Archive for the 'travel' Category
The benefits of competition
For anyone travelling between Toronto and New York, I whole-heartedly endorse Greyhound’s new Neon Express service. I have to admit I barely even noticed the ‘express’ modifier, since that term rarely seems to apply to inter-city buses. But it’s actually express – there is a single rest stop, the mandatory customs stop, and nothing else. [...]
Filed under: economics, nyc, toronto, travel | 1 Comment
Post-trip statistics
Start
Finish
Mode
Distance (km)
Cost ($)
Edmonton
Vancouver
Train
1153
209
Vancouver
Seattle
Bus
230
43
Seattle
Portland
Train
279
36
Portland
Salem
Bus
74
11
Salem
Sacramento
Train
718
59
Sacramento
Richmond
Train
50
19
Emeryville
Merced
Train
197
29
Merced
Yosemite
Bus
103
24
Yosemite
Merced
Bus
103
24
Merced
Bakersfield
Train
265
32
Bakerville
Los Angeles
Bus
179
21
Los Angeles
San Diego
Train
193
29
San Diego
Los Angeles
Train
193
29
Los Angeles
Santa Barbara
Train
153
21
Santa Barbara
San Luis Obispo
Train
171
25
San Luis Obispo
Emeryville
Bus
368
34
Emeryville
Salt Lake City
Train
1169
68
Salt Lake City
Denver
Train
859
82
Denver
Chicago
Train
1618
119
Chicago
Buffalo
Train
863
72
Buffalo
Toronto
Train
158
37
Toronto
Ottawa
Train
453
90
Total Distance
9549
Dollars/km
0.063776312
Total carbon emissions (kg)
467.901
Total value of rail pass
1113
Money “saved”
504
Hopefully this will be useful to anyone researching the North American Rail Pass (which I got for $609 Canadian). Obviously, I got good value out of it — [...]
Filed under: economics, travel | 3 Comments
At this point in the trip, tourist time was over and I was simply in store for the unpleasant amount of travel time required to get home – thus the lack of photos and witty urban analysis.
I caught the overnight Lake Shore Limited from Chicago to Buffalo, where I had a three-hour stopover waiting for [...]
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After the overnight bus from SLO to Emeryville (just outside of San Francisco), I was ready to start the trek east. Of the four possible cross-country trains, I had selected the California Zephr, since it offered the cities I was most interested in seeing, and terminated in Chicago, from where it would be easy to [...]
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I’m not sure why I thought Los Angeles was worth stopping in, but I suppose I just scheduled it in as a large city worth seeing along the way. Well, I saw it.
With no couchsurfing hosts forthcoming yet again, I headed to a Hollywood hostel listed in my guidebook after stepping off the Pacific Surfliner. [...]
Filed under: travel | 2 Comments
Days 14, 15, 16: San Diego
The Pacific Surfliner, the train from Los Angeles to San Diego which I connected to from Merced, runs deliciously close to the shore and gave me a gorgeous beach sunset, a nice end to a “travel day”. While certainly faster than the long-distance trains, the near-commuter nature of this and the Capitol Corridor line (Sacramento-Oakland) [...]
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Days 12 & 13: Merced, Yosemite
Merced, apparently a city of 60,000, felt much smaller than that in the few hours I was there, and not in a good way. For the nights before and after my day trip to Yosemite, I was hosted by a rambunctuous 24-year-old Mexican-American who not only agreed to put me on the same night he [...]
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Days 9, 10, 11: San Francisco
From Sacramento, it was a quick commuter train to San Francisco, where I was greeted by a familiar face, a debater friend of mine who has been in SF for about six months working for everyone’s favourite hi-tech monolith, Google. He was nice enough to host me for the duration – and to provide me [...]
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The Pacific Northwest train, The Cascades, was as-advertised: European-style, modern and fast. As we zoomed through towns, monitors tracked our journey, similar to airplanes and later on, a mediocre film was shown (also similar). While The Canadian was nice, it was nice in a historical way – here, I actually felt like I was getting [...]
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It turns out that riding a heavily-delayed train is an enjoyable experience. While I did have to wait an unexpected 4 hours in the Edmonton train station, I did get to enjoy three hot meals that would have otherwise been unavailable to those of in coach (at least for free). The food was pretty good, [...]
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