rtabern
Conductor
I love doing day/weekend trips between my longer Amtrak trips... but have been getting a little tired of my "regular" runs to Galesburg and Lincoln, IL... so I have been trying to come up with new ideas of things I can do.
Anyway, looking at the schedules, I saw I could do a trip from Milwaukee (where I live) to London, Ontario and back in 2 days... and with a $55 round-trip fare on Amtrak... I decided to go for it... Monday, June 6 and Tuesday, June 7.
My trip started when I got off work around 11:30PM on Sunday, June 5... and drove the 55 minutes down to my mom's condo near the Glenview station and got some sleep there for the night to better make connections in Chicago.
Originally, I was planning to take #350 from Chicago to Detroit -- however, a friend of mine who works for Amtrak in Chicago -- who heard about my plans -- warned me that I might not make the connection from Detroit to my VIA train, or it would be very close at best -- because starting June 1st Norfolk Southern downgraded the line in Michigan line and all trains are going to be 1 hour late at best. I was really bummed out because I wanted this to a complete train trip and I really taking taking buses... but I also didn't want to miss the VIA connection because that was the whole point of the trip and the VIA tickets were pre-paid. So, I bit the bullet and got a refund on the eastbound part of my Amtrak trip and took Megabus. It was supposed to leave Chicago at 8:30AM, but the thing didn't even show up until 9:15AM. They made up some time, but still got into Detroit about 30 minutes late. There was some good... and some bad about Megabus. I was one of the first to board so I snagged the front window of the double decker... so I had pretty good views for the whole trip. And, I was impressed they had an outlet... so I could my laptop and work on some paper work over there. However, I wasn't too impressed with the tardiness of the bus... the fact they stopped for 30 minutes for lunch (wasn't really needed leaving CHI at 8:30AM and getting into Detroit at 2:30PM)... and the fact that every seat was SOLD OUT. I thought I was going to get lucky and have no seat mate, but got stuck with this kid going to Ann Arbor... smelled pretty raw... and had an open cut on his knee. Yuck!!! You could tell the cliente of the bus wasn't as good as with Amtrak. But, it was okay... I'd maybe do Megabus again... I'd give the experience a B-
Anyway, I got into Detroit around 3:30PM... the other nice thing was the Megabus stops right at the Rosa Parks Transit Center... where you catch the Tunnel Bus to Canada. So, after about a 20 minute wait the Tunnel Bus arrived at Spot #14. Detroit in general and especially the Transit Center was a little rough looking... wouldn't want to be there at night... but the only problems I had were some people hassling me for change. Anyway, the Tunnel Bus arrived around 3:50PM... and I was quickly on my way under the tunnel and into Canada. Of course, as soon as your cross the border everyone has to get out and go through customs. We only had about 10 people on the bus so it wasn't that bad. The border guard from Canada was nice... didn't even check my bags... and gave me directions to get the cross-town #8 bus... which was about a 4 block walk. I caught the #8 bus... rode it for about 2 miles to the VIA station.
I made it to the VIA station early (around 4:40PM)... and so I went in and got my tickets. The agent did a double-take that I was riding from Windor to London round-trip in the same day and acted a little surprised. I do that all the time on Amtrak... so I am guessing maybe the Amtrak agents are a little more used to railfans doing that than the VIA agents? He was really nice... and we chatted for a bit... and I explained that I have a big VIA trip from Halifax to Prince Rupert planned in September... but never rode VIA before... and just wanted to see what it was all about. He noticed my camera and actually invited me to go out to the platform and get some shots of the train before everyone else borded. I thought that was a nice friendly change to some of the mean Amtrak agents I have encountered who have said "no photography", etc... or even just the ones following the policy of not allowing anyone out to the train early. No one on VIA really cared or had a problem with photography which was excellent... So I spent about 20 minutes getting some shots. Going eastbound from Windsor to London we had the "new" equipment and a "new" engine.
Going east I booked VIA1 (business class) and was VERY, VERY, VERY impressed. I wish I got his name, but we had such a great attendant. When ordering my tickets I signed up for the vegeterian mean... and he reconginzed me right away from my ticket. I like how the meals were brought to your seat and brought out in courses. I started with some white wine... then he brought out a salad and roll... then the main course which was some sorta of baked pasta dish. As tasty as anything I have ever had on Amtrak. Of course, no plastic crap... all real silverware, glass, and China. The attendant was great... always asking if I wanted extra drinks, extra rolls, etc. I would say he came by every 3-5 minutes to see if I wanted anything else!!!
I had some dessert and even an after-dinner drink before I had to get off in Windsor. I would say my experience with VIA1 was similar to that of Acela First Class, even if not a notch better.
The route was pretty interesting too I thought... Leaving Windsor you sorta creep along for a bit... and then you hit a strecth of pretty impressive 100MPH track. I was shocked!! I didn't think there was somewhat "high speed" rail (well, 100mph) in Canada. There was probably a good 30-40 mile stretch of that. You go along the shore of either Lake Huron or Lake St. Claire for a little bit before turning northeast into Canada... the scenery was nice... small towns and mostly rural areas... until you arrive in London. London surprised me that it was so big... some pretty tall buildings and a nice VIA station.
I didn't have much turn-around in London... maybe 30-45 minutes. I spent the time hitting the mini-gift stop they have in the station... probably bought $100 or more in VIA stuff... and also taking pictures of the outside of the station and some of the switching they were doing at the station. I later learned they turn some of the trains there in London... and London was also the break-off point for the trains going to Sarnia, Ontario where you can cross the border and connect with the Blue Water at Port Huron, Michigan.
My westbound back to Windor arrived right on time at 8:02PM... I noticed the engine was like one of the P40's on Amtrak... and all of the cars were the stainless steel old Budd coaches!!! I thought that was cool because I got to sample the new cars going east and now I'd get to see the old cars. To save a little money, I ended up going coach westbound... which was fine... the train was far from packed. I enjoyed walking through some of the old coaches --- some of them reminded me of the coaches owned by the Friends of the 261, the vintage rail group that restores and runs ex-Milwaukee Road equipment, that I volunteer for. It was sooooo frigin' cool this equipment from the 50's was still in daily operation... it was something out of a RR museum I thought!
Anyway, got back to Windsor at 10PM... and it was so nice out... I decided to walk the 2 miles back to my hotel.
I stayed at the Travelodge in downtown Windsor... which I highly recommend. It's right by the park on the Detroit River there... I asked the clerk if they had anything with a skyline view of Detroit... and I ended up getting a really nice room on the 8th floor. You got a great view of the Detroit skyline and everything. Very impressed with the views from the hotel and the ammenties in general... esp for only paying $79/night. I spent probably 30 minutes looking at the skyline and watching all the ships and boats go up and down the river.
I got up early the next morning (Tuesday, June 7) because I wanted to get a little sightseeing and shopping in before going back to the USA. One of the things I collect in my travels is the Starbucks city mugs... they have them for bigger cities and sometimes countries all across the world... they have the city name and skyline on them. I started collecting those maybe 2 years ago and already have about 20 in my collection. I love getting them because they remind me of my travels... and I drink a lot of tea and coffee... so it's a fun reminder of past trips. And to add to the "rarity" of the mugs -- you have to travel to that city to buy the mug -- you cant buy them off the Starbucks website. Anyway, I walked to the 2 Starbucks within walking distance of my hotel and both places said they just sold out of the mugs a couple of days ago. I was bumbed because the Canada one is really pretty... its got a forest scene on the back and a maple leaf on the front and Canada in red letters. The worker at the second Starbucks said the store on Walker Road had a lot of the mugs. Of course, Walker Road I came to found out was about a 15 minute drive... and definetly not walk-able. Blah!!! I decided to splurge a little... and offered a cabbie $30 if he'd take me there... and so I did... and got my mug afterall!! Yeahhh!!!!
Time was running short... so I grabbed a quick continental breakfast at the hotel and went back to the room to shower. I ended up checking out and stopping by a convience store on the way to the Tunnel Bus. Whenever I am in Canada (maybe once a year)... I always stock up on chocolates, peanut butter, and soda. I know -- you're probably giving me a weird look -- but there is some method to my madness. First, Canada has some different chocolates you cant buy in the USA for whatever reason. Mint Arrow bars are the best thing ever... a bubbly chocolate bar... and I dont know why they wont sell them here. I think you can only get them in Canada, UK, and Austrailia or something like that. They are one of my favorite chocolates so I always stock up and get 10 or 20 to bring home. Ok, and Kraft makes this excellent peanut butter you can only buy in Canada... so I got 4 jars of that. It's actually sweet and not salty like all American PB. You think, Kraft, and American company would sell their PB in the USA, but no. And then Soda... I got 36 cans of root beer to bring back. Canadian soda is made with REAL sugar and not corn syrup... and in my opinion... is so much better. When I went to Canada in 2009, I bought probably 150 cans of soda and am still drinking that.
Unfortunately, I must have been ooooh-ing and awe-ing at the goodies too long because I just missed my 9:30AM Tunnel Bus... and had to wait for the 10:00AM one. The 30 minute wait was a little rough because it was VERY hot that morning... temps were climbing into the 90's.
Anyway, caught the tunnel bus back... got picked out of line and had a bag check... nothing confiscated, but I had to expalin my whole chocolate, peanut butter, and soda story to them too... hahhaha.
With all of that said, it was already 10:35AM and I was getting nervous taking the bus back to the Amtrak station because I didn't want to miss #353 which left in 40 minutes... so I ended up finding a cab... and taking that back.
Had plenty of time.
The ride on #353 was pretty un-eventful... I enjoyed the scenery from Detroit to Jackson, MI... and then did some work on my laptop (I am writing the route guides for the steam excursion from Rock Island, Il to Iowa city, IA for the Friends of the 261 on July 23, 2011).
I got back to Chicago and had dinner with "Saxman" who was also in town...
Then drove back to Milwaukee that night.
Quite a whirl-wind trip in just 36 hours... but it was fun. I think next time I'd do Amtrak to DET instead of Megabus... OR... if Amtrak still has this delay issue with the Norfolk Southern... maybe just take my own car across to Windsor, but still do VIA for sure.
Hope you enjoyed reading this.
My photos can be found here:
http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/18592
Anyway, looking at the schedules, I saw I could do a trip from Milwaukee (where I live) to London, Ontario and back in 2 days... and with a $55 round-trip fare on Amtrak... I decided to go for it... Monday, June 6 and Tuesday, June 7.
My trip started when I got off work around 11:30PM on Sunday, June 5... and drove the 55 minutes down to my mom's condo near the Glenview station and got some sleep there for the night to better make connections in Chicago.
Originally, I was planning to take #350 from Chicago to Detroit -- however, a friend of mine who works for Amtrak in Chicago -- who heard about my plans -- warned me that I might not make the connection from Detroit to my VIA train, or it would be very close at best -- because starting June 1st Norfolk Southern downgraded the line in Michigan line and all trains are going to be 1 hour late at best. I was really bummed out because I wanted this to a complete train trip and I really taking taking buses... but I also didn't want to miss the VIA connection because that was the whole point of the trip and the VIA tickets were pre-paid. So, I bit the bullet and got a refund on the eastbound part of my Amtrak trip and took Megabus. It was supposed to leave Chicago at 8:30AM, but the thing didn't even show up until 9:15AM. They made up some time, but still got into Detroit about 30 minutes late. There was some good... and some bad about Megabus. I was one of the first to board so I snagged the front window of the double decker... so I had pretty good views for the whole trip. And, I was impressed they had an outlet... so I could my laptop and work on some paper work over there. However, I wasn't too impressed with the tardiness of the bus... the fact they stopped for 30 minutes for lunch (wasn't really needed leaving CHI at 8:30AM and getting into Detroit at 2:30PM)... and the fact that every seat was SOLD OUT. I thought I was going to get lucky and have no seat mate, but got stuck with this kid going to Ann Arbor... smelled pretty raw... and had an open cut on his knee. Yuck!!! You could tell the cliente of the bus wasn't as good as with Amtrak. But, it was okay... I'd maybe do Megabus again... I'd give the experience a B-
Anyway, I got into Detroit around 3:30PM... the other nice thing was the Megabus stops right at the Rosa Parks Transit Center... where you catch the Tunnel Bus to Canada. So, after about a 20 minute wait the Tunnel Bus arrived at Spot #14. Detroit in general and especially the Transit Center was a little rough looking... wouldn't want to be there at night... but the only problems I had were some people hassling me for change. Anyway, the Tunnel Bus arrived around 3:50PM... and I was quickly on my way under the tunnel and into Canada. Of course, as soon as your cross the border everyone has to get out and go through customs. We only had about 10 people on the bus so it wasn't that bad. The border guard from Canada was nice... didn't even check my bags... and gave me directions to get the cross-town #8 bus... which was about a 4 block walk. I caught the #8 bus... rode it for about 2 miles to the VIA station.
I made it to the VIA station early (around 4:40PM)... and so I went in and got my tickets. The agent did a double-take that I was riding from Windor to London round-trip in the same day and acted a little surprised. I do that all the time on Amtrak... so I am guessing maybe the Amtrak agents are a little more used to railfans doing that than the VIA agents? He was really nice... and we chatted for a bit... and I explained that I have a big VIA trip from Halifax to Prince Rupert planned in September... but never rode VIA before... and just wanted to see what it was all about. He noticed my camera and actually invited me to go out to the platform and get some shots of the train before everyone else borded. I thought that was a nice friendly change to some of the mean Amtrak agents I have encountered who have said "no photography", etc... or even just the ones following the policy of not allowing anyone out to the train early. No one on VIA really cared or had a problem with photography which was excellent... So I spent about 20 minutes getting some shots. Going eastbound from Windsor to London we had the "new" equipment and a "new" engine.
Going east I booked VIA1 (business class) and was VERY, VERY, VERY impressed. I wish I got his name, but we had such a great attendant. When ordering my tickets I signed up for the vegeterian mean... and he reconginzed me right away from my ticket. I like how the meals were brought to your seat and brought out in courses. I started with some white wine... then he brought out a salad and roll... then the main course which was some sorta of baked pasta dish. As tasty as anything I have ever had on Amtrak. Of course, no plastic crap... all real silverware, glass, and China. The attendant was great... always asking if I wanted extra drinks, extra rolls, etc. I would say he came by every 3-5 minutes to see if I wanted anything else!!!
I had some dessert and even an after-dinner drink before I had to get off in Windsor. I would say my experience with VIA1 was similar to that of Acela First Class, even if not a notch better.The route was pretty interesting too I thought... Leaving Windsor you sorta creep along for a bit... and then you hit a strecth of pretty impressive 100MPH track. I was shocked!! I didn't think there was somewhat "high speed" rail (well, 100mph) in Canada. There was probably a good 30-40 mile stretch of that. You go along the shore of either Lake Huron or Lake St. Claire for a little bit before turning northeast into Canada... the scenery was nice... small towns and mostly rural areas... until you arrive in London. London surprised me that it was so big... some pretty tall buildings and a nice VIA station.
I didn't have much turn-around in London... maybe 30-45 minutes. I spent the time hitting the mini-gift stop they have in the station... probably bought $100 or more in VIA stuff... and also taking pictures of the outside of the station and some of the switching they were doing at the station. I later learned they turn some of the trains there in London... and London was also the break-off point for the trains going to Sarnia, Ontario where you can cross the border and connect with the Blue Water at Port Huron, Michigan.
My westbound back to Windor arrived right on time at 8:02PM... I noticed the engine was like one of the P40's on Amtrak... and all of the cars were the stainless steel old Budd coaches!!! I thought that was cool because I got to sample the new cars going east and now I'd get to see the old cars. To save a little money, I ended up going coach westbound... which was fine... the train was far from packed.
I enjoyed walking through some of the old coaches --- some of them reminded me of the coaches owned by the Friends of the 261, the vintage rail group that restores and runs ex-Milwaukee Road equipment, that I volunteer for. It was sooooo frigin' cool this equipment from the 50's was still in daily operation... it was something out of a RR museum I thought!Anyway, got back to Windsor at 10PM... and it was so nice out... I decided to walk the 2 miles back to my hotel.
I stayed at the Travelodge in downtown Windsor... which I highly recommend. It's right by the park on the Detroit River there... I asked the clerk if they had anything with a skyline view of Detroit... and I ended up getting a really nice room on the 8th floor. You got a great view of the Detroit skyline and everything. Very impressed with the views from the hotel and the ammenties in general... esp for only paying $79/night. I spent probably 30 minutes looking at the skyline and watching all the ships and boats go up and down the river.
I got up early the next morning (Tuesday, June 7) because I wanted to get a little sightseeing and shopping in before going back to the USA. One of the things I collect in my travels is the Starbucks city mugs... they have them for bigger cities and sometimes countries all across the world... they have the city name and skyline on them. I started collecting those maybe 2 years ago and already have about 20 in my collection. I love getting them because they remind me of my travels... and I drink a lot of tea and coffee... so it's a fun reminder of past trips. And to add to the "rarity" of the mugs -- you have to travel to that city to buy the mug -- you cant buy them off the Starbucks website. Anyway, I walked to the 2 Starbucks within walking distance of my hotel and both places said they just sold out of the mugs a couple of days ago. I was bumbed because the Canada one is really pretty... its got a forest scene on the back and a maple leaf on the front and Canada in red letters. The worker at the second Starbucks said the store on Walker Road had a lot of the mugs. Of course, Walker Road I came to found out was about a 15 minute drive... and definetly not walk-able. Blah!!! I decided to splurge a little... and offered a cabbie $30 if he'd take me there... and so I did... and got my mug afterall!! Yeahhh!!!!
Time was running short... so I grabbed a quick continental breakfast at the hotel and went back to the room to shower. I ended up checking out and stopping by a convience store on the way to the Tunnel Bus. Whenever I am in Canada (maybe once a year)... I always stock up on chocolates, peanut butter, and soda. I know -- you're probably giving me a weird look -- but there is some method to my madness. First, Canada has some different chocolates you cant buy in the USA for whatever reason. Mint Arrow bars are the best thing ever... a bubbly chocolate bar... and I dont know why they wont sell them here. I think you can only get them in Canada, UK, and Austrailia or something like that. They are one of my favorite chocolates so I always stock up and get 10 or 20 to bring home. Ok, and Kraft makes this excellent peanut butter you can only buy in Canada... so I got 4 jars of that. It's actually sweet and not salty like all American PB. You think, Kraft, and American company would sell their PB in the USA, but no. And then Soda... I got 36 cans of root beer to bring back. Canadian soda is made with REAL sugar and not corn syrup... and in my opinion... is so much better. When I went to Canada in 2009, I bought probably 150 cans of soda and am still drinking that.
Unfortunately, I must have been ooooh-ing and awe-ing at the goodies too long because I just missed my 9:30AM Tunnel Bus... and had to wait for the 10:00AM one. The 30 minute wait was a little rough because it was VERY hot that morning... temps were climbing into the 90's.
Anyway, caught the tunnel bus back... got picked out of line and had a bag check... nothing confiscated, but I had to expalin my whole chocolate, peanut butter, and soda story to them too... hahhaha.
With all of that said, it was already 10:35AM and I was getting nervous taking the bus back to the Amtrak station because I didn't want to miss #353 which left in 40 minutes... so I ended up finding a cab... and taking that back.
Had plenty of time.
The ride on #353 was pretty un-eventful... I enjoyed the scenery from Detroit to Jackson, MI... and then did some work on my laptop (I am writing the route guides for the steam excursion from Rock Island, Il to Iowa city, IA for the Friends of the 261 on July 23, 2011).
I got back to Chicago and had dinner with "Saxman" who was also in town...
Then drove back to Milwaukee that night.
Quite a whirl-wind trip in just 36 hours... but it was fun. I think next time I'd do Amtrak to DET instead of Megabus... OR... if Amtrak still has this delay issue with the Norfolk Southern... maybe just take my own car across to Windsor, but still do VIA for sure.
Hope you enjoyed reading this.
My photos can be found here:
http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/18592
