Cascadia
OBS Chief
Yesterday we had tickets to ride the Cascades from Vancouver, BC, to Bellingham, WA, in the evening. We got to the station early at around 4:15, my boyfriend picked up his ticket at the VIA counter and they didn't say anything to him about status.
We waited for a while and thought it was encouraging that all the immigration guys were already there behind the glass doors where you go to get processed before you board.
Then one of the station security guard ladies told us that the train that came up in the morning, the 510, had derailed in the yard there at the station when it was coming in, and that all of the passengers were still on the train from that run, they had been stuck on the train all afternoon on Christmas Day.
Nobody knew what was going on. Another guy had picked up his ticket and wasn't told of any potential delay or anything about the situation.
We were talking with one woman who had left home super early the day before, and gotten stuck on the SkyTrain for four hours and missed the train departure Christmas Eve by 5 minutes. So this was her second attempt to get out of town.
Then we heard that they had brought buses and customs personnel to unload the train and drive them to the station. So the passengers piled into the station in a couple of stages, the poor things.
We got to have an interesting conversation with a nice couple who had ridden the train from Seattle for a lark, they only meant to spend the afternoon in Vancouver and ride back that evening, just a day trip. They had such a great attitude! They said they didn't care that they had spent the whole day stuck in the train and then gotten off only to be herded back on a bus home again. They were eating McDonald's there at the bus station with our group for the bus that would stop at all the stations between Vancouver and Seattle, the "short bus" as it were.
We had fun talking to the other people, another guy had meant to go yesterday but had been unable to get public transportation from where he lives in Vancouver, with the trolley buses disabled, the SkyTrain all screwed up from a tree that fell, and taxis overburdened.
One couple had a place in Bellingham and they just thought they'd go visit, normally they drive, they thought they'd take the train for something "different", they didn't need to go, so after a while of waiting while it sunk in that they'd be taking a bus when they didn't really need to, they bowed out in the end.
Anyway the one couple that had been stuck in the train all day and were heading back, and were so great about it, they said the train derailed when it was going into the wye, because of the packed snow.
I'm sure everything that happened was compounded by the fact that it was a major holiday, the train was already running short of one conductor, also since it was an Amtrak train and it was in Canada they don't have their own support systems available like they would if it happened in an American station. The reason they couldn't let the passengers off was because they didn't have the immigration and customs personnel on the spot to process them, plus for safety how could you detrain them in a railyard with no transportation.
I felt bad for the crew, what a day.
Another crew was heading up from Seattle and I'm sure running into transportation difficulties on the way too, but they were needed to take the train back to Seattle whenever they get it in order again.
My boyfriend and I got off easy. the charter bus came and we left on time, I had a nice conversation with a fellow passenger from Venezuela on the way back, the border crossing went very smoothly, I think the guys there made an extra effort to process us quickly and efficiently and get us on our way for Christmas. Plus, we beat the other bus there and they were behind us and had to wait for us, instead of the other way around.
So, it wasn't too bad for us, except when we really had our doubts whether we were going anywhere, and the information available was so scant. I had been checking the northbound train status that morning, and when it was almost time for it to arrive in Vancouver and the status was saying "estimated arrival time, 10 minutes late" I figured there was no problem. I am not sure that if we had checked on the internet again before we left in the afternoon, that it would have given us any useful information about a possible service outage.
Hope everyone had a fine Christmas if they celebrated it, I sure feel bad for all the people who were stranded in Greyhound stations and airports here in the Pacific Northwest and else where.
Makes you want to re-think whether holiday travel is so crucial under adverse weather circumstances, I hope in the future more people say, "See you in January!" or whatever and play it safe if there's a question.
We waited for a while and thought it was encouraging that all the immigration guys were already there behind the glass doors where you go to get processed before you board.
Then one of the station security guard ladies told us that the train that came up in the morning, the 510, had derailed in the yard there at the station when it was coming in, and that all of the passengers were still on the train from that run, they had been stuck on the train all afternoon on Christmas Day.
Nobody knew what was going on. Another guy had picked up his ticket and wasn't told of any potential delay or anything about the situation.
We were talking with one woman who had left home super early the day before, and gotten stuck on the SkyTrain for four hours and missed the train departure Christmas Eve by 5 minutes. So this was her second attempt to get out of town.
Then we heard that they had brought buses and customs personnel to unload the train and drive them to the station. So the passengers piled into the station in a couple of stages, the poor things.
We got to have an interesting conversation with a nice couple who had ridden the train from Seattle for a lark, they only meant to spend the afternoon in Vancouver and ride back that evening, just a day trip. They had such a great attitude! They said they didn't care that they had spent the whole day stuck in the train and then gotten off only to be herded back on a bus home again. They were eating McDonald's there at the bus station with our group for the bus that would stop at all the stations between Vancouver and Seattle, the "short bus" as it were.
We had fun talking to the other people, another guy had meant to go yesterday but had been unable to get public transportation from where he lives in Vancouver, with the trolley buses disabled, the SkyTrain all screwed up from a tree that fell, and taxis overburdened.
One couple had a place in Bellingham and they just thought they'd go visit, normally they drive, they thought they'd take the train for something "different", they didn't need to go, so after a while of waiting while it sunk in that they'd be taking a bus when they didn't really need to, they bowed out in the end.
Anyway the one couple that had been stuck in the train all day and were heading back, and were so great about it, they said the train derailed when it was going into the wye, because of the packed snow.
I'm sure everything that happened was compounded by the fact that it was a major holiday, the train was already running short of one conductor, also since it was an Amtrak train and it was in Canada they don't have their own support systems available like they would if it happened in an American station. The reason they couldn't let the passengers off was because they didn't have the immigration and customs personnel on the spot to process them, plus for safety how could you detrain them in a railyard with no transportation.
I felt bad for the crew, what a day.
Another crew was heading up from Seattle and I'm sure running into transportation difficulties on the way too, but they were needed to take the train back to Seattle whenever they get it in order again.
My boyfriend and I got off easy. the charter bus came and we left on time, I had a nice conversation with a fellow passenger from Venezuela on the way back, the border crossing went very smoothly, I think the guys there made an extra effort to process us quickly and efficiently and get us on our way for Christmas. Plus, we beat the other bus there and they were behind us and had to wait for us, instead of the other way around.
So, it wasn't too bad for us, except when we really had our doubts whether we were going anywhere, and the information available was so scant. I had been checking the northbound train status that morning, and when it was almost time for it to arrive in Vancouver and the status was saying "estimated arrival time, 10 minutes late" I figured there was no problem. I am not sure that if we had checked on the internet again before we left in the afternoon, that it would have given us any useful information about a possible service outage.
Hope everyone had a fine Christmas if they celebrated it, I sure feel bad for all the people who were stranded in Greyhound stations and airports here in the Pacific Northwest and else where.
Makes you want to re-think whether holiday travel is so crucial under adverse weather circumstances, I hope in the future more people say, "See you in January!" or whatever and play it safe if there's a question.
