Amtrak Cascades

[sky12065]

Canada is not the country whose friendliness we need to question.

I guess, if you consider friendly to be having your car searched, left sitting on a hard bench for two hours, taken into a back room whereupon being thoroughly frisked (and I do mean thoroughly), threatened with the loss of your car and everything in it, two years in jail, all while the officer rifles through your wallet throwing pictures and things all over the desk, and then eventually being banned from visiting Canada for a period of one year.

NO! Don't tell me that you too ran into Agent Pat, but at that border crossing? Man, what is it? Do you look like Patrick Whooz or what? :lol:

Seriously, I've sported a beard for years and probably could have easily been suspious looking! But I've never been delayed at the Canadian border in the many times I crossed it over the years! Why an aquaintance even referred to me a Swami a few years back! h34r:

On the other hand it's only been once since 911 that I crossed, so that's no real test in the way things are today!

 

[JayPea]

Considering that Canada has never even bothered to look at my passport, it'll be weird to experience them locking us in a pen and doing other border-crossing functions. Hopefully Canada still maintains their friendliness in crossing during this excursion. How is the bus crossing into Canada?
So this means that in taking the Cascades from Vancouver to Seattle I will be on a normal superliner train?

If it's like my recent US/Canadian border crossings by car in Washington/British Columbia, it'll go like this:

going to Canada: "hi, welcome to Canada!"

returning to US: "why were you in Canada? you're on a vacation? that's awfully suspicious! why were you there on vacation? a ... friend? you have a "friend" in Canada? please open your trunk, we'll have to inspect it, no no, don't get out of your car, you can't see our inspection process, and keep both hands on the wheel. now, tell us how you met your "friend". you met her on a train from Chicago to Spokane???? why were you taking a train? that's awfully suspicious! ... oh, he says your trunk is clean, you can go now. sorry, sir. welcome home."

Canada is not the country whose friendliness we need to question.

My dealings with the border crossing to and from Canada are similar. It's getting back into the US where the problem lies. One one road trip into Canada several years back, I had a heck of a hassle getting back into the US. The border is about four hours or so away, and I had taken an all-day sightseeing road trip to Canada. Not a bit of problem getting into Canada. All sorts of problems getting back. The agent didn't believe me when I said I'd gone into Canada for the day, didn't believe me when I told her the name on my jacket was my employer, and generally was a pain. I got the last laugh, however, when she insisted on hand searching my trunk. I had my fishing tackle box in it and she insisted on going through it with a fine-toothed comb. Which lasted up until she got her hand stuck on a fishhook. That ended the search right then and there. :lol:

 

[wayman]

I had my fishing tackle box in it and she insisted on going through it with a fine-toothed comb. Which lasted up until she got her hand stuck on a fishhook. That ended the search right then and there. :lol:

Wow, I'm (honestly) amazed that you weren't arrested for placing traps in your car with the intent to harm US federal border agents or the like. Or detained on the suspicion that you were violating some fish & wildlife or public health laws by importing possibly-contaminated or endangered fish hidden elsewhere in your car. Did she really just say "ouch! ok, does anyone have some peroxide? um, ok, you can go sir..." and nothing more?

 

[JayPea]

I had my fishing tackle box in it and she insisted on going through it with a fine-toothed comb. Which lasted up until she got her hand stuck on a fishhook. That ended the search right then and there. :lol:

Wow, I'm (honestly) amazed that you weren't arrested for placing traps in your car with the intent to harm US federal border agents or the like. Or detained on the suspicion that you were violating some fish & wildlife or public health laws by importing possibly-contaminated or endangered fish hidden elsewhere in your car. Did she really just say "ouch! ok, does anyone have some peroxide? um, ok, you can go sir..." and nothing more?

Well, she did let me go after that, but not quite that nicely. :lol: I guess I must have looked like a drug-running subversive to her and when she found out the hard way I actually was carrying fishing tackle instead of marijuana, she was through. And not very happy, either!

 

[Neil_M]

I guess, if you consider friendly to be having your car searched, left sitting on a hard bench for two hours, taken into a back room whereupon being thoroughly frisked (and I do mean thoroughly), threatened with the loss of your car and everything in it, two years in jail, all while the officer rifles through your wallet throwing pictures and things all over the desk, and then eventually being banned from visiting Canada for a period of one year.
And all because I wanted to go visit some friends and the Shania Twain Centre in Timmins Ontario.

That would have been fine if you were going to the Celine Dion Centre, but its a bit harsh for Shania Twain....... :lol:

 

[jis]

My last entry into Canada at Vancouver Train Station arriving by Amtrak Cascade went something like this:

Canadian Agent: How long will you be in Canada Sir?

Me: Heading back to US on Tuesday.

CA: What will you be doing here?

Me: Riding the Canadian to Toronto.

CA: When will you get there?

Me: Monday

CA Who do you work for?

Me: HP

CA: When will you get back to work?

Me: Wednesday next week.

CA: OK Sir. Welcome to Canada

My last entry into US at Niagara Falls arriving by the Maple Leaf went something like this:

US Agent: Where do you live?

Me: Short Hills NJ

UA: Are you bringing anything with you?

Me: The usual stuff clothing camera etc.

UA; How long were you in Canada?

Me: 5 days

UA What were you doing there?

Me: Riding the Canadian?

UA: What is that?

Me: It is a train that runs from Vancouver to Toronto

UA: And you were on it all this time?

Me: Yes, it takes 4 days to cover the distance.

UA: Did you buy anything?

Me: Yes a T-Shirt at Jasper

UA: That's it?

Me: Yep.

UA Welcome home.

Frankly I think they were just bored. But at least they were efficient this time. They cleared the Maple Leaf in 35 minutes flat and then we had an hour to kill before the scheduled departure time.

 

[Cascadia]

I am wondering if the immigration sterilized fenced in area for the Cascades is long enough for Talgos. I guess it must be. I noticed that they actually shut and lock the gate across the track once the train is in place at the platform, and of course they unlock and open the gate once the train is loaded and locked up and ready to go.

Thanks for pointing that out, you know I have arrived there so many times, and never looked back, didn't know there was a gate? Never thought of it, but of course there would be.

Now, do remember that the run used to be Talgos, the Superliners are a temporary substitution, it used to be all Talgos, all the time, so they have been in the station there for years, before the refurbishment operation started taking a trainset out of commission in rotation.

 

[NS VIA FAN]

Considering that Canada has never even bothered to look at my passport.....

It’s probably because Americans (or Canadians) DO NOT currently require a passport to cross the US/CAN border by train, car or ferry. A passport is only required if you are flying.

A government issued photo ID (drivers license) and birth certificate will work just fine. But beware: changes are proposed to take effect in June 2009 and a Passport may be required then.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html

.....it'll be weird to experience them locking us in a pen and doing other border-crossing functions.

You are not locked in a pen during border-crossing functions. The train and platform are gated to prevent un-authorized access. You leave the train and walk into the station to go through customs. No different than arriving at an airport.

Leaving Canada, you are examined by US officials in the Vancouver Station then board the train along the fenced in platform. There is a second inspection once the train reaches the US border south of Vancouver.

When I fly to the US from my local airport, I go through US Customs and Immigration inspection by US Officers right here in Halifax before I even board the plane. When we land in the US, it’s at a domestic gate and I just walk of the plane. There are no further inspections.

http://www.hiaa.ca/images/pdf_files/2008/U...%20English3.pdf

 

[Cascadia]

How is the bus crossing into Canada?

The train is very preferable to the bus for border-crossing purposes. The agents treat you much better when you arrive on the train.

Here is how they do the bus: the bus stops at the border, and the driver gets out and puts all the luggage from under the bus on the curb outside the building. Sometimes you have to wait for other buses ahead of you in line before the driver can get the luggage out.

Then you have to wait, in the bus, until they assemble the agents inside to process the bus passengers. This can be a while too.

When the agents tell the driver they are ready, everyone gets off the bus with everything they have with them, you have to bring all of your belongings inside the building, and pick up your luggage at the curb on the way in.

You wait in line there and it's just like going through customs when you get off an international flight at an airport.

There are people on the bus from all over the world and many times they don't have the right visa documents and they have to go to immigration and fill out forms and pay fees and get interviewed. You have to wait for the people to get processed and sometimes one person can hold up the bus for 45 minutes.

Also sometimes there is someone with something questionable in their background and they get pulled aside and searched and this can take a long time and we wait for them too.

Many times someone doesn't make it and you lose a passenger at the border, who didn't have the proper ID etc. to be admitted.

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I know we have all had bad experiences at the border (I think Alan wins though - that sounds like a terrible one Alan!) but I cross a lot and it is only very occasionally that I get grilled. Haven't had to go to immigration for a long time. They go through phases where they step up security. They also have a form of strikes called "work to rule" I think which causes slowdowns. I think all the border guards are trained to not profile people, which means they are required to hassle a certain quota of innocent looking demographics.

The Amtrak clientele is different than the Greyhound clientele and the processing is faster and more civilized on the train.

The new thing that the agents are trained in is this extended questioning where they ask you a lot of questions about where you are going, who you will be with, what you do for a living, and repeat the questions different ways, it is a technique to see if you are sticking with your story or if you confuse the details, also no doubt a test to see if they get your back up.

Never get your back up at the border. Only answer the question they ask you, with the shortest possible answer. Do not volunteer information. Let them direct the interaction, only respond to them, do not initiate. Make sure you didn't skip anything on your customs form.

I think the fact that I cross the border a lot has influenced the way I present myself. I have a conservative look. I do not want to be hassled, I do not want to waste their time, but mostly I don't want to be interrogated because it gets me upset and resentful, and you must not get upset and resentful at the border! They have a lot of power to screw up your life. Alan was excluded from Canada for a year, if that happened to me it would be truly awful - my boyfriend is on that side of the border!

 

[Neil_M]

All this border bother is a bit pointless really, when you look at how long the border is with Canada and the US if you were a bad and nasty person doing bad and nasty things then you could slip across the border at some remote point as often as you wanted with no border bother. Surprised the Department of Paranoia hasn't built a wall yet.....

 

[wayman]

All this border bother is a bit pointless really, when you look at how long the border is with Canada and the US if you were a bad and nasty person doing bad and nasty things then you could slip across the border at some remote point as often as you wanted with no border bother. Surprised the Department of Paranoia hasn't built a wall yet.....

On Google Maps, you can see that for good chunks (maybe all) of the border, there's a twenty or fifty foot wide border zone where all vegetation has been removed, so there's clear surveillance potential for the border. I don't know what use this is put to. I doubt there are helicopter patrols or cameras every hundred yards mounted on tree branches or anything, but it's not just a matter of walking through total countryside from one country to the other.

 

[NS VIA FAN]

All this border bother is a bit pointless really, when you look at how long the border is with Canada and the US............ Surprised the Department of Paranoia hasn't built a wall yet.....

At least not yet at this Golf Course that straddles the Maine/New Brunswick Border:

http://www.avcc.ca/home.htm

And look at this photo: It's 0 Avenue in BC south of Vancouver. Home on the right is in Blaine Washington.......guess when you mow the grass down to the curb you have to cross the border!

http://dolari.dragondata.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2357

 

[Ryan]

Bumping kind of an old thread, but are the Cascades back to 100% Talgo now? I'm looking at making a PDX-SEA run while on the honeymoon (end of April) and wanted to make sure that I was going to catch a trip with the Talgos on it.

Thanks!

 

[Cascadia]

Bumping kind of an old thread, but are the Cascades back to 100% Talgo now? I'm looking at making a PDX-SEA run while on the honeymoon (end of April) and wanted to make sure that I was going to catch a trip with the Talgos on it.
Thanks!

Hi Ryan, I didn't recognize this thread when you bumped it, but enjoyed reading it over.

Yes all the Cascades trains are Talgos now. In fact the PDX-SEA run was always Talgos. The only train that ever had a Superliner set to subsititute was the 510/517 run from SEA to VAC Canada. That lasted a lot longer than they ever said it would at first and I sure enjoyed having the Superliner set on "my" train.

The Talgos are okay, I don't really miss those stairs on the Superliners, but the Talgo seats are a lot more cramped, way less leg room, no footrests, they barely recline at all.

We just booked a trip from Bellingham to Portland and back in business class with AGR points for March, that will be fun, I was only in Portland once on a layover, we'll have a couple of days there and are going to go to the racetrack at Portland Meadows on my birthday.

How fun for you to be planning a honeymoon trip! I'm sure you'll have a great time!

 

[Ryan]

Excellent, thanks for the info! We'll be staying in Astoria and want to run up to SEA so that we can do the Coast Starlight the full length the next day (we're doing WAS-CHI-PDX-SEA-LAX-CHI-WAS in 2 weeks).

 

[EB_OBS]

Definitely more flexible than the Talgo sets though. IIRC all sets are used everyday, with PM being done on weekends and long layovers for a set. I'm guessing they use Superliners as their standby set (when this whole thing isn't going on)?

I don't think that they keep Superliners around normally as a backup for the Talgos.

I believe that they need 4 trainsets to meet the daily schedule, with the 5th set functioning as the backup/PM set.

Then why do they need the Superliners? If 1 is in the shop, you have the four needed for the daily runs and the Superliner can be the backup/PM set.

I don't claim any special insight into equipment rotations, but I'd guess that the cycle goes:

Day 1 - 501, 506, 509

Day 2 - 500, 507

Day 3 - 504, 516

Day 4 - 513, 508

510 and 517, whether Superliner or Talgo, are captive to that round-trip and overnight in Seattle every night (that's the primary reason why, if there is an equipment sub, it goes on that train rather than one of the several Seattle-Portland trips).

That schedule is correct. It uses four trainsets and the 510 / 517 set is a dedicated set because of the slightly different menu and the rotation of the other four trainsets.