This is truly blogging on the run, well blogging on the rails anyways. I'm currently riding viarail from Toronto to Ottawa to see a friend from up north who moved to the nation's capital.
I'm a little less than impressed with my train voyage so far. I started this morning in my hometown in the suburbs outside of Toronto. The plan was to catch via in the hometown, switch trains in Toronto and then off to Ottawa. With all of the advertising via has done about how taking the train is the human(e) way to travel, I think my expectations had been raised beyond via's ability to meet them.
I expected something different than you typical voyage on Canada's national airline or that other perky airline. First off, via is "arrive 30 minutes before" or "one hour before" if you want to check baggage. Ok this is a little better than the airlines, but not much.
As I arrived the requisite amount of time in advance, I'm then told the train is running 20 minutes late. It ended up being 30 minutes late. The reason for these delays, "A large number of passengers and bags". Maybe via's advertising has been too successful and they can't meet the demand they have created.
Unfortunately, although I was continuing on to Ottawa on the same train we had to get off and reboard the train (although we were allowed to leave our luggage). I took a short stroll around union station only to find that the lineup to board my train ran the full length of the departure area, up the ramp and into the main part of the station. Some of these people had to be lined up at least an hour before the train was scheduled to leave. It's beginning to seem a lot like an airport.
I can't understand the rush, people have assigned seats, there's no advantage to standing in line. Speaking of seats, my window seats selected in advance were changed with no notice by via when I picked up my tickets.
Finally, all those annoying people who I thought only flew, appear also to take the train. Such as the a-hole in 11C who has his chair reclined to the point where his head is in my lap, or the person who broke out a harvey's meal right beside. Both were victims of the withering look of disapproval(tm).
Maybe via is a more human way to travel, but the problem is that it still includes other humans. I don't think I'm cut out for mass transit.
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2 comments:
The next time someone reclines into your lap, start sneezing moistly.
Oh Glen. If only you had read my post on air travel . . . I stumbled, quite by accident, on the PERFECT solution to annoying passengers. I think it would have come in handy for you.
Happy New Year.
P.S. - Via has not been on time anywhere in Canada since 1974.
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