Part two takes us between Toronto, Ontario and Chicago, Illinois by way of Buffalo, New York.
Wednesday morning started early for us, a 5:45 AM wake-up gave both Mrs. Blackwolf and myself time to shower, repack between the carry-on and checked bags, and grab a small bite to eat at the Super 8 Hotel we were staying at courtesy of the complementary continental breakfast. The night before had us enjoying some absolutely incredible Thai food that was just a few doors down the street on Spadina Avenue, a nice reprieve from an issue we had with a taxi driver taking us for "a ride" and saying we told him a different address than what we had wanted. We would have taken the street car to our hotel, but with the Union Station remodel taking place, I have to say Toronto has done an absolutely horrible job of signage. We followed the TTC signs, ended up first in the subway station (not where we needed to go) and found no assistance from anyone on where we were supposed to head. After fruitlessly trying to find where the Spadina street car line was, we gave up and went to the street for a taxi.
Deciding that another round with TTC and the street car option was not in our best interests, we grabbed another taxi (this time it was a good driver who took us directly to the station without detour) and arrived at 7:15 for our 8:20 departure on the Maple Leaf. The station was in the midst of the GO Transit rush-hour, so we shuttled out of the way at the Gate 16 boarding area and patiently waited. When a VIA employee came around to collect tickets, he noted our Business Class seats and had us go to the head of the boarding line. It was a nice gesture, but really not needed as the train only had 20 or so people getting on.
We settled in to the plush 2-1 former Metroliner first class chairs and enjoyed a complementary cup of coffee. With the recent VIA derailment, they are being extra cautious about emergency exits and we received an airline-style instruction on the operation of the doors and stairs as well as the emergency exit windows. I then began a conversation with the very young cafe car attendant, who was marveling at the Amfleet consist; he'd never been on an Amtrak train before, this being his first assignment on the Maple Leaf route. He said he wished VIA had Amfleets and, I quote, remarked on them being "such nice cars; so very modern. Our fleet is a pile of junk compared to these!" I kindly begged to disagree, but it was an interesting thing to hear the impression made on our railroad neighbors to the North!
We left on-time, and sped South toward Niagara Falls. The boarder was actually a pleasure this time around, and the Customs Agents were beyond nice!! Very quick, efficient, and trouble-free. We even got a little joke about the weather with one agent, who looked with disgust at the sleet pelting the windows outside our car. A very nice Labrador Retriever did his job and sniffed the entire train intently, and we were done with Customs early. Early enough that we would sit patiently at the Niagara Falls, NY station for nearly two hours waiting for our schedule departure.
The new Amtrak crew came on board, and with it came the anticipation of a surly difference between the VIA crew who had disembarked just before crossing the border. Boy, were we surprised! The crew could not have been any nicer! Both the conductor and the assistant conductor were very jovial, enjoyable, and conversational. The conductor came by to collect our tickets, and with a laugh, flipped through the rest of our connecting tickets with amusement and noted our continuing reservation with glee. He introduced himself as James, gave me his business card, and then grinned like a kid in a candy store as we talked shop on Amtrak, our trip, our experiences with VIA, and all things passenger train for the next 10 minutes. A great guy, a great attitude, and someone Amtrak should be proud of.
We left on-time from Niagara Falls and headed for Buffalo, and James came back a second time to tongue-in-cheek ask if we wanted to really get off at Buffalo-Depew or if we'd like to continue enjoying our Business Class seats further down the line to a place like Syracuse for an earlier connection with the Lake Shore Limited later in the evening. He'd arrange the connection tickets if we wanted, possibly allowing us to occupy our LSL sleeper accommodation if it was available before Buffalo, and it would not cost us anything extra. We would have leaped at the offer if it was not for the plans of visiting Niagara Falls during our layover, including our rental car reservation, and we thanked him immensely for the offer. He gave us a hearty send-off at BUF, shaking both our hands and wishing us safe and enjoyable travels West. Inside the station, the two agents were happy and professional, taking our two checked bags through to Sacramento with a smile. Enterprise Rent-a-Car had a car waiting to pick us up and take us to our rental.
We nabbed an economy car, plenty useful for our needs, for $40 and headed back up to Niagara Falls, NY to check out the namesake. Spectacular! It is the off-season, which meant absolutely no people and no cost to park. We strolled to all three falls, grabbed some souvenirs, checked out the Visitors Center and utilized the observation tower that hangs above the river next to the Rainbow Bridge. After having our fill, we drove into Downtown Buffalo and marveled at the impressive architecture of City Hall, the neighboring buildings, and went for a pass-by of the former Buffalo Central Terminal. It is both inspiring and depressing to see it so abandoned and only marginally loved. It is in better shape than it had been, but there are many millions of dollars and years of work to be put in before any passenger trains have a chance of stopping here again.
On the advice of a few locals, we avoided the Anchor Bar for the obligatory wings. Yes, they may have been the original inventors of the deep-fried hot wing, but the place is a tourist trap with horrible service and marginal food quality... Or so we were warned. Instead, our travels too us to Duff's. Awesome wings, IMHO! I was brave and went for the Hot, and they had plenty of flavor left over where the heat left off. Mrs. Blackwolf has little desire for the nuclear-grade spiciness, but the both of us washed those down with some tasty Duff Beer (really!)
From there, it was time to return the rental car and catch a cab back to the Buffalo-Depew station to await our Lake Shore Limited to Chicago. The station was occupied by about 20 people when we arrived, and that number slowly climbed as the night wore on. Around 10:30 a collective groan from those who were paying attention punctuated the updated train status board in the ticket office: the LSL was running 30 minutes late. That tardiness worked its way up to over an hour late by 11:15, but it diligently fell back into a more respectable time-frame and the train rumbled into the station at 12:36 AM. We were the only sleeper passengers getting on board, so they had the train do a double-stop. We waited patiently under the awning as sleet streaked down for the 4912 car, Valley View, on the back to stop and the vestibule door to open so we could step on up. Our SCA, Cocoa, had turned down our beds in Room A. We did not wait long before crashing hard and sleeping all the way through to the Indiana state line.
A quick shower for the both of us, a change of clothes, and a tidy of the room preceded our walk to the diner in the morning. We were not fortunate enough to have Indianapolis this trip, but the surprising service by the crew more than made up for it. It was a fantastic breakfast! The LSA, Tyrome, was friendly and very happy to have us while our server Alex was just as outgoing. And here I was thinking we would have to wait until getting on the Builder before getting good service! So far on this trip, this has been the best Amtrak experience ever when it comes to crews. A good tip was given all the way around and we pulled into Chicago Union Station precisely at 9:45 AM; exactly on-time.
Wednesday morning started early for us, a 5:45 AM wake-up gave both Mrs. Blackwolf and myself time to shower, repack between the carry-on and checked bags, and grab a small bite to eat at the Super 8 Hotel we were staying at courtesy of the complementary continental breakfast. The night before had us enjoying some absolutely incredible Thai food that was just a few doors down the street on Spadina Avenue, a nice reprieve from an issue we had with a taxi driver taking us for "a ride" and saying we told him a different address than what we had wanted. We would have taken the street car to our hotel, but with the Union Station remodel taking place, I have to say Toronto has done an absolutely horrible job of signage. We followed the TTC signs, ended up first in the subway station (not where we needed to go) and found no assistance from anyone on where we were supposed to head. After fruitlessly trying to find where the Spadina street car line was, we gave up and went to the street for a taxi.
Deciding that another round with TTC and the street car option was not in our best interests, we grabbed another taxi (this time it was a good driver who took us directly to the station without detour) and arrived at 7:15 for our 8:20 departure on the Maple Leaf. The station was in the midst of the GO Transit rush-hour, so we shuttled out of the way at the Gate 16 boarding area and patiently waited. When a VIA employee came around to collect tickets, he noted our Business Class seats and had us go to the head of the boarding line. It was a nice gesture, but really not needed as the train only had 20 or so people getting on.
We settled in to the plush 2-1 former Metroliner first class chairs and enjoyed a complementary cup of coffee. With the recent VIA derailment, they are being extra cautious about emergency exits and we received an airline-style instruction on the operation of the doors and stairs as well as the emergency exit windows. I then began a conversation with the very young cafe car attendant, who was marveling at the Amfleet consist; he'd never been on an Amtrak train before, this being his first assignment on the Maple Leaf route. He said he wished VIA had Amfleets and, I quote, remarked on them being "such nice cars; so very modern. Our fleet is a pile of junk compared to these!" I kindly begged to disagree, but it was an interesting thing to hear the impression made on our railroad neighbors to the North!
We left on-time, and sped South toward Niagara Falls. The boarder was actually a pleasure this time around, and the Customs Agents were beyond nice!! Very quick, efficient, and trouble-free. We even got a little joke about the weather with one agent, who looked with disgust at the sleet pelting the windows outside our car. A very nice Labrador Retriever did his job and sniffed the entire train intently, and we were done with Customs early. Early enough that we would sit patiently at the Niagara Falls, NY station for nearly two hours waiting for our schedule departure.
The new Amtrak crew came on board, and with it came the anticipation of a surly difference between the VIA crew who had disembarked just before crossing the border. Boy, were we surprised! The crew could not have been any nicer! Both the conductor and the assistant conductor were very jovial, enjoyable, and conversational. The conductor came by to collect our tickets, and with a laugh, flipped through the rest of our connecting tickets with amusement and noted our continuing reservation with glee. He introduced himself as James, gave me his business card, and then grinned like a kid in a candy store as we talked shop on Amtrak, our trip, our experiences with VIA, and all things passenger train for the next 10 minutes. A great guy, a great attitude, and someone Amtrak should be proud of.
We left on-time from Niagara Falls and headed for Buffalo, and James came back a second time to tongue-in-cheek ask if we wanted to really get off at Buffalo-Depew or if we'd like to continue enjoying our Business Class seats further down the line to a place like Syracuse for an earlier connection with the Lake Shore Limited later in the evening. He'd arrange the connection tickets if we wanted, possibly allowing us to occupy our LSL sleeper accommodation if it was available before Buffalo, and it would not cost us anything extra. We would have leaped at the offer if it was not for the plans of visiting Niagara Falls during our layover, including our rental car reservation, and we thanked him immensely for the offer. He gave us a hearty send-off at BUF, shaking both our hands and wishing us safe and enjoyable travels West. Inside the station, the two agents were happy and professional, taking our two checked bags through to Sacramento with a smile. Enterprise Rent-a-Car had a car waiting to pick us up and take us to our rental.
We nabbed an economy car, plenty useful for our needs, for $40 and headed back up to Niagara Falls, NY to check out the namesake. Spectacular! It is the off-season, which meant absolutely no people and no cost to park. We strolled to all three falls, grabbed some souvenirs, checked out the Visitors Center and utilized the observation tower that hangs above the river next to the Rainbow Bridge. After having our fill, we drove into Downtown Buffalo and marveled at the impressive architecture of City Hall, the neighboring buildings, and went for a pass-by of the former Buffalo Central Terminal. It is both inspiring and depressing to see it so abandoned and only marginally loved. It is in better shape than it had been, but there are many millions of dollars and years of work to be put in before any passenger trains have a chance of stopping here again.
On the advice of a few locals, we avoided the Anchor Bar for the obligatory wings. Yes, they may have been the original inventors of the deep-fried hot wing, but the place is a tourist trap with horrible service and marginal food quality... Or so we were warned. Instead, our travels too us to Duff's. Awesome wings, IMHO! I was brave and went for the Hot, and they had plenty of flavor left over where the heat left off. Mrs. Blackwolf has little desire for the nuclear-grade spiciness, but the both of us washed those down with some tasty Duff Beer (really!)
From there, it was time to return the rental car and catch a cab back to the Buffalo-Depew station to await our Lake Shore Limited to Chicago. The station was occupied by about 20 people when we arrived, and that number slowly climbed as the night wore on. Around 10:30 a collective groan from those who were paying attention punctuated the updated train status board in the ticket office: the LSL was running 30 minutes late. That tardiness worked its way up to over an hour late by 11:15, but it diligently fell back into a more respectable time-frame and the train rumbled into the station at 12:36 AM. We were the only sleeper passengers getting on board, so they had the train do a double-stop. We waited patiently under the awning as sleet streaked down for the 4912 car, Valley View, on the back to stop and the vestibule door to open so we could step on up. Our SCA, Cocoa, had turned down our beds in Room A. We did not wait long before crashing hard and sleeping all the way through to the Indiana state line.
A quick shower for the both of us, a change of clothes, and a tidy of the room preceded our walk to the diner in the morning. We were not fortunate enough to have Indianapolis this trip, but the surprising service by the crew more than made up for it. It was a fantastic breakfast! The LSA, Tyrome, was friendly and very happy to have us while our server Alex was just as outgoing. And here I was thinking we would have to wait until getting on the Builder before getting good service! So far on this trip, this has been the best Amtrak experience ever when it comes to crews. A good tip was given all the way around and we pulled into Chicago Union Station precisely at 9:45 AM; exactly on-time.
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