8 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

                             Announcing Toronto RailFest 2019:  Monday 7/15/19 through Saturday 7/20/19

 

Toronto RailFest 2019 will take place during our traditional summer meet time in mid-July.  It will take place over a 6-day period from Monday, July 15th until Saturday, July 20th.  This will be a return to Toronto to ride commuter rail, heavy rail, and streetcar lines that have been added to the transit map since we were last in Toronto in 2004 and 2006.

 

It has a long history, having originally been conceived as a much longer journey in Canada that would have also included a side trip to the Waterloo Region, some time in Montreal, and a stop on the way in Ottawa as well. Because the light rail lines in Kitchener/Waterloo and Ottawa have not yet gone into service with presently no definite start date, those were eliminated in favor or an event just featuring Toronto and Montreal.  Then later, it was decided to add another Fest in the Fall to revisit Denver. Research on hotel rates in Canada during the summer months yielded some very high rates, even with the favorable exchange rate figured in. For those reasons, this trip was then shortened to just Toronto, and we will stay in hotels out by the Toronto's airport where rates are more competitive. Naturally, anyone can stay wherever they wish, including downtown.

 

During the two full days in the Toronto area (Wednesday & Thursday), TRF 2019 will take in the two short branches of the 504 King Streetcar to Dufferin Gate and Distillery Loop, the newly extended 1 subway (Yonge-University) Line to Vaughan, and several GO TRANSIT commuter lines that have midday weekday round trips possible. The UP Express that runs between Union Station and Pearson Airport will be used to get us between our hotels near the airport and downtown.

 

We will also cross the international border aboard Amtrak's Maple Leaf through Niagara Falls.  To avoid from having two 12+ hour trips on the Maple Leaf, as well as its early New York City departure and late evening New York City arrival, the trip was broken up to make overnight stops in upstate New York.  Utica, with its classic ex-New York Central rail station will be the stopover on the way west, and going eastbound we will make our stopover in Schenectady, which recently rebuilt its station.

 

The homepage for this event can be found here.  Our tentative itinerary is here.  As we all know, things can and do change as plans can go awry up until the time the trip segment was planned to take place.

 

What hotels do you need to reserve if you are participating?

• Monday 7/15: Utica, NY (leaving Tuesday 7/16)
• Tuesday 7/16: Wednesday 7/17, and Thursday 7/18: Toronto, ON (leaving next morning)
• Friday 7/19: Schenectady, NY (leaving Saturday 7/20)

 

Amtrak trains the group will be using (participants can take other trains if they wish to do so)

• Monday 7/15 Train #283 Empire Service, New York City to Utica, NY
• Tuesday 7/16 Train #63 Maple Leaf, Utica, NY to Toronto, ON
• Friday 7/19 Train #64 Maple Leaf, Toronto, ON to Schenectady, NY
• Saturday 7/20 Train #280 Empire Service, Schenectady, NY to New York City
• Plus any other Amtrak trains that may be needed to get to or from New York City

 

As usual, our participants do not necessarily remain with the group from start to finish.  Folks might leave us early or join us in progress.  For example if you don't wish to enter Canada you could still ride with us within New York State on the Maple Leaf or Empire Service trains.

 

As we get closer to the event, other helpful documents will become available, such as our participant list, and information on border crossings, cell phone use in Canada, and currency exchange rates between the US and Canada.  If you plan to attend, please e-mail me with your planned dates of participation.

 

Join us as we ride the rails both south and north of the US/Canada border!

[steve4031]

Im in.

[KevinKorell]

Slightly later operating time for 63, due to the summer NY Penn Station trackwork (and resulting operation of 63 and 69 as one supertrain to Albany).  63 now leaves Utica slightly after 12 Noon, and Toronto arrival is also a bit later, after 8 PM. Itinerary adjusted accordingly for Tuesday 7/16.

[jis]

Couple of minor corrections:

 

To fly to or from Canada, only a full Passport is guaranteed to work. If you have a NEXUS Card that should work too. A Real Id Driver's License or even an Enhanced Driver's License will not work at airport Immigration stations. A Global Id will work only for entering the US but not for entering Canada, but in order to get the kiosk machine to start processing you will in most cases require your Passport. A Passport Card will not work at airports.

 

For Land crossings A full Passport, a Passport Card or an Enhanced Driver's License will work, as will NEXUS at border posts equipped to handle NEXUS. A Real Id Driver's License that is not an Enhanced Driver's License will not work. Allegedly, a Global Id will work wherever NEXUS will work for entering the US, but I have never tried it, and don't plan to, since a Passport Card will work just as well.

 

If you are not sure that you under no circumstances will need to fly, even in an emergency, the safest is a full Passport. If you are certain that you will only cross land or marine borders then a Passport Card or an Enhance Driver's License is a safe bet.

 

Personally I always have my full Passport with me just in case, but while crossing the land border I might use my Passport Card which sits in my wallet, and save me the hassle of pulling out my Passport and also avoid additional stupid questions from the agent based on some random stamp that s/he sees in my Passport.

 

Some additional information about cell phones. Both AT&T and Verizon have an international extension program (and others may too) in which you can get your US plan extended to almost any country in the world on a per day basis, for the charge of $10 per day of actual use. If you have an unlimited plan in the US you get the same unlimited plan in the country of travel where you actually use the phone. It even allows all local calls and third country call for no extra charge. The best part is the unlimited Data if you have it in the US, gets extended to the country you are traveling in too. I find it worthwhile for short trips. You typically have to register once for the program and then it kicks in automatically if you use your phone outside the country.

[KevinKorell]

Jishnu,

 

Thanks for clarification on the border crossing requirements.   Bottom line, if I bring my full passport, which is all I have, I should be golden.

 

Regarding the phone usage in Canada, I did not want to dissect the plans for each carrier for lack of time, but I do plan to do the $10 per day thing.  I believe it lasts for a 24 hour period once activated, so to be safe it could be done either the night or morning before from a hotel room (where there is WiFi) or from the train just before entering Canada.  Last time when we went to Vancouver I am not sure what plan I took, but I forgot to remove it and was still being charged an international surcharge for a while after the trip was long over. So per day sounds like the way to go.

[jis]

Yup. A Passport book will always work everywhere. It is the gold standard. Things like Global Entry and NEXUS are just ways of expediting processing, not a substitute for a Passport. Passport Card and Enhanced DL are substitutes that work in very limited circumstances as mentioned above.

 

About the $10per day plans, you can activate it any time, even before leaving on the trip. No charges accrue until the phone is actually used in a country other than the US.

 

Some more nuances of those plans that are of no relevance for our trip to Canada since Canada is a large country and the plan remembers the country(ies) that you have hit on a particular day...

 

1. The plan is actually $10/day/country. So if you rattle through three countries in a single day you will get charged $10 three times for that day. This can easily happen in a place like western Europe.

 

2. If you are in the border region between two countries none of which are the US, you could inadvertently get charged for a second country even though you never entered it, just because your phone happened to glom onto a cell tower from the other country. So just make sure that you are not hanging out by the Canadian border when you are not planning to go to Canada that day Or turn the feature off if you know you will be hanging out by the border. Or place your device in Airplane Mode when close to the border, or turn roaming off.

 

3. You can reenter a country multiple times in a day after leaving it. You will get charged just once per country per day. So even if you rattle back and forth between US and Canada a few times, just to drive CBSA and CBP nuts, you will just pay one $10 charge for the day in Canada.

Edited by jis, 08 July 2019 - 04:18 PM.

[KevinKorell]

Updated the Exchange Rates page, night before we enter Canada. Should not be any drastic changes to this within the next 4 days.  

[KevinKorell]

One more time I updated the exchange rates page.  We did wake up in Canada this morning although we are now back on US soil.  Just in case there were transactions done today 7/19 maybe at breakfast.  I might do it still one more time as it is indicated on the page that merchants might put through a transaction a day or two later.  For example neither of the café car purchases I made on the Maple Leaf within Canada by credit card on either trip have shown up yet on my accounts.

[KevinKorell]

Regarding the phone usage in Canada topic, I received my phone bill for the period of time that encompassed the Fest.  The $10 per day thing worked very well, as that is all I was charged -- $30 in all. In my mind I had been expecting $40.    Although we were within Canada during parts of 4 calendar days, the plan works on 24-hour periods from whenever the first usage in the country occurs.  We were actually in Canada less than 72 hours.   Only 249 texts took place during that period, so light days for me.  I strongly recommend this option for the next time we venture outside the USA.