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Montreal Railfest Day 2


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 20 July 2006 - 09:19 PM

Bonjour from the Sandman Inn in Longueuil, QC just outside Montreal. Our hotel here is literally a stones throw from the Metro Yellow Line. Yesterday we left Montreal and headed for Toronto on VIA Rail #57. We left MTR on time, and remained on time throughout the trip. At most stations we arrived early and had to wait for the schedule to catch up to leave. We were quite impressed with the comfort and speed of the trains. Food service is a different story. It STINKS! It makes Amtrak look like the Four Seasons. An attendant wheels a small cart through the coaches, selling small snacks. It is a very limited menu and certainly not enough to satisfy one who is ready for a meal. Given two of our trips so far spanned lunchtime, that is a major issue to me. We simply had to either eat whatever snacks they had left, if we wanted them, or starve until our destination station. Once in Toronto we first met Mike Hammond in Union Station. We would be 5 people for the next 24 hours. Then we all went into the subway, purchased our DayPasses for the rest of Tuesday evening, and went together to the station at Yonge/Dundas. At Dundas, Jishnu went to his hotel, Mike and Piotr went to Eaton Centre, and Michael and I walked to our hotel, which we found to be much longer distance than we had anticipated. Luckily after checking in and dropping our luggage we caught a 505 streetcar back to Eaton Centre. At Eaton we were finally Eaton, er, eatin'. We enjoyed our meals (Sbarro for me of course). Then it was time to hit the rails. We got in the 506 streetcar on its regular route (the one we had missed most of in 2004), and we also rode the YUS Subway up to Downsview to make that segment official (the last segment had been down for trackwork back in 2004). We then went our separate ways. Michael and I went to a Burger King on Spadina that we had seen from a streetcar, and the rest went back to their respective hotels/hostels.


Kevin Korell


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#2 EdFindlay

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Posted 23 July 2006 - 02:52 PM

Kevin, would that Burger King happen to be the same restaurant we ate at one evening back in 2004?

#3 KevinKorell

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Posted 23 July 2006 - 10:41 PM

No, this one is on the corner of Spadina and College (junction of 506 and 510 lines).


Kevin Korell


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#4 AmtrakFan

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Posted 04 August 2006 - 04:20 PM

Glad to see you guys had fun on your trip. VIA is a nice ride minus the food Service Part, it makes Amtrak's CrummySnackBar (That's what one of my Friends calls it) like a Ritz-Carlton. At least's it healthy.
John Poshepny




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