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Transport in Toronto in general
by The Daz You'd expect a city once described as 'New York run by the Swiss' to have a pretty good transport system, befitting an urban area of close to 5 million. Toronto does not disappoint. With a vast network reaching far and wide over Canada's largest urban sprawl, the public transport here plays an important role in lessening the increasing ... effects of laying concrete, painting lines on it and allowing cars to belch fumes all over the result. The network has grown steadily to become an invaluable institution, vital to the future growth and viability of Toronto as Canada's most important Financial Centre, and tourist magnet. The TTC (Toronto Transport Commission) is one of the region's largest employers, with 11,000 staff serving 450 million annual riders on a combined network of Subway, Bus, Streetcar (Tram), and Light Rail across the City of Toronto and other constituent Cities of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) such as York, Scarborough and Etobicoke. (Yes - parentheses and acronyms abound once more!). Other facts are easy enough to bamboozle with: 122,000 miles serviced during 2007, 1,500 Buses, 200,000 passengers daily at the busiest stations. I could go on - but you'd get bored!! As a visitor to Toronto - my needs are slightly different to those of the commuter. I have no need of Monthly or Annual Passes (of which there are several), or for combination Transit and Rail Tickets, or how to get my Federal Tax Credits for Ticket Costs (Yes - really!), or even for upcoming news of strike action (Unions eh)... Mainly I am concerned with accessibility, network capability and value for money. Network: Broadly speaking, for the Tourist, this takes 3 systems and intertwines them over almost all of the parts of Toronto that you would wish to see. The Bus is obviously the most extensive service, with dozens of lines reaching out into the suburbs, including some Rush Hour only Express services that whip between major stops, shooting past the all-stopping local services. There are also All Night routes that serve the major suburbs from downtown, to ensure that everyone has the chance to get home, no matter how worse for wear they might be. Buses are regular and increasingly common are the 'kneeling' accessible buses, complete with external bike racks. The Subway is the jewel in the TTC's Crown. Nicknamed 'The Rocket' it runs on 4 lines and connects a Downtown Horseshoe loop (Yonge-University-Spadina: Yellow Line), with a cross-town link between the Western and Eastern edges of the City (Bloor-Danforth: Green Line), a further extension between the Northern Suburbs (Sheppard: Purple), and a newer line linking the Eastern end of the Green Line with Scarborough (Scarborough RT). Subway Trains are very regular (every 90 seconds at Rush Hour), and generally clean and comfortable to ride. After a while you get used to the unusual accent of the female station announcer that jolts the traveller out of their comfortable reverie (there's not much to see in a Tunnel). The over pronounced syllables sound funny but make the best sense to the huge array of different nationalities and languages spoken in the city (one of the most diverse collection of international communities in the world). The Streetcar evokes a romantic appeal to the traveller - plying rails set into the roads along mostly cross-town routes, linking popular streets of the city that often run for miles off into the distance. The unmistakeable sound of the bell as the Streetcar pulls up to a stop, and the joy of whizzing past pedestrians as you speed above ground, combined with the sheer accessibility of being able to step on and off at street corners make the Streetcar an enduring favourite for Transit goers. Fares: Tickets, Passes, Transfers and Tokens can be bought from Subway Stations, some street newsagents, and on buses - but you will need exact change on Buses and Streetcars. A Transfer entitles you to a change of transport within a time limit. Passes are available in a bewildering variety of combinations and offer exceptional value for money. A standard fare is $2.75 (roughly £1.20), and is valid for a single journey of ANY length within the TTC network - although if you're still on a route after an hour or so, you're likely out of the City and within the GTA, and a supplement is payable. Students pay $1.85, and Children $0.70. Reductions for buying 5-10 tickets apply, and a Day Pass is available for only $9 (about £4), which entitles you to unlimited travel from about 6am when the system starts up, until 05:30am the following day (allowing you to use All Night Services). Pay attention tourists: A Day Pass is normally good for a single Adult. However, on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays, a single Pass is valid for: 2 Adults and up to 4 Children (Under 19's), or 1 Adult and 5 Children. This is astoundingly good value, and allows your entire horde to swarm the TTC all day for what could work out at several pence per trip per person. There are a number of excellent routes to recommend, and rather than witter on mindlessly about Nodal Interchange Viability and Locality Coverage Plans, I'll stick to being a Tour Guide. Get the Subway (Yellow Line) down to the bottom of the Loop at Union Station, and negotiate the underground Concourse to reach the 509 and 510 Streetcar Lines that go between the Train Station and the Harbourfront, which will allow access to the Islands Ferry, the Waterfront areas and a bit of Fresh Air. The 501 Streetcar Eastbound runs along Queen Street all the way (a good 20 minutes) to the excellent Beach south of Victoria Park. Westbound takes you along the trendy Queen Street West, bustling with cafés, music shops and tattoo parlours. My final top tip - encompassing the whole cleverness and accessibility of the system concerns the Airport. Situated some 10 miles or more west of Downtown (technically in the adjoining City of Mississauga) - there are as you would expect a variety of avaricious Coach and Taxi firms willing to part you of upwards of $20 each for an hour long trip to/from your downtown hotel. Ignore these. From the same part of the airport, look for the 192 Airport Rocket Bus service amongst the other routes. It serves the Business Park beyond the Airport Fence and then on to the Western end of the Green Line at Kipling Interchange. For the standard $2.75 each you get a speedy 15-20 minute bus ride along the Gardiner Expressway to Kipling, where you catch the Subway another 20 minutes straight into the heart of Toronto. Magic. Buses run every 15 minutes, and the drivers are more than happy to wait a few minutes while you rush around looking for someone to change a $10 or $20 note to get the exact change! Whilst seemingly a dry topic to review: I do feel it important to highlight the necessity of an integrated and well run Transport System for the effective movement of passengers around a large Urban Area, both for Commuters and Tourists, both of which bring enhanced economic benefit to a City. Some other cities would do well to take note! Read the complete review |
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Via Rail Canada
by jamesontheroad A trans-continental train journey on VIA Rail will be one of the most memorable journeys that you will take in your lifetime, and its arguably the best way for someone to discover Canada's scale, landscape and people. I've traveled coast to coast on VIA Rail in Canada and on Amtrak in the US, and it is sometimes helpful to compare the ... two services together. Like Amtrak, VIA Rail is a complex organisation that is halfway between being a commercial operator and a state-run public service. VIA Rail, however, offers a much higher standard of service than Amtrak, but charges proportionally more on those routes that are targeted primarily at tourists. The current route map is a shadow of the rail service that once existed in Canada, but it is very well patronised and very popular. Broadly speaking, services can be divided as follows: western services include the famous 'Canadian' that runs three times a week Vancouver-Jasper-Edmonton-Winnipeg-Toronto and the 'Hudson Bay' that runs north from Winnipeg to Churchill. A couple of diesel railcar services operate on Victoria and in Northern Ontario. The busiest, fastest and most heavily used business routes are in the 'corridor' between southern Ontario and Québec: trains on this route are the closest equivalent to European intercity trains or Amtrak's north-east corridor, operating fast and comfortable routes between Windsor, Sarnia, Kingston, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal and Québec City. Eastern services are limited to the 'Chaleur' (Montréal-Gaspé) and 'Ocean' (Montréal-Halifax), which like western trains are targeted more towards tourists. A few additional state-supported trains run from Montréal into remote regions of northern Québec. On those routes that are popular with tourists, on board service is very good, with heavily refurbished stainless steel fifties railway carriages and very comfortable bedrooms and suites. The 'Canadian' is the flagship service, with restored observation cars throughout the train and full service restaurant and café cars. In the summer time the train can be very long to cope with demand. A beautifully restored aerodynamic lounge and observation car usually sits at the tail end of the train for sleeper passengers. Other trains offer different levels of service, so check the VIA Rail website to understand what each train offers. For instance the 'Hudson Bay' uses the same restored carriages as the 'Canadian', but the restaurant car offers a slightly less expansive menu and there's no observation car. The 'Ocean' operates six times a week between Montréal and Halifax. It is exceptional to the VIA Rail standard in that it uses modern railway carriages originally built for a still-born sleeper service that would have operated between the UK and Europe through the Channel Tunnel. These trains are marginally less comfortable than those on the Canadian, but the route is a wonderful trip and in summer time features an enhanced sleeper service with on-board guides and wine tasting. Many tourists take advantage of VIA Rail rail passes (see the VIA Rail website) for a set number of days travel in a month period. An alternative is the North America Rail Pass, sold in conjunction with Amtrak for a month of travel in both Canada and the USA, provisional only on you making journeys in both countries and crossing the border at least once. These include all travel in coach/economy/seated class, which on longer trips is great value for covering a lot of ground. Seated 'Comfort' class on long distance trains offers a reclining seat with footrest, blanket, pillow and amenity kit, although not showers. In this respect, VIA Rail can offer both luxury high-end travel and bargain basement accommodation on the same train. Compare the seated coach class to Greyhound, and you'll have a fantastic trip: with room to move about, meet other passengers and eat good food, you'll have a great trip whichever class you're in. My personal recommendation is to go the whole way, coast to coast, and if time allows, to divert to Churchill on the 'Hudson Bay'. Be sure to take some good books, though, because the train takes about forty hours to reach the northern most point on the VIA Rail network. However you'll see northern Manitoba's tundra and maybe even the northern lights and Churchill's seasonal polar bear population! Read the complete review |
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Via Rail Canada
by jsb We are just back from taking VIA rail from Vancouver to Halifax and back again (with a 2-week break in the Maritimes). For the 3-night trip between Vancouver and Toronto, book early (like at least 6 months prior to your trip), for fall colours in the forests travel in early to mid-October, for animal viewing travel in May or in the fall ... for the best viewing between Jasper and Banff (get off at Jasper and take bus tour to Banff). Wonderful trip and highly recommended, but expect delays as VIA does not take priority over the freight trains (we were over 4 hours late at both ends of the trip). Pack a small suitcase (there's no place to store a large one, so just check the larger one(s) in for your destination and just take the smaller bags on board for use on the train). For those travelling as a couple, if you can afford it, book a 'drawing room' - there are only 4 of them on board and they are much more spacious (i.e. no bunk beds). If you book a double sleeper, tell the attendant to just leave the lower bunk down during the day and put the upper bunk up - this way you have a nice 'sort of' settee and you can take a daytime nap if desired. No locks on the doors and none needed - everything was certainly safe left in our room. The food was very good and service was excellent between Toronto and Winnipeg (crew change here). The service could have been better between Vancouver and Winnipeg. Do NOT expect a spacious room - expect a submarine-sized room - this is a train, not a hotel on wheels. Lots of fun with tourists from around the world. We had a terrific time and will be doing it again, this time from Winnipeg to Churchill Bay to see the polar bears. Read the complete review |
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