A Bonus Day - or was it? (7th October)

As we sat down to breakfast, the train was running eight hours late. We had been wondering where we were going to get lunch, and that question is resolved - on the train again! To our pleasant surprise the service manager has sorted out the bus problem, and someone will meet us at Toronto station to take us by alternative transport to the hotel. We learned that this scheduling problem is highly political, and has been much worse since May this year. The track is owned by Canadian National, a private company, which also runs the freight trains, while VIA Rail which runs this train (The Canadian) is government owned. But the government is pushing more and more freight onto rail, exacerbated by increased transport of oil from tar sands. Tourism takes a poor third place behind this lot.

The view from the dome is beautiful. Rocky rivers, lakes, and autumn colours.  As we approach Toronto the stops have become less frequent, although the winding track does seem to dictate lower speed. No snow here, although early morning blue sky is giving way to dark clouds.

Back on the subject of food, breakfast was taken at 08:45, but we are on first sitting for lunch at 11:30! Hardly time to digest the eggs etc. but Stella is attempting to reduce her intake so just had muesli with a banana ....oh and some toast so it is not going according to plan! Lunch provided a hastily cobbled together menu of fried turkey, ham and cheese sandwiches, or fried chicken, with choice of dessert. Tasty though.

After lunch the sun came out again, and Ontario exploded into its full extravagance of colours. The train snaked through tall maples, birches, aspens etc, displaying a spectrum from deepest red to brilliant gold, contrasting with the deep green of conifers. The delay has actually worked out quite well in this respect, as had we been on time we would have slept through much of it.

But the delays continued, and we crawled into Toronto Union Station in torrential rain, nine hours late. The platform (such as it is) had no shelter so we trudged through the rain to the escalator which took us into the dreary underworld. It is probably the grottiest station either of us has seen, with no staff on hand to help anyone and no useful information anywhere. We had to pick up the checked-in baggage from the conveyor, and whereas Stella's appeared fairly quickly, Les' didn't. After a couple of stops the conveyor juddered into life, and the missing bag arrived, soaking wet as it had been left standing in the rain. We shouldered the bags and set off for the Air Canada entrance, where we had been told to meet our transport. Needless to say there was nobody there.

Les tried to phone the hotel to tell them we would be late, but the phone ran out of money and there was the usual frustration with the idiotic T-Mobile system which insists on a US zip code. During this exchange Les found himself sharing a bench with a homeless person. Meanwhile Stella found a VIA Rail bod who was shepherding other passengers from our train onto a bus to Montreal. Stella explained that we were high and dry (well hardly dry), and miraculously the VIA Rail service manager appeared, who told us that the transport - which actually turned out to be the bus company on which we were originally booked - had waited until 6:15 pm and we arrived at 6:20. She put us in a taxi at VIA's expense, to the airport where we could get on the same shuttle bus. So we splashed through the rain, and ankle deep puddles outside the station, to the taxi. The journey to the airport took nearly an hour, in monsoon conditions. On arrival we were greeted by perhaps the rudest airport employee ever encountered, who would not even let our driver ask where Door C was but ordered him to move on (that's paraphrasing politely). Amazingly the bus desk was expecting us so at 9:10 pm we were at last on our way to Niagara Falls. We checked into the hotel at 10:30, having dined on the bus on muffins and apples filched from the train.

These train delays are, according to the taxi driver, quite normal. Everyone seems to know about the situation except our travel agents.