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[KevinKorell]

I have slightly rewritten the Pacific Northwest RailFest 2010 itinerary, mainly for Portland. This is due to the impending opening (Fall 2008) of the WES commuter rail line between Beaverton and Wilsonville. Since we originally were going to be in Portland on a Sunday when WES won't be running, I moved everything one day later so that we're in Portland on a Monday. That way we can take a WES round trip during the evening rush hour. This in turn caused the forfeiting of the Portland Vintage Trolley, which in reality runs on the same tracks as MAX light rail on Sundays only. I felt it was more important to get the commuter rail trackage rather than riding on vintage cars that we would have covered on MAX anyhow.

So now everyting else in Vancouver and Seattle will also be one day later, as will the long distance round trips via Chicago.

There may be future revisions for Portland, as the MAX Green Line should be up and running thus we have to add in a trip to Clackamas Town Center. Seattle will of course be updated once timetables are posted for the Central Link LRT.

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[jis]

There may be future revisions for Portland, as the MAX Green Line should be up and running thus we have to add in a trip to Clackamas Town Center. Seattle will of course be updated once timetables are posted for the Central Link LRT.

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When you revise Portland in the future, I'd strongly recommend that you also add in the short ride on the Tramway upto OHSU from the Streetcar stop at Gibbs (I think). It is well worth it just for the view of Mount Hood if the weather cooperates.

[KevinKorell]

Jishnu, sounds like a plan to me. It's starting to appear that we may need another day in Portland. If we move things back to arriving PDX on a Sunday, we can do the heritage streetcars, the Aerial Tramway you mentioned, and WES as well as the current and future MAX routes on Monday, and the Streetcar on Tuesday morning before heading north to Seatle. Then there's also the Willamette Shore Trolley, whose Portland terminus is only a block south of the southern terminus of the Portland Streetcar.

[KevinKorell]

OK I added one day to Portland and thus the entire fest, and spread the increased number of activities over the two days. There still may not be time for the Sunday-only Vintage Streetcar rides, even with the extra day.

[KevinKorell]

Folks,

I continue to update and refine the SoCal fest for next summer's big trip. Costs of taking trips anywhere by any means are rising. So if you can only afford to take one trip to the Los Angeles area in the next year, remember that the OTOL Southern California RailFest 2009 is going to kick parts of the anatomy I can't mention here. We're going to cover as much commuter rail and rail rapid transit as is humanly possible.

I am also adding a number of hotels to the listing for Los Angeles, and am going through it making a few needed refinements.

Our SoCal itinerary will also include a ride on the Pacific Red Car line along the San Pedro waterfront. To get there, unfortunately, a 20-minute local bus ride from Long Beach is necessary. And another 20 minutes back from San Pedro to Long Beach. Let me know if you think it's worthwhile to take the bus ride in order to get this piece of trackage and a ride on heritage equipment under our belts. Should we arrive in L.A. late that day, the San Pedro side trip would be the most expendable. There may, however, be an interesting alternative here. Amtrak has a Thruway bus from LAUS to San Pedro, which we conceivably could use in one direction since we'd be arriving on the Sunset Limited. (The Thruway bus stops in the same general vicinity as everything else.) So then we could go on the Thruway bus in one direction, ride the Red Car, then take the local bus in one direction to Long Beach and then do the Blue Line, Green Line, and Blue Line again before arriving back in downtown Los Angeles.

Remember, it's usually a small, manageable group, and there is never the need to register for an OTOL RailFest.

[jis]

Jishnu, sounds like a plan to me. It's starting to appear that we may need another day in Portland. If we move things back to arriving PDX on a Sunday, we can do the heritage streetcars, the Aerial Tramway you mentioned, and WES as well as the current and future MAX routes on Monday, and the Streetcar on Tuesday morning before heading north to Seatle. Then there's also the Willamette Shore Trolley, whose Portland terminus is only a block south of the southern terminus of the Portland Streetcar.

You want to do the Tramway on the day that you do the Streetcar, since it's base station is conveniently located next to a streetcar stop. The quickest way to do the tramway is to drop off from the trolley at the station adjacent to the base station on the way back from the South end of the Streetcar loop, take the tramway up and just stay on the car and take it down. That way you also get to occupy the best position in the car as people disembark at OSHU before the downward bound passengers get on. BTW, the Tramway has a separate ticket for going up. Coming down is free. Back at the base you can walk back to the Streetcar station and get the next one.

One thing I will caution you about is the lack of predictability of the arrival of a Streetcar. I have seldom seen them operate anywhere within a delta neighborhood of any schedule. They come when they come

[jis]

If we go on the Vermonter to St. Albans, there are a few things to be aware of. There are a couple of reasonable hotels but they are all more than a mile from the station. As it turns out the Amtrak crew stays in one of them. They have a contract with Swanton Taxi to transport them to and from the hotel. There seems to be a dearth of Taxis in St. Albans other than this one guy. He is of course happy to cart people to any of the hotels in the area for 5 bucks per trip. He will do so after dropping off the Amtrak crew and will pick up before picking up the Amtrak crew. He did not even take any money at night. I just payed him for both trips in the morning after he dropped me off at the station.

The trusty old station agent was already there. Had a nice chat with him about when the Montrealer used to run. The Conductor - a veteran at Amtrak, also had worked on the Montrealer.

Edited by jis, 06 July 2008 - 10:15 PM.

[KevinKorell]

If we go on the Vermonter to St. Albans, there are a few things to be aware of. There are a couple of reasonable hotels but they are all more than a mile from the station. As it turns out the Amtrak crew stays in one of them. They have a contract with Swanton Taxi to transport them to and from the hotel. There seems to be a dearth of Taxis in St. Albans other than this one guy. He is of course happy to cart people to any of the hotels in the area for 5 bucks per trip. He will do so after dropping off the Amtrak crew and will pick up before picking up the Amtrak crew. He did not even take any money at night. I just payed him for both trips in the morning after he dropped me off at the station.

The trusty old station agent was already there. Had a nice chat with him about when the Montrealer used to run. The Conductor - a veteran at Amtrak, also had worked on the Montrealer.

Yes I was aware that there are no hotels in the vicinity of the St. Albans station, and that is why the hotel listing I have for SAB is out of the ordinary, since none of the hotels fit the criteria of being near a train. Listing is here.

The taxi situation you encountered in St. Albans seems to be a far cry from that in Essex Junction, the stop before. That is the station stop for Burlington, which is about 5-7 miles away to the west. I recall arriving there a couple of times and the cab drivers were falling over one another to take us. One of those times we were staying right in Essex Junction within a short walking distance, and one guy even pulled up to us to try again when we were walking to take us the rest of the way.

[KevinKorell]

One thing I will caution you about is the lack of predictability of the arrival of a Streetcar. I have seldom seen them operate anywhere within a delta neighborhood of any schedule. They come when they come

Hmmm and how does that differ from the HBLRT that I am used to? I've seen some of them running up to 4 minutes EARLY, or they might be 4 minutes late. So I guess they have a 9-minute window (including the "on-time" minute) to be considered on time.

[jis]

One thing I will caution you about is the lack of predictability of the arrival of a Streetcar. I have seldom seen them operate anywhere within a delta neighborhood of any schedule. They come when they come

Hmmm and how does that differ from the HBLRT that I am used to? I've seen some of them running up to 4 minutes EARLY, or they might be 4 minutes late. So I guess they have a 9-minute window (including the "on-time" minute) to be considered on time.

I have encountered a streetacr that was as much as 15 minutes behind schedule, and then two show up almost together. Specially during rush hours the streetcars can get really tangled up in traffic.