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Montreal/Toronto
2021-11-14 09:54I did go out Friday after all. First to Kametsuru, to get mugicha, which involved a really annoying walk from the closest Orange line station, through a tunnel under a freeway. Then to get into the Undercity/RESO, which I messed up. I thought I'd start at Place de Artes, walk south to Chinatown, and west. But I couldn't find an entrance. Staff said "McGill" but I thought I knew better.
Reader, I did not.
I did get in at Complex Desjardins, found stuff, walked through long empty tunnels to Chinatownish, did find a narrow but nice indoor area with a high skylight and funky sculpture. Then flailed around a bit -- there were many maps, but none with a "you are here" dot -- ended up walking overland toward McGill, but found an entrance by a Cathedral. That was definitely the Real Thing. Of course, in the end it's basically a shopping mall and food court.
What gets me is that for all the hype about how big it is, in length and area, there wasn't that much? And it doesn't seem fully connected. Useful for Montrealers in the know to dodge winter, but not the continuous undercity I thought it was.
OTOH Toronto's PATH may be more like that.
Anyway, train to Toronto yesterday. I splurged on business class, which got me a business lounge, early boarding, and seats that weren't obviously more comfortable, but are further apart -- 2 adjacent seats are separated by a small coffee table, so your elbows don't jostle. Not that I had a seat mate anyway. I got a fair bit of work done, and intermittent views of Lake Ontario.
First impressions of Toronto:
The subway system is more accessible than Montreal -- granted, Montreal sets a very low bar. Bonaventure station, connected to Montreal Gare Central, did have an escalator up from the platform -- shocking! -- but getting to the train station still involved revolving doors and some stairs -- just a few, but enough to block a wheelchair or someone too weak to lift their luggage (not me, fortunately.) Toronto's map suggests maybe 1/3 of stations are accessible? Which I think is a lot worse than Boston (if everything is working), but better than Montreal.
The 1 train has open connections, like the green and orange lines in Montreal. Unlike Montreal, there are ads in the cars -- for colleges and a homeless shelter. The station displays tell you the frequency, but not the time to the next train, unlike the Montreal displays which give you live tracking. The train had an old LCD display announcing the next stop, plus a NYC-style updating map of colored lights.
The 2 train had separate cars, and no visual display whatsoever.
Within 10 seconds on the street I observed my first asshole speed demon driver.
Both Dufferin, Toronto and Monkland, Montreal, like really long blocks. Like 4 minutes. My house is 10 minutes from one street with shops and 6 from the other. Or maybe it just felt that way; Google claims it's under 900 meters from Bloor to College, but I'm right in the middle. Having to walk 5+ minutes to get to something that isn't housing isn't something I've experienced since... Honolulu, Nov 2019?
As I anticipated, it's weird for me to be in Canada and not have French as the default language, since up to now almost all of my Canadian time has been in Quebec.
Reader, I did not.
I did get in at Complex Desjardins, found stuff, walked through long empty tunnels to Chinatownish, did find a narrow but nice indoor area with a high skylight and funky sculpture. Then flailed around a bit -- there were many maps, but none with a "you are here" dot -- ended up walking overland toward McGill, but found an entrance by a Cathedral. That was definitely the Real Thing. Of course, in the end it's basically a shopping mall and food court.
What gets me is that for all the hype about how big it is, in length and area, there wasn't that much? And it doesn't seem fully connected. Useful for Montrealers in the know to dodge winter, but not the continuous undercity I thought it was.
OTOH Toronto's PATH may be more like that.
Anyway, train to Toronto yesterday. I splurged on business class, which got me a business lounge, early boarding, and seats that weren't obviously more comfortable, but are further apart -- 2 adjacent seats are separated by a small coffee table, so your elbows don't jostle. Not that I had a seat mate anyway. I got a fair bit of work done, and intermittent views of Lake Ontario.
First impressions of Toronto:
The subway system is more accessible than Montreal -- granted, Montreal sets a very low bar. Bonaventure station, connected to Montreal Gare Central, did have an escalator up from the platform -- shocking! -- but getting to the train station still involved revolving doors and some stairs -- just a few, but enough to block a wheelchair or someone too weak to lift their luggage (not me, fortunately.) Toronto's map suggests maybe 1/3 of stations are accessible? Which I think is a lot worse than Boston (if everything is working), but better than Montreal.
The 1 train has open connections, like the green and orange lines in Montreal. Unlike Montreal, there are ads in the cars -- for colleges and a homeless shelter. The station displays tell you the frequency, but not the time to the next train, unlike the Montreal displays which give you live tracking. The train had an old LCD display announcing the next stop, plus a NYC-style updating map of colored lights.
The 2 train had separate cars, and no visual display whatsoever.
Within 10 seconds on the street I observed my first asshole speed demon driver.
Both Dufferin, Toronto and Monkland, Montreal, like really long blocks. Like 4 minutes. My house is 10 minutes from one street with shops and 6 from the other. Or maybe it just felt that way; Google claims it's under 900 meters from Bloor to College, but I'm right in the middle. Having to walk 5+ minutes to get to something that isn't housing isn't something I've experienced since... Honolulu, Nov 2019?
As I anticipated, it's weird for me to be in Canada and not have French as the default language, since up to now almost all of my Canadian time has been in Quebec.