in most urban areas is such that most residents really need a car to get around. The only exceptions I can think of are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland OR, and even in those cities, it's only small parts of the metro area where one could live without owning a car.


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## v v (Mar 26, 2022)

Being brought up near and having worked in central London and thinking that a tube station more than 500 yards away was too far, being 25 miles from a bus stop feels so remote!

May I add LA to your exceptions list above?

Some remote parts of the world with no public transport system have a self help system where a person can expect a passing car or truck to offer you a lift, maybe something we could learn?


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## MARC Rider (Mar 26, 2022)

v v said:


> May I add LA to your exceptions list above?


Hmmm, the last time I was there, it seemed like there wasn't quite enough transit to be able to rely on it, and there needed to be no dense central area where people could live without owning a car. But that was in 2002, and maybe things have changed a bit.


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## fdaley (Mar 27, 2022)

If the goal is to get from New York to Halifax by surface transportation, I'd certainly want to take VIA Rail's Ocean from Montreal to Halifax. It's a fine overnight train with sleeper and dining service. Currently it leaves Montreal at 7 p.m. on Sunday and Wednesday nights, arriving at Halifax about 5 p.m. Atlantic time the next afternoon, with a scenic run along the Chaleur Bay in the morning and a nice ride through the marshlands along the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border. The Friday evening departure from Montreal is expected to resume this summer.

To get to Montreal from New York, I'd take Amtrak's Adirondack if it's resumed running. However, it doesn't arrive in Montreal early enough in the evening to connect with the Ocean, so you'd need to go up the previous day and stay overnight in Montreal. Alternatively, or if the Adirondack still isn't running by the time of your trip, there are buses from New York to Montreal. There's one due in Montreal at 6:05 p.m., which seems an awfully risky connection to a 7 p.m. train, so again it would be better to go north from New York the preceding day. If you can tolerate sleeping on a bus, there's also a midnight departure from New York that arrives in Montreal about 8:30 a.m., allowing for a day of sightseeing before boarding the Halifax train.

A coastal route involving the Bar Harbor-to-Yarmouth ferry, if it's running, seems by comparison like an awfully complicated patchwork of at least two trains, three buses and a boat, with multiple transfers between all those modes of conveyance.


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## Fenway (Mar 27, 2022)

MARC Rider said:


> Hmmm, the last time I was there, it seemed like there wasn't quite enough transit to be able to rely on it, and there needed to be no dense central area where people could live without owning a car. But that was in 2002, and maybe things have changed a bit.



The LA Metro has greatly improved in the past 20 years. 

The bigger change has come from Uber/Lyft filling in the gaps as LA was never a big taxi city.


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## v v (Mar 27, 2022)

MARC Rider said:


> Hmmm, the last time I was there, it seemed like there wasn't quite enough transit to be able to rely on it, and there needed to be no dense central area where people could live without owning a car. But that was in 2002, and maybe things have changed a bit.



We were in the Winnetka and Canoga Park areas in February this year mostly without a car. We found the local area well served by various types of bus transport and getting into downtown also had several good public transport options too.


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## v v (Mar 27, 2022)

fdaley said:


> If the goal is to get from New York to Halifax by surface transportation, I'd certainly want to take VIA Rail's Ocean from Montreal to Halifax. It's a fine overnight train with sleeper and dining service. Currently it leaves Montreal at 7 p.m. on Sunday and Wednesday nights, arriving at Halifax about 5 p.m. Atlantic time the next afternoon, with a scenic run along the Chaleur Bay in the morning and a nice ride through the marshlands along the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border. The Friday evening departure from Montreal is expected to resume this summer.
> 
> To get to Montreal from New York, I'd take Amtrak's Adirondack if it's resumed running. However, it doesn't arrive in Montreal early enough in the evening to connect with the Ocean, so you'd need to go up the previous day and stay overnight in Montreal. Alternatively, or if the Adirondack still isn't running by the time of your trip, there are buses from New York to Montreal. There's one due in Montreal at 6:05 p.m., which seems an awfully risky connection to a 7 p.m. train, so again it would be better to go north from New York the preceding day. If you can tolerate sleeping on a bus, there's also a midnight departure from New York that arrives in Montreal about 8:30 a.m., allowing for a day of sightseeing before boarding the Halifax train.
> 
> A coastal route involving the Bar Harbor-to-Yarmouth ferry, if it's running, seems by comparison like an awfully complicated patchwork of at least two trains, three buses and a boat, with multiple transfers between all those modes of conveyance.



I'm starting to understand your ideas for surface between NYC and Halifax and with the little research I've completed so far agree with all your options and opinions. The reason to visit NYC first is we do want to visit a friend in Jersey, but now I'm working on a second and third plan of taking a train 'back' to NYC from further along our route.

It does look like the authorities are slow to take the opportunity that the disruption to normal life has offered and re-setting it with a better agenda. Ah well, what's new.


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## irv818 (Mar 27, 2022)

An overnight or longer stay in Montreal would be highly recommended. That's next on my list of places to visit via train, if service ever resumes.


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## fdaley (Mar 27, 2022)

v v said:


> I'm starting to understand your ideas for surface between NYC and Halifax and with the little research I've completed so far agree with all your options and opinions. The reason to visit NYC first is we do want to visit a friend in Jersey, but now I'm working on a second and third plan of taking a train 'back' to NYC from further along our route.
> 
> It does look like the authorities are slow to take the opportunity that the disruption to normal life has offered and re-setting it with a better agenda. Ah well, what's new.



It really is a long way from New York City to Halifax any way you do it. Driving straight through on the shortest highway route would probably take two full days with an overnight stop somewhere. There is good Amtrak service from New York to Boston and from Boston to Portland and Brunswick, Maine. And there are several buses a day each way between Portland and Bangor. But there's not much beyond Bangor. I'm not aware of any cross-border service that's operating at this point from Maine into the Maritimes other than the Bar Harbor ferry, which is seasonal (limited service till June; no service after mid-October), and it's oriented toward people who are bringing their cars aboard. The ferry lands in Yarmouth in the evening, and there is no scheduled bus service from there to Halifax, although there appears to be a limousine-type service that leaves in the morning to take people to flights and medical appointments in Halifax. So, the VIA train from Montreal, despite its longer mileage overall, begins to make sense unless you want to get on another plane or else rent a car from Portland or Bangor.


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