Subject: Getting to Quebec City

From: "John Levine" <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Jun 2011 00:08:52 -0000

As you may have noticed, flying to Quebec City (YQB) is incredibly
expensive.  That's because it's a regional airport with little
competion.  Flying to Montreal is usuallly a lot cheaper.  Getting
from Trudeau airport in Montreal involves some planning, but it's not
hard.  The trip is about four hours; Quebec is big, bigger than any
state in the US.

By bus: Orleans Express has five buses a day.  You can buy tickets
online or at the ICE America desk in the airport lobby:

   https://www.orleansexpress.com/search.aspx

By train: there are four trains a day from Montreal to Quebec.
Although there is a train station in Dorval, close to the airport, it
doesn't have any through trains to Quebec so it's easier to go
downtown.  The 747 city bus runs every 10 to 15 minutes express to
downtown.  Get off at Mansfield for the central train station.  The
fare is $8, most easily paid by getting a day transit pass, which also
costs $8, at the currency exchange booth in the airport lobby.  For
train schedules and fares, see the Via Rail web site.

The Quebec train station is a medium walk or a short taxi trip from
the convention centre.

   http://www.stm.info/english/info/a-747.htm
   http://www.viarail.ca

You can rent a car and drive, but unless you're planning to do som
touring before or after the meeting, e.g., to the Saguenay fjord,
Montreal to Quebec not a very interesting drive so I wouldn't bother.

R's,
John

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From: Eric Rescorla <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:32:19 -0700

> hard.  The trip is about four hours; Quebec is big, bigger than any

Nitpick alert:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area

Quebec:   Land area=1,365,128 km2   Water Area=176,928 km2
Alaska:  Land Area: 1,481,347 km2  Water Area=236,507 km2

Perhaps you meant Continental US.

Best,
-Ekr

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From: Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:50:08 -0800

> Perhaps you meant Continental US.

Until recently if you tried to sign up for Google Voice
from Alaska you were informed that the service is not
available in your country.  People ask what the local
currency is.  John's oversight is a trivial one by
comparison.

Melinda

---

From: Andrew Sullivan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 21:31:29 -0400

On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 12:08:52AM -0000, John Levine wrote:

> downtown.

Note that if you plan to use Via Rail, you should treat the train
timetables as rough guidelines rather than something on which to rely.
The train usually does not run exactly on time, although the
timetables might be close enough for IETF arrival purposes.  But
worse, there are occasional equipment failures that make things fail
in big ways.  Via runs on tracks shared with (and owned by) the
freight lines, so if Via has an equipment failure that causes them a
delay, they can miss a window completely.  I have arrived over 4 hours
late on a trip that should not have taken 4 hours total.

One history of Canada suggests that we were only stitched together in
order to enable the CPR to be built.  Now we can barely run trains.
Sir Sanford Fleming must be unhappy.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
[email-masked]

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From: Hamza GHARSALLAH <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:13:59 +0100

Perhaps, the real surface is becoming smaller and smaller due to green house
effect! I wonder if Eye Pi Vee Six is greener!

On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 1:50 AM, Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>wrote:

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From: Glen Zorn <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:27:12 +0700

On 6/18/2011 7:08 AM, John Levine wrote:

> expensive.  

Hmm.  My ticket to QC was only ~$40 CAD > than the equivalent one to
Montreal, far less than R/T bus or train fare...

...

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From: Glen Zorn <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:30:42 +0700

> late on a trip that should not have taken 4 hours total.

Sounds like air travel in China ;-)

...

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From: Mary Barnes <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 10:43:46 -0500

As far as renting a car, it is likely a very good choice for anyone that is
arriving in Montreal later in the day.  I have a choice of one direct flight
to Montreal that puts me arriving in Montreal > 7pm.  Even a one stop flight
still puts me arriving around that time.  So, given my experience in
Maastricht with trains and a trip that took about 18 hours gate to gate, I
plan to rent a car (and drop it off in QC on Sunday), which results in a
trip < 8 hours gate to gate.  Whereas, flying into QC ends up taking nearly
12 hours with layovers/connections.  While Quebec might be bigger than
states other than Alaska., the distances between QC, Montreal, Toronto, etc.
are very similar to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, which are all
reasonable drive times for some of us.

Regards,
Mary.

On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 7:08 PM, John Levine <[email-masked]> wrote:

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From: "John R. Levine" <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Jun 2011 12:08:36 -0400

> to Montreal that puts me arriving in Montreal > 7pm.

FYI, there is a direct bus from YUL to Quebec that leaves at 20:30.  With 
Wifi, even.  It's a reasonable choice, and about $100 less than a one way 
car rental.  The Quebec bus station is adjacent to the train station and a 
quick taxi to hotels.

R's,
John

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From: Ole Jacobsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 09:20:04 -0700 (PDT)

Here is what I am doing:

* Fly SFO-ORD and ORD-YUL, gets me to Montreal at 21:14

* Spend the night at the Hilton Montreal, this is very close to the 
  train station.

* Take Train 620 @ 0830 from Montreal, arrives 11:35 in Quebec City 
  (if it runs on time :-)

That should at least get me to the meeting before the opening 
reception, we'll see...

Yes, this involves an extra hotel night etc, but I think it will be 
a lot less stressful.

Ole

Ole J. Jacobsen
Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
Cisco Systems
Tel: +1 408-527-8972   Mobile: +1 415-370-4628
E-mail: [email-masked]  URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj
Skype: organdemo

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From: Michael StJohns <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:50:28 -0400

Why didn't you fly ORD-YQB? There's a 7pm flight that gets in around 10:23.  It had to be cheaper than a hotel and train ride.

Mike

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From: Alastair Johnson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:09:25 -0700

That's what I'm doing - the SFO-ORD-YQB fare was the same as flying to YUL.

AJ

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From: Ole Jacobsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:39:30 -0700 (PDT)

On Sat, 18 Jun 2011, Michael StJohns wrote:

> Why didn't you fly ORD-YQB? There's a 7pm flight that gets in around 
> 10:23.  It had to be cheaper than a hotel and train ride.

Probably not available at the time I made the booking...

Ole

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From: "John R. Levine" <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Jun 2011 15:46:50 -0400

> Probably not available at the time I made the booking...

Expert flyer says it still has four seats available, with fares in Y B M U 
H Q V classes and one way fare of $307.  You can change your ticket and 
save the hassle.

Regards,
John Levine, [email-masked], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly

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From: Tim Chown <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 23:11:13 +0100

On 18 Jun 2011, at 17:08, John R. Levine wrote:

> FYI, there is a direct bus from YUL to Quebec that leaves at 20:30.  With Wifi, even.  It's a reasonable choice, and about $100 less than a one way car rental.  The Quebec bus station is adjacent to the train station and a quick taxi to hotels.

I'm flying internationally to Montreal and have a connecting flight from there to Quebec City with Air Canada (if they're not on strike, though the planes still to be flying despite that).  The connect is listed at 50 mins so is probably about 30-40 in the air.

Tim

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From: Bob Hinden <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:00:01 -0700

> That's what I'm doing - the SFO-ORD-YQB fare was the same as flying to YUL.

+1

Bob

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From: Simon Perreault <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:56:34 -0400

We wrote these instructions for those who want to fly to Montréal
instead of Québec:

http://ietf81.ca/?page_id=423

Simon
-- 
DTN made easy, lean, and smart --> http://postellation.viagenie.ca
NAT64/DNS64 open-source        --> http://ecdysis.viagenie.ca
STUN/TURN server               --> http://numb.viagenie.ca

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From: Randall Gellens <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:48:40 -0700

At 10:43 AM -0500 6/18/11, Mary Barnes wrote:

>  As far as renting a car, it is likely a very good choice for anyone 
> that is arriving in Montreal later in the day.  I have a choice of 
> one direct flight to Montreal that puts me arriving in Montreal > 
> 7pm.  Even a one stop flight still puts me arriving around that 
> time.  So, given my experience in Maastricht with trains and a trip 
> that took about 18 hours gate to gate, I plan to rent a car (and 
> drop it off in QC on Sunday), which results in a trip < 8 hours 
> gate to gate.

I was considering flying to Montreal and taking the train to Quebec 
City, but the only schedule that was reasonable for me involved an 
overnight in Montreal.  I am planning to take the train from Quebec 
City to Montreal on Friday, and fly home from Montreal on Saturday.

-- 
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
-------------- Randomly selected tag: ---------------
Few ideas are really bad.  Most are either pre- or post-mature.
                                                   --Jon Postel

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From: Julien Laganier <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:29:28 -0700

> Perhaps you meant Continental US.

...or Contiguous US, to rule out any misunderstanding :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contiguous_United_States

--julien