I've done two rail trips this year simply for the joy of traveling by rail.

My first trip was on April 29. I parked my car at the Brookpark park-n-ride station on the Cleveland RTA Red Line (aka "The Rapid"), and rode the last train of the night (1:20 am) to Tower City (the former main train station in Cleveland); fooled around in the Jack Casino above the station for 90 minutes and then walked a few blocks to the Amtrak station in front of the Browns football stadium for the 0403 westbound Amtrak Lakeshore Limited (Trains 49/449), getting off at Toledo, then taking the Thruway bus thoughtfully parked in front of the station (not even a 50 foot walk from the train to the bus.

Even though our train got stuck at a red light east of the Maumee River and thus was 30 minutes late arriving at Toledo station, the bus waited for us, departed on the stroke of 0700 and delivered us to the Detroit Amtrak station at Woodward Avenue and Baltimore Street 58 minutes later. This gave me 90 minutes to fit in a ride down Woodward Avenue to Campus Martius park on the new QLine streetcar, which is a free service (the station is catty corner to the Amtrak station). The Pontiac-Chicago "Wolverine" pulled into DET on time shortly after 0930 for a 5 hour 30 minute trip to Union Station, where we arrived 8 minutes early at 1402 CDT.

I then walked the 1,500 feet up Canal Street to Ogilvie Transportation Center (formerly North Western Station) for the 1430 Metra Service over Union Pacific tracks to Des Plaines, where I caught a PACE bus to the O'Hare rental-car center/transit interchange, where I rode an escalator up to the platform to catch the driverless people mover train which stopped at Delta's new digs at ORD Terminal 5, which Delta now shares with all the non-UA and AA international airlines that serve Chicago. After enjoying the new SkyClub near gate M8, I then flew back to CLE via ATL (total air was $134 and I got upgraded on both segments), arriving there at 0040 EDT, and then catching the second to last Rapid of the night back to Brookpark.

A few days later I flew over to London (my wife and her sister were doing their own travel thing). For US$210 I got a Britrail "London Plus" mobile pass good for four full days of firsts-class rail travel in southeast England (not including the London Underground or the new Elizabeth line) to be used up within one month. I stayed in Reading, roughly 40 miles west of London (but 23-25 minutes from Paddington Station via 100+ mph express trains). Reading is a great place to stay because there are two Accor hotel properties, the Ibis and the Novotel, one block from the station, one of the very best in the UK, with a lot of prosaic shopping as well as eating and driking establishments immediately at hand.

I got my money's worth out of the pass. My first day I used it on the Heathrow Express to Paddington and then connecting to an express train to Reading; then after resting at the hotel, using it to travel to and from Brighton via Gatwick Airport. My second day I used it to travel Reading to Southampton to Chichester where I attended opening day at Goodwood Racecourse. I paid GBP 36 for a round-trip second class ticket on Saturday Reading to Portsmouth Harbor, and then paid GBP 19.80 for a round trip fare on the Wightlink catamaran ferry (23 minute ride) to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, and a GBP 10 all day "rover" ticket on the extensive public bus system on the island.

On Sunday, I used my rail pass on the first train of the morning to Guildford, connecting to a London bound Southwestern Railway service, getting off at Wimbledon and then connecting to the Underground (which runs above ground out there) for a 3 minute trip to the next stop where I attended Mass; then getting back onto the Underground, went back to Wimbledon to start my trip to Salisbury, enjoying the spectacular 800+ year old cathedral and touring this wonderful small city.

On my final day of the pass, going up to Evesham on the Cotswolds and Malverns line (the pass I had was valid out as far as Worcester), then returning to my hotel in Reading to get my bags. I then took an express train to Paddington, transferred to the Elizabeth Line (using my Oyster card on it), disembarking at Liverpool Street, working my way through the endless subway tunnels there to the main train station hall, then boarding a Greater Anglia railway service bound for Harwich (pronounced Hair-Itch) International station to connect to the overnight Stena Line ferry to Hoek van Holland in metropolitan Rotterdam, NL, where I connected to the RET Metro line for a six stop trip to Schiedam Centrum station, connecting there to the Nederlands Spoorwegen (NS) national railway trains, first going up to The Hague's "Den Haag Holland Spoor" station, and connecting there on the same platform for another train stopping at the station beheath Schiphol airport (one of the best train to plane interchanges I'm aware of). My total fares were: Stena Line, GBP 107 (included a very comfortable single cabin where I got a good night's sleep); RET, 4.95 Euros; NS, 14.65 Euros. I then flew back on Delta AMS-BOS-CLE (KLM, Delta's trans-atlantic partner, operates a superior airport lounge in AMS).

My observations on the trip: the only thing I didn't enjoy was the bad attitudes of the Amtrak employees I encountered in the DET station and on the Wolverine train. At DET, the train was called for boarding, and I was one of the first to respond to the call; the Amtrak agent was rude to me (I am a 68 year old who is blind in one eye and has some balance issues). She wouldn't let me on the elevator (at DET, the station buidling is about one-half story above street level, and then the platform and tracks are at least one story above the station waiting room). I told her that I was a senior citizen and her response was "I don't do senior citizens". Then on the train, I was seated next to the window with no one in the aisle seat, and I took the tray table for the aisle seat down and put my phone with the Amtrak app opened to my ticket on it. The female conductor came by and snapped at me "take your phone off the tray"). My comment to Amtrak management still stands: you need to send all your staff who interact with the public to Dale Carnegie or to a charm school. You can't keep running a travel business like the DMV.

I'm doing another rail trip next weekend: this is a "Lake Erie Circle Tour". I'm taking advantage of the free parking next to the track embankment at the Elyria, Ohio station, riding the 0436 Lakeshore Limited two stops west to Toledo, and taking the Thruway bus to Detroit (scheduled arrival time there is 0735). Then, I'll take the QLine all the way to the end near the Detroit River, and walk over to the Mariner's Church where there is a platform to take the Tunnel Bus operated by Transit Windsor through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel and over to Canada (the bus runs hourly and leaves from that platform on 41 after the hour). In Windsor, I'll have a few hours to wander around; the VIA Rail station is 2.2 miles east of the Windsor Interntional Transit Centre, with the large Caesar's casino/hotel on the way). The onward VIA train to London and Toronto goes at 1356. I arrive in London 2 hours later, where I intend to attend the harness races at Western Fair Raceway just east of central London. My hotel is two blocks from the station.

On Saturday my VIA train leaves at 0750 and arrives at Toronto Union Station at 1010; I intend to buy a senior Presto card, which discounts transit fares in the GTA and Golden Horseshoe region by over 50%. So for less than C$17 (US$13) I can use a variety of transit options to go out to Woodbine, one of the great thoroughbred race tracks in North America, get back to Union Station, and then take the 1703 GO commuter rail service for the 80 mile trip to Niagara Falls, ON, arriving there at 1921 (the station is just west of the road/rail Whirlpool Rapids bridge, about a mile downstream from central NF). This gives me 48 minutes to work my way down to the Rainbow Bridge, which I intend to walk across, clear immigration on the US side, and then walk a few more blocks to the Seneca casino hotel where there is a Niagara Frontier Transit Authority bus to Buffalo that leaves every hour at 09 minutes, arriving in downtown Buffalo 55 minutes later. If I make that, there are connections all the way to the Amtrak station in Depew (10 miles east of downtown Buffalo, used by the Lakeshore Limited). If not, I'll have to take a taxi from downtown Buffalo out to the station. The Lakeshore Limited departs Depew at 0039 and arrives at Elyria at 0432 (after stopping in Erie and Cleveland).

Iter pro peregrinatione.