Fun Trip

Fortunately, the train station is a mere 15 minute cab drive away and I was able to get to my train just time, giving me ample time to stand in line to board the train. Despite a line up stretching for almost an entire length of the Montreal train station, boarding began just 5 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. Needless to say, the train did not leave on time, in contrast the train departing from Toronto to Montreal had it's boarding begin 25 minutes prior to departure and left precisely on time (WOW!!!).

This however was nothing truly unexpected and once I finally got into my seat I was hoping for a most uneventful ride to Toronto. But, Mr Murphy decided it was time to play with VIA rail and have fun at the expense of some 200 passengers. All was going well for the 1st hour or so, we were dutifully buying snacks at inflated prices and entertaining ourselves by reading books, listening to music, etc... On VIA rail, WIFI is only available on express trains, which somewhat limited my entertainment options. So, I was alternating between napping and watching videos on my laptop.

By now we were approaching the 1st intermediate stop on our trip (not a direct train), but all of a sudden the train began to slow down and eventually stopped, leaving us stranded literary in a middle of nowhere. Since I was busy napping, I didn't pay much attention to this until other passengers began getting a bit restless. After about 10 minutes since our unscheduled stop, the PA system came on and we were told that the train's computer had crashed and is now being rebooted. Surely enough, 20 seconds later all lights went out (reboot affects all electrical systems?) and was restored after another 10 seconds. It appeared that the reboot did solve the “problem”, I guess trains are not much different from common PC running Windows 95 and 5 minutes later we were able to resume our trip. The conductor dutifully informed us to expect a 20-30 minute delay in arriving to Toronto, disappointing but hardly unexpected. Last year my return trip was delayed by over an hour since passenger trains are considered low priority and had to be stopped multiple times to allow freight trains, which have higher priority to go through.

All was well for about another hour, by then we had reached another scheduled stop a the city of Kingston, which at the time was under assault from mother nature in a form of a medium-severity thunderstorm. 10 minutes pass, 20 minutes pass, but we are still not moving. Understandably, the people are getting fairly restless and start complaining, 30 minutes into our “rest time” we still have no idea what is going and why we are not moving. Then a rumor from the front of the train starts to propagate to the rear of the train where I am sitting. Supposedly the train had broken down and buses are being brought it to shuttle us to Toronto. At first my neighbors and I think it's a joke and rationalize that we're are simply waiting for refueling or missing passengers. However, the rumor proves to be true as 5 minutes later the PA system comes a live and we are told that the train's computer had crashed (no rebooting this time) again and buses are being brought in.

During our “brief” stop the train's ventilation system was off, so after over half hour it's starting to be a bit warm. But, the staff won't let anyone exit the train, which upsets some of the smokers quite badly, who in the absence of the calming cigarette turn to passing in the train. Eventually, we are let out to the tiny Kingston station and promptly fill it to capacity, no really wants to stand outside in the pouring rain, other then nicotine addicts who brave the weather for a chance to light up.

A little while later, we are informed that that buses had arrived and in mass rush to them, we are quick to discover that for some 200 passengers there are only 2 buses available. 200 people + 2 buses (50 persons per bus) = pandemonium, let the games begin! At this point foreigners, who are also unfortunate enough to have taken the computer troubled train discover that Canadians have a boiling point too and will push, curse and shove with the best of'em. With some co-operation from my train neighbor we both manage to push and shove our way on to the non-stop bus going to Toronto, some days it does not pay to be polite. Perhaps, for the next trip I'll pack brass knuckles .

I must admit watching with a sick sense of satisfaction the other 100 or so unfortunates, who are left out and are left in the pouring rain to wait for the next buses. The packed bus, designed for short trip does not offer much spare room, so no laptop video, just napping. Oh well, I was feeling pretty sleepy anyway, so no harm done. For the next few hours we travel on the Ontario highway system, which seems to be mostly traffic jam free, although the poor weather (rain mixed with wet snow) does limit our progress. The bus proves to be far more reliable that the train and gets us to the central station in Toronto uneventfully, thus concluding my adventure. Overall the trip can be summarized by:

Passengers shoved: a dozen or so.
Total Naps: 8
Trip Time: 7 hours
Methods of transportation used: 4 (car, train, bus, subway)
Arrival Time: almost 3 hours late (new record!!)
Cold VIA rail sandwiches consumed: 2
Trains Broken: 1
Amount of rain absorbed: ½ liter or so