Why I write about trains

I am a designer in Toronto, the kind of job that puts you on a video call and then asks you to be in Montreal by Thursday. I started riding the corridor regularly for work and, without meaning to, fell in love with the journey itself. The meetings were fine. The window was the part I replayed on the walk home.

The journal exists because colleagues kept asking the same questions before their first trip. Is it actually comfortable. Can I work. Will I hate the coffee. Which side has the lake. I was tired of typing the same paragraph into Slack, so I put the paragraph here and then it grew.

This is a personal, non-commercial project. No tickets are sold here. There is no affiliation with any railway operator — not VIA Rail Canada, not anyone else who runs a train in this country. Impressions and opinions are my own. If I get a station name wrong, that is on me, not on a brand kit.

I am not a journalist on assignment. I am someone who likes the hour when the city thins and the lake shows up, and who wanted a place to keep the notes honest. The opinions are mine. The mistakes will be mine. The railway did not ask for this desk and will not be answering your mail if you send it here.

If you want the practical version, start with planning or what a full ride feels like. If you want to write back — a correction, a station I have undersold, a winter you survived — use the contact page. I cannot move a reservation. I can usually tell you whether the window is worth it.