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Transfer from Vancouver to Bellingham by Greyhound, difficult?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 7th, 2005, 02:37 PM
Urs Mueller
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Default Transfer from Vancouver to Bellingham by Greyhound, difficult?

Hello

Arriving by train from Toronto to Vancouver, I need a transfer to
Bellingham, WA, where I have to get the ferry to Alaska.

I am planning to use Greyhound for this transfer, but I am travelling in
company with my father (in the age of 78) and so I am a bit nervous about
this transfer.

We are both from Switzerland, so the custom procedures might be difficult
and/or lengthy.

We should arrive at 8am at Vancouver Station, the ferry is leaving at 6pm.

Are the Greyhound buses usually crowded? As I am living in Switzerland,
Europe, I cannot buy tickets online.

Does anyone have good advice for me?

Kind Regards, Urs Mueller
  #2  
Old August 7th, 2005, 03:48 PM
Pat
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There is a bus every two hours. You should be able to buy a ticket before
boarding. Every passenger will have a comfortable seat. The bus is
unlikely to be full however if it is just take the next bus. 2 hour trip.


  #3  
Old August 7th, 2005, 04:56 PM
Urs Mueller
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"Pat" wrote in

There is a bus every two hours. You should be able to buy a ticket
before boarding. Every passenger will have a comfortable seat. The
bus is unlikely to be full however if it is just take the next bus.
2 hour trip.


Thanks for that fast answer.
How about the customs. Do we have to walk longer distances there?
My dad isn't very fit anymore.

Regards, Urs
  #4  
Old August 7th, 2005, 06:47 PM
Mark Brader
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Urs Mueller writes:
Arriving by train from Toronto to Vancouver, I need a transfer to
Bellingham, WA, where I have to get the ferry to Alaska.

...
We should arrive at 8am at Vancouver Station, the ferry is leaving at 6pm.


Well, the first thing you need to realize is that you're not using
the Swiss railways. I would not consider it certain that your train
will arrive in Vancouver in time for you to make that connection!

I've only ever taken the train from Toronto to Vancouver once and
that was 20 years ago -- but I remember that it arrived 9 hours late.
For me this was actually more convenient, but you see what I mean.

Having said that, I don't know how serious the risk of major delay
is. The basic problem is that most long-distance railways in both
Canada and the US are now designed to give priority to freight trains.
People posting recently in this newsgroup have cited certain Amtrak
routes as commonly having delays of several hours; I've been on Amtrak
trains myself that have run up to 4 hours late.

But it isn't always like that -- I've used other trains that have
arrived on time, or close to it. And I haven't seen any statistics
for this Canadian route. So I don't know whether I'm sounding an
unnecessary alarm here, or whether it's appropriate to worry -- but
you *might* want to consider spending one night in Vancouver, if you
can still change your plans to do that. You might enjoy visiting
Vancouver anyway, after all.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Show that 17x17 = 289. Generalise this result."
| -- Carl E. Linderholm

My text in this article is in the public domain.
  #5  
Old August 7th, 2005, 07:43 PM
Pat
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You will be on the bus when you go through customs. I did this once several
years ago. Don't remember much about it but I don't think a long walk will
be part of it. I think you get off the bus, pass through customs and then
reboard.


  #8  
Old August 7th, 2005, 11:50 PM
Tom Box
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Default


Mark Brader ) writes:
Urs Mueller writes:


Arriving by train from Toronto to Vancouver, I need a transfer to
Bellingham, WA, where I have to get the ferry to Alaska.

...
We should arrive at 8am at Vancouver Station, the ferry is leaving at 6pm.


Well, the first thing you need to realize is that you're not using
the Swiss railways. I would not consider it certain that your train
will arrive in Vancouver in time for you to make that connection!

I've only ever taken the train from Toronto to Vancouver once and
that was 20 years ago -- but I remember that it arrived 9 hours late.


Today, if the train were running that late, it would probably be
terminated in Kamloops and the passengers bused to Vancouver.

The train that is scheduled to arrive in Vancouver at 07:50 is
to leave for the return trip to Toronto at 17:30 the same day.
VIA Rail has much less spare equipment than it did 20 years ago,
and if a 9-hour-late train were allowed to continue on to Vancouver,
the delays would propagate to later departures. Hence the
practice of turning trains short of their regular destination
when major delays occur. Fortunately, delays of this magnitude
are not common.

Having said that, I don't know how serious the risk of major delay
is. The basic problem is that most long-distance railways in both
Canada and the US are now designed to give priority to freight trains.
People posting recently in this newsgroup have cited certain Amtrak
routes as commonly having delays of several hours; I've been on Amtrak
trains myself that have run up to 4 hours late.


Freight traffic congestion might cause a delay of 2 or 3 hours on
the Toronto-Vancouver route, but certainly not 9 hours. There
is always the possibility of the track being blocked by a derailment
(or landslide, major forst fire, etc.), and this could cause a delay
on the order of 9 hours. This is not commonplace, though it certainly
can't be totally ruled out.

The bus is considerably faster than the train between Kamloops and
Vancouver, so such a substitution should also save about 2 hours
for the Vancouver-bound passengers, though that's not the main reason
for doing it.

But it isn't always like that -- I've used other trains that have
arrived on time, or close to it.


While anecdotal experience proves little, I was on a Toronto-Vancouver
train that arrived 37 min AHEAD of schedule in 2001, and one that
arrived about 3 hours late a month ago. On my recent trip, the delay
was caused by a broken rail in northern Ontario -- we had to wait for
it to be repaired before we could proceed.

you *might* want to consider spending one night in Vancouver, if you
can still change your plans to do that.


The train from Toronto arrives in Vancouver on Sunday, Tuesday,
and Friday, and the ferry to Alaska leaves Bellingham on Tuesday
and Friday, so you'd need to stop over for at least two nights,
if you felt a same-day connection was too risky.

Tom Box or
Toronto, ON, Canada

  #9  
Old August 8th, 2005, 12:03 AM
Jon Bell
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Default

In article ,
Mark Brader wrote:

I've only ever taken the train from Toronto to Vancouver once and
that was 20 years ago -- but I remember that it arrived 9 hours late.


Was there some single major factor or event that caused this? Last year I
took the _Canadian_ from Edmonton to Vancouver. When I arrived at the
station for the scheduled mid morning departure, I was told that the train
had been delayed for several hours in Saskatchewan by a huge snowstorm (in
mid May!). We finally arrived in Vancouver about six hours late, but I
had no connections there to worry about, and I got to see the Thompson and
Fraser River canyons by daylight instead of going through them in the
predawn darkness.

--
Jon Bell Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA
 




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