But you did remind me by way of this post............that I don't believe any allowance was made in the design for pre-clearance customs facilities; which are currently contemplated for Montreal.

While overkill for one international train daily.......... Amtrak's service plan calls for that to rise to 3 trains daily by the early 2030's (or sooner).

A second Maple Leaf is planned, as is a new service to Chicago via Detroit.

As such, it might seem wise to set aside room in the design of new Mx led station expansion to allow for such a facility.

Logistics would be different:

The Adirondack to Montreal is purely an Amtrak train running non-stop between the Border and Montreal Central Station. (the current stop at suburban St. Lambert is to be eliminated when the proposed Customs facility opens)

Same in Vancouver. Purely an Amtrak train....non-stop between the Border and Pacific Central Station.

The Maple Leaf is a VIA train between Toronto and the Border making stops at Oakville, Aldershot, Grimsby, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls ON and probably West Harbour now once service resumes.

You would have to segregate passengers already per-cleared to enter the US at Toronto Union from passengers just riding to those Canadian stations. Anyone boarding in say Aldershot and heading to the US would still have to be cleared when they entered the US.....and kinda defeating the purpose of per-clearing the train in Toronto in the first place.

I imagine any new train between Chicago and Toronto would also be a VIA train in Canada. Sure a new train could be an Amtrak operation only running non-stop to/from the border but a lot of potential passengers in Hamilton, Brantford, London etc would be lost.
 
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Logistics would be different:

The Adirondack to Montreal is purely an Amtrak running non-stop between the Border and Montreal Central Station. (the current stop at suburban St. Lambert is to be eliminated when the proposed Customs facility opens)

Same in Vancouver. Purely an Amtrak train....non-stop between the Border and Pacific Central Station.

The Maple Leaf is a VIA train between Toronto and the Border making stops at Oakville, Aldershot, Grimsby, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls ON and probably West Harbour now once service resumes.

You would have to segregate passengers already per-cleared to enter the US at Toronto Union from passengers just riding to those Canadian stations. Anyone boarding in say Aldershot and heading to the US would still have to be cleared when they entered the US.....and kinda defeating the purposed of per-clearing the train in Toronto in the first place.

I imagine any new train between Chicago and Toronto would also be a VIA train in Canada. Sure a new train could be an Amtrak operation only running non-stop to/from the border but a lot of potential passengers in Hamilton, London etc would be lost.

Fair point.

Of course, there are lots of different ways to expedite customs.

Obviously, they could cut the intermediate stops between the border and Toronto; though that would certainly seem questionable on the Chicago service.
But they could also have customs pre-board; that's never done in Canada/US; but it's normal in Europe, customs get on the train one to two stops prior to a border, and check passengers en route.

Whatever the case, they will need to find a way to streamline the current experience which sometimes causes delays approaching 2 hours at Niagara.

In so far Customs might pre-board, facilities might still be required at Union, as would be the case in the event of segregated passenger loads.
Best, I think, to hold some space in reserve (it can have a different interim use); you just need to plan for it to be possible to use for that purpose.
 
long term I think Union passengers (likely 80-90% of passengers) should be pre-cleared and segregated in their own car, or given papers that shows they've already cleared, with more customs officers boarding the train in Hamilton to clear any additional passengers that get on in between. The ideal should be a minimal stop over in Niagara Falls NY to clear anyone that gets on in Niagara Falls ON and shuttle any rejected passengers back across the border.
 
As I’ve said previously on this forum, my vote is (still) for a Pret or a Greggs.

I could get intro trouble playing the process of elimination game............

But still, I will say this, neither of those are among the tenants I'm currently aware of.........

Though I agree, particularly on Pret, that it would be a nice addition.

Gregg's has some good stuff, but some that I find a bit odd..........the Bacon, Ketchup and HP Sauce sandwich........
 
I could get intro trouble playing the process of elimination game............

But still, I will say this, neither of those are among the tenants I'm currently aware of.........

Though I agree, particularly on Pret, that it would be a nice addition.

Gregg's has some good stuff, but some that I find a bit odd..........the Bacon, Ketchup and HP Sauce sandwich........

My folks once went to a Steakhouse in Pennsylvania called Hoss's. They offered them Marshmallows and caramel as toppers on their steak.

Bacon, Ketchup and HP Sauce does not seem so bad.
 
So far we have Arabica Coffee, TD and Sephora as the three upcoming retail tenants in the Bay Concourse, unless I’m missing anyone.

You're missing several; but the others haven't been announced yet, so you're forgiven! LOL 😉
 
Bacon, ketchup and HP is a British thing - I can’t think of many things yummy-er! Some of the stuff people put on poutine on the otherhand, well…..
 

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