Urs Mueller writes:
> Arriving by train from Toronto to Vancouver, I need a transfer to
> Bellingham, WA, where I have to get the ferry to Alaska.
...
> We should arrive at 8am at Vancouver Station, the ferry is leaving at 6pm.
Well, the first thing you need to realize is that you're not using
the Swiss railways. I would not consider it certain that your train
will arrive in Vancouver in time for you to make that connection!
I've only ever taken the train from Toronto to Vancouver once and
that was 20 years ago -- but I remember that it arrived 9 hours late.
For me this was actually more convenient, but you see what I mean.
Having said that, I don't know how serious the risk of major delay
is. The basic problem is that most long-distance railways in both
Canada and the US are now designed to give priority to freight trains.
People posting recently in this newsgroup have cited certain Amtrak
routes as commonly having delays of several hours; I've been on Amtrak
trains myself that have run up to 4 hours late.
But it isn't always like that -- I've used other trains that have
arrived on time, or close to it. And I haven't seen any statistics
for this Canadian route. So I don't know whether I'm sounding an
unnecessary alarm here, or whether it's appropriate to worry -- but
you *might* want to consider spending one night in Vancouver, if you
can still change your plans to do that. You might enjoy visiting
Vancouver anyway, after all.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Show that 17x17 = 289. Generalise this result."
msb@vex.net | -- Carl E. Linderholm
My text in this article is in the public domain. |