GOIng Home

I was in the Kitchener-Waterloo area recently, spending a few days with my son and his wife. I had hoped to take the train to Kitchener when I arrived at Pearson, but Air Canada made sure we landed too late for that to work. Fortunately the return Kitchener-to-Pearson trip was successful.

Kitchener is served by both GO Transit and VIA Rail. GO has 10 eastbound trains out of Kitchener on a weekday, mostly in the morning for commuters between 5 and 9 AM. My flight out of Pearson was at 5:30 PM so I really didn’t want to go to Toronto quite so early. Fortunately, GO has an 11:45 departure from Kitchener that arrives at Union Station in Toronto at 13:29, which fit my schedule well.

I could have taken VIA 84, which departs Kitchener at 12:04 and arrives at Union Station right behind GO at 13:38. I didn’t really consider that, because A) I wanted to ride GO, and B) VIA’s trip is more than twice as expensive as GO’s at $41.81 vs $16.32.

My son drove me to the station and saw me off. The GO train arrived right on time, with cab car 301 leading the way.

I had my son take the obligatory person-about-to-board-train photo. I like how he caught my profile in the window.

I boarded car 2327 and headed up the stairs to the top level. Everything’s better at the top!

The car was practically deserted.

We picked up more and more passengers as we approached Toronto.

The crew gave a helpful countdown to when they were closing the doors. My (nonexistent) hat is off to the crew for their announcements – they provided good information without being annoying. Air Canada could take a page from that.

Kitchener

We started rolling east toward Toronto, and passed through the long CN yard in Kitchener. It had a collection of cars, mostly covered hoppers, tank cars, and a few boxcars.

The yard / local power was on the east end, including this battered sergeant-striped GP38.

Guelph

If you’ve been to Guelph before, you probably recognize these buildings. It’s the Guelph Armoury, a federally-recognized heritage building.

I was surprised to see crews hard at work on a new station platform. The historic train station, built for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1911, serves both VIA and GO trains and there’s a large bus terminal next to it.

This platform is being built to allow all-day two way GO Transit service between Kitchener and Toronto. Other improvements will include bridgework, track expansion and realignments, and signal upgrades. You can read more about it here.

As we left Guelph, we passed over the Guelph Junction Railway, owned by the city, and operated by the Goderich & Exeter Railway.

Someday I would like to explore the Guelph Junction Railway. It looks fascinating.

Mount Pleasant

Here’s the brick station at Mount Pleasant, Ontario. I have a feeling that this isn’t the original station… but I could be wrong.

Malton / Pearson

As we approached Toronto, the GO stations became bigger and bigger with long covered platforms.

Leaving Malton, I saw the long swooping track of the UP Express on the right, with a UP Express train screeching around the curve. This is the slowest part of the UP Express route by far.

Soon we got into Toronto proper.

Toronto

I made sure I photographed the Bathurst Street bridge from below. If you read GO Transit and More, Part 4 you’ll see a photo of a UP Express train approaching this bridge!

Soon afterward, the CN Tower came into view.

We passed Rogers Centre and I made sure to photograph the statues of fans by the baseball stadium.

Aaaand there’s Union Station!

After disembarking from the train, I walked to the head end to record the locomotive, GOT 653.

I didn’t record every car in the train, which was OK since I saw this train leave the station later.

In Union Station itself, the board showed the upcoming departures. Lots of trains!

Naturally I took the obligatory photo of Union Station with the CN Tower in the background. I think it must be a law in Toronto.

I had a couple of hours before I had to catch the UP Express to Pearson. I considered going to Little Canada but I decided that I didn’t have enough time to do it justice. Instead I had lunch at Pi Co. Their gluten-free pizza was pretty good although I regret ordering this particular pizza, because it had too much garlic on it, and I don’t like olives. I don’t know what I was thinking.

I walked back through Union Station and saw the “We Are Still Here” exhibit I wrote about before. I ended up at the “railfan platform” at the end of the Skywalk near the base of the CN Tower.

Here I watched a few GO and VIA trains roll past, as well as the frequent UP Express trains.

The train I came to Toronto on departed at 11:35, with cab car 301 leading. The consist was: 301 – 2552 – 2334 – 229 – 2075 – 2327 – 653.

I was lucky to see a GO Transit train, a VIA Rail train, and a UP Express train all moving at the same time. I recorded that on video:

Eventually it was time to catch the UP Express train. I wasn’t too concerned about time – they run frequently – but I wanted to get to Pearson with plenty of time to get through security and any other snafus that might come up.

The trip from Union Station to Pearson airport was entirely routine, as it should be.

Clearing security was simple at Pearson. I only had a carry-on bag and no liquids other than my toothpaste.

Getting home, however, was more than a bit stressful because Air Canada had put me on standby the night before. I had booked my tickets more than a month in advance but apparently I could still be bumped. There were quite a few of us on standby.

This is me, doing laps in Terminal 1, waiting to see if I was going home on time…

The story emerged that Air Canada was waiting for a group to show up, and that’s why we were put on standby. I was more than a little irritated by this, as it didn’t seem fair that we could be displaced for this. Of course, AC is famous for overselling flights…

This made me particularly angry: after I received the notice that I was on standby, I checked the AC web site and found that it was still possible to book tickets on the same flight. How is it OK to put someone on standby yet still sell more tickets?

Anyway, it turned out that the group didn’t show, so we standby chumps were allowed to board and I got home on time.

I was glad to be able to see my son for a few days. It was worth the hassle of flying, any day.