Scheduling of summer RailFest Options

[KevinKorell]

Historically over the past several years, when we have held our winter and summer RailFests, we have had them on the third weekend of January and July respectively. This was done to make it easiest for those who get paid on the 15th of the month to be able to afford the travel and other vacation expenses.

Now as you know, from a previous poll, Toronto surfaced as unexpectedly as John Kerry as the clear leader of the pack.of choices. It was also agreed upon in person in Philadelphia based on those results. However, nothing formal has ever been announced for a Fest in Toronto. This is for several reasons:

• It's too early yet -- Philadelphia is not yet behind us officially until the report is posted.
• No website has yet been created (other than a very rough itinerary page done just to give prospective participants a taste of what they might expect).
• Until this week, I was not even sure if I would be able to go across the border along with my son Michael, due to issues regarding my single parenthood.

I intend to make a formal announcement regarding Toronto on this board in mid-March, once we have settled on a date.

Now, I let it slip in the most recent Sunday chat session that the date people expected might not be the correct one this time. A few people may have already made plans for July with taking time off from work, planning other trips or activities around this one, etc. The reasons for a possible switch to the fourth weekend in July (24-25) rather than the third weekend in July (17-18) are:

• By request of one of our core group who already had a scheduling conflict at work. At this time I felt it was early enough that (once again) not having announced anything yet, we could make a switch before the official initial announcement.
• Since a number of us associated with this board are also planning to take a multi-day trip in late June to visit parts of Georgia and Tennessee (also yet to be formally announced), a later Toronto Fest would give us more lead time, four weeks instead of three, in between the two trips to better plan the latter one.

Again since nothing has been officially announced yet, and it won't until I set up my Toronto homepage and begin to populate other pertinent pages, nothing is yet etched in stone. Neither is the itinerary, which we can shape to accommodate the most people. (What we can do, such as stops in Syracuse or Buffalo, is the topic of another poll!).

So I ask that only if you are sure you want to come to Toronto this summer, please state your choice for which weekend. If neither one is good, then please specify another one that is better for you. A simple 51% majority will win this, so everyone who wants to participate in the Fest should vote. I will e-mail our participants from other cities who might not be reading this board every day, so they can come on and vote as well. For non-members I will take their votes by e-mail and add them to the totals. Let's keep this poll going until Sunday, March 14th, a two-week period, in order to give everyone who wants to vote an opportunity to do so.

Again please don't cast a vote if you know that you definitely can't or won't be going to Toronto to join us for this Fest.

Thank you.

[RailHaRRy]

Kevin,

I've voted for July 17-18 primarily because that weekend gives me more travel flexibililty, both before and after. However I could manage to make the Fest on the following weekend, but would have to catch a flight back to the West Coast on that Sunday afternoon. So I "prefer" 17-18, but could live with 24-25.

[jacorbett70]

My mother turns 60 (yeesh! 60?) on July 19th and I'm sure the family will schedule something for one of the weekends. But which??? Probably decided well after the dates of this fest are set. I'll go for either and then see if I can nudge the family (if they are undecided) to the other weekend.

John

[KevinKorell]

For the record, as the pollster I have abstained from this vote.

As of March 6th, it is a horse race, with one choice just one vote ahead of the other. So anything can happen before March 14th, when the winner will be announced. Remember too that there will be "absentee ballots" cast by non-members who don't have access to this poll but are certain participants in the Toronto Fest as well. Their selections via e-mail will be figured into the totals for each candidate weekend.

[EdFindlay]

What will be done in the event of a tie?

[KevinKorell]

What will be done in the event of a tie?

We'll go to Montreal instead.

[KevinKorell]

Please make your votes by this weekend. As those who have voted can see, it's close, but the outcome you see here can be changed by the e-mail votes I have been getting as well.

[KevinKorell]

For those of you who were not on the Sunday Chat session 3/14, the announcement was made. For several reasons, mostly including events I found out were taking place in Toronto at the latter part of the month, plus the votes I got in e-mail in favor of the earlier week, it was decided to go with the weekend of July 16-17-18 for this Fest.

This really means that for those who wish to do everything, some of us will start on Wednesday July 14th with the Syracuse activities, Thursday, July 15th for Buffalo, and then get to Toronto on Thursday evening. We leave Toronto Monday morning on that day's MAPLE LEAF, so it means 4 nights in hotels in Toronto. If you would rather not join us for what we do in Syracuse and/or Buffalo, then you would take the MAPLE LEAF out of New York City on Thursday 7/15.

We have riding to do on three commuter lines on Friday, with a minimal amount of subway riding. Then on Saturday and Sunday we will ride the rest of the subways and at least part, if not all of each streetcar line in the city.

And if my itinerary holds, we would be arriving back in New York City on Monday night, 7/19. However Michael and I might get off that train in Albany and stay over until Tuesday 7/20, just to get to New York City and ultimately the rest of the way home at a decent hour. Perhaps we can get lucky and get the Turboliner consist!

Alan and I are in discussion about hotels, and also about what to do about currency exchange issues. That will all be forthcoming on my website in the weeks to come.

In the meantime, to get you started (although the Fest dates have not yet been entered on each page) here is the link to what I have done on the official website so far:

http://pages.prodigy.net/kevinkorell/torfest/home.htm