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Montreal Railfest Day 3


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 20 July 2006 - 09:31 PM

This morning the 5 of us met again in Toronto Union Station. After a hearty breakfast (knowing we would not be getting lunch on the train), we joined the line for the train to Ottawa. VIA #42 is normally coupled with VIA #56 (to Montreal) as far as Kingston, but because the Montreal train was longer than usual we ran as a second section, our own train to Ottawa. This train because it was following the other closely lost some time, and we were as much as 23 minutes late at one point. However after Brockville where the two lines actually split, we seem to have made up a lot of time. We got into Ottawa's station just 3 minutes late. We decided that due to the food situation, our best plan would be to take an earlier train than planned back to Montreal, and eat dinner there. So we did everything in Ottawa on schedule, and then returned directly to the Ottawa train station. We carried our luggage along with us to save time, much to the chagrin of the other passengers on our busway buses. We did ride the O-Train one round trip, and enjoyed it. The cars are much longer than most light rail vehicles, and these diesel cars are very different than the ones we are used to on New Jerseý's RiverLINE. We got back to the rail station via another crowded bus, and we all (for a fee) changed our tickets to the earlier departure. Train 36 is an express that runs Ottawa nonstop to Dorval and then Montreal. Interestingly, it was the same exact equipment and crew that we had on #42 earlier. We did well timewise, until we came into downtown Montreal. There was a bit of outbound congestion in the station. We ended up about 7 minutes late. Steve was coming up on today's Adirondack, and his train was roughly an hour late. We kept in touch with him via text message. Now extremely hungry, we walked through the passageway to Place Ville Marie, and to that mall's food court. Many places had already closed for the day but we found enough open to satisfy ourselves. After dinner we went back to Central Station to meet Steve. The Adirondack was now 1:15 late, due 7:45. It ended up arriving 7:47 PM. Now up to our maximum for our fest, half a dozen people, we made plans to meet tomorrow (Friday) morning back in Central Station near the AMT ticket area. We then went to our hotels. Steve walked to hims Marriott. Piotr went with Mike to help him find his hotel along the Green Line. Jishnu want along with us for a ride on the Orange Line. We changed at Berri-UQAM station, with Piotr and Mike going Green, Jishnu Orange, and Michael and I taking the Yellow Line to Longueuil. Tomorrow we ride most of the Montreal Metro, plus one of three commuter lines.


Kevin Korell


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Lakewood, NJ





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