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[KevinKorell]

Toronto activities on Thursday can be discussed in this thread.

[KevinKorell]

Day 4 is in the books.  Another successful day.   The four of us (Mike, Steve, Jishnu, and myself) met together at the airport.  Today we first rode the LINK cable-driven intra-airport transit system. It was a 5-minute ride in each direction, and it ran to Viscount station where there is an airport parking area and rental cars. There's one intermediate station at another airport terminal. We noticed at the Terminal 3 station that the on-airport Sheraton is almost flush up with the LINK structure; in other words with curtains undrawn there's no telling what one might see.  There is a hotel too right near the Viscount station but it's not set right in view of the station.

 

Once back at the main Terminal 1 station, we went next door and rode the by now mundane trip of the UP Express into Toronto Union Station. We were on a trip 1/2 hour before what was called for in our itinerary, which gave us extra time to relax when we got to Union Station before we would need to catch our one and only commuter rail trip.

 

This time we had no Presto issues.  The first day had educated us to get through the second.  We tapped in and then boarded our train on Platform 26. We left Union Station on time at 10:15 AM. Nice ride up the Stouffville Line to its midday terminus at Mount Joy. The schedule was perfect, getting us there right on time at 11:08.  We got off and tapped out. This layover being 23 minutes, we had time to wait on the platform and could wait until just before departure time to tap in again for the inbound trip.

 

We left Mount Joy on time at 11:31 AM. This time we were not going all the way to downtown Toronto. Instead, we would exploit the area's connectivity by getting off at Kennedy Station.  This is the same Kennedy where the Line 2 subway and Line 3 Scarborough Rapid Transit meet.  We found our way to the 3 train first, as we would be taking our lunch stop at the Scarborough Centre, a large regional mall.  Our ride on this train was about 5 minutes ahead of our schedule. 

 

Once at Scarborough Centre, we found the food court and then had to find 4 seats together, which we eventually did. We then took turns getting what we wanted, and then decided to continue our day earlier. 

 

We left Scarborough at 1:30 PM, putting us 1/2 hour ahead of our itinerary. First we went east one stop to the end of the line at McCowan. We then remained on board and rode the entire Line 3 route end to end, arriving back at Kennedy at 1:44 PM. We were now 42 minutes ahead. Now it was time to ride the 2 subway westbound to the center of the city. When we got to the St. George station, we then changed to the northbound 1 train right upstairs. One of the goals of this Fest was to get the new trackage afforded by the recent extension of Line 1 beyond Sheppard West to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.  While there are segments of the pre-existing section outdoors in a highway median, the new segment is totally underground. So no scenery to see.

 

We left Vaughan at 3:15 on the 1 train, getting to Spadina at 3:48. From here we would be taking one more streetcar ride, the 510 Spadina line in its entirety from the Spadina station all the way to Union Station. This run ended up being very crowded, with groups of children taking up a lot of the seats and standing room.  When we got back to Union Station, it was 4:31 PM. We ended up 22 minutes ahead of the itinerary.

 

Calling it a day, we would split up here. Jishnu went to ride another streetcar line. I went to get dinner on my own, and we said goodbye to Mike as he would be leaving the group and returning home to Cleveland overnight by bus. Steve had dinner with him.

 

Jishnu and I met again unplanned at the airport, realizing that we had been on the same overcrowded UP Express train. Had to stand holding on the entire way.  We took the hotel shuttle together, and then I made my next hotel switch, walking to the third of three in the same neighborhood.   Meanwhile, after Steve left Mike he too returned to the airport on the UP Express and then hotel shuttle.

 

Down to three people once again, this Fest is now 2/3 over with 2 more days of travel to come!  Back to the USA tomorrow.

 

Itinerary now completed with actual times up through Thursday.