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St Catharines for the Day - Execution

I set off to catch the 7:13 train, way early, in the hopes of snatching a free copy of The Toronto Star from Ryerson University on my way down. No such luck. Ho Hum! I’ll pay for a copy at Union but, of course, now that the Bay concourse is closed for remodeling (two years but knowing them, five) and the York Concourse (newly modeled) is open, there are no familiar kiosks or fast-food places.

Union Station upper level boasts a small 4-man coffee kiosk, but the four are all busy discussing stuff with each other and they don’t sell papers. The York concourse is bare except for a coffee vendor.

This must be the only mainline station in the world that doesn’t sell reading material for a long journey by rail.

I wonder if that’s why 97% of airline passengers reject the new Union Express. After all, once you get off THAT train you still have a 500-pace walk to get to the Toronto Transit Commission, whereas if you take the Toronto Transit Commission you can buy a paper/magazine at practically any subway station.

I ask a question at the ticket wicket: I boarded a train at Union at 9:30ish to go to Clarkson (five stations down the line); I tapped my card as I entered but forgot to tap it when I left the system at Clarkson. What will I be billed?

Answer: I’ll be billed for a trip to Kitchener! Of course, the Presto Card knows only that I boarded at Union Station, and knows not where I got off, so it bills for the longest (in dollar terms) trip from Union, which is Kitchener. Even though there are only two trips per day by train to Kitchener, and they leave at 16:50 and 17:50!

Ignore the time stamp on today’s photos; I had forgotten to change the camera time setting for daylight-saving.

Christmas is upon us (Brrrr!) in downtown Toronto and yet the forecast for today is 19°. I should be so lucky.

I wander the alleyways around Union Station (See “kiosk” above) and most sadly I am now so familiar with the Rat’s Maze, even with new temporary (“long-term”) construction barriers that I scuttle around in record time, seeing several lost passengers three times! The downside is that the security guys look at me as if I am the one who is lost, because I pop into their view so frequently.

In the centre car is the conductor (actually, he isn’t there; in his place is a “Customer Service Assistant” or something, but he LOOKS like a conductor and calls out the station stops like a conductor and manages the doors like a conductor ...). Also four guys dressed in black shirts.

I interrupt their idle chat with a question and they all join in to discuss and answer.

Given that, perhaps two dozen GO Trains stream in to Toronto each weekday morning and don’t steam out again until late afternoon, what do the drivers do?

I visualize a driver in, say, Barrie, rising out of bed at 4 a.m. to take charge of the 5:15 train out of Barrie; that’s cutting it fine; I’m sure that drivers have loads of paperwork and have to do some sort of walk-around before they get to pull the train out of storage and maneuver it to the platform in Barrie.

At 7:03 you pull into Union, disgorge passengers and park the train where? Mimico yards, arriving there at perhaps 7:30. paperwork and turn off the ignition, say 8 a.m. Now what do you do? Can you get home to Barrie? Only by bus (2˝ hours there and 2˝ hours back – not worth it).

Turns out the drivers sit in a Go Transit rest area at Mimico until it is time to run the (say 3:40) train back to Barrie, arriving there at 5:23. paperwork and park, get home by, say, 6:30 if you are lucky.

That’s a long day, a large part of it spent lazing around Mimico.

Mimico rail yards is not the most interesting part of Toronto.

A terrible life, IMHO.

The drivers point out that a great many commuters lead just as long a day, but I counter that at least the commuters have something to DO during their day.

Me I’d take a part-time job as a shop assistant in Mimico.

There are three personnel on each train – two engineers (safety reading the signals) and a conductor, so count how many GO trains stream into Toronto and sit idle all day, multiply that by three and you have an idea of staffing problems.

My friend Norma has responded to my bell-ringing phone call and is waiting on the platform at Clarkson; I sling off a bag of goodies, feeling like a clerk on the old mail trains with their pouches of mail and she returns to her home to (I hope) gloat with glee and surprise.

We barrel westwards, stopping at each station to stare at the passengers waiting for their eastbound trains, of which there are many. I didn’t count but I think about ten or a dozen GO trains must have passed us on our way to Burlington. A quick glance at the timetable says this is quite possibly so.

I stare out the window wishing I were touring the Île de France on the Transilean Network and realize that I could be rolling through Trappes/La-Verrier, the scene is identical.

At the Burlington Go station my Presto balance is $27.74 so in theory this leg cost me $5.

I have over thirty minutes in Burlington GO station – my fault because after months of reading and planning I took the 7:13 instead of the 7:43, but didn’t want to change my arrangements with Norma.

First off I identify the spot where, if I see a bus and I’m not on it, I should panic.

Next I check my GO schedule and note with horror that the train on which I have arrived never existed! That’s right. The schedule for #12 route shows a 7:43 train from Union but not a 7:13; because, presumably, no one in their right mind would catch an earlier train just to hang around Burlington GO station where nothing is happening.

There again, who in their right mind would hang around GO concourse, underground, with nothing to read on account of there being now newspaper kiosks?

Not for the first time I wonder why the GO transit schedules don’t provide data that passengers can process to get information. I had the same issue on the trip to/from Hamilton, learning only by accident that a 50-minute trip by express bus was available in place of the 1h 45m bus/train combo via Aldershot.

GO Transit schedules are NOT designed to make trip planning easy.

Then I take a photo titled “A shadow of my former selfie” and include a small swamp that I suspect serves as a drainage sump for the bus terminal and a habitat for wildlife that has evolved to cope with diesel fumes.

The two buses are part of a set of half-a-dozen Burlington Transit buses waiting to spirit people off to work. Or home again.

And this being GO Transit there is a separate bus stop with two different routes 12B and 12D, both of which appear to be capable of serving St Catharines.

Is this another GO trick, like having a Union Express bus – 50 minutes Hamilton to Toronto – that runs parallel to the 1h 45m fiasco of bus-to-Aldershot then wait for a train that sits in each stop for three minutes?

I am nothing if not bold, so I approach a Burlington Transit bus and say that I am doing St Catharines today but Burlington in two weeks time; I ask the driver if he has a bus map.

Hooray for Burlington Transit ! He does, and he hands it over to me saying “I love maps”. He gets my bus-driver-of-the-day award, and I haven’t even set foot on a bus. Yet.

I start planning an all-day cold-weather clear-skies trip by local public transit from Toronto to Hamilton via Toronto Transit Commission, Mississauga Transit, Oakville Transit and Burlington Transit. I wonder if I can do it with just four fares. The Toronto Transit Commission will ding me every chance it gets, but proper cities with intelligent transit system co-operate on transfers.

The Burlington GO station is being remodeled, so the ticket office and washrooms are construction-site cabins on the north side.

The car park for cars has been completed for years. The logo makes it easy to circle the area looking for an entrance to the station complex.

No; those aren’t micro-managers leaving the washrooms. They are regular folks, just like us, although a little distant at this time.

I eat part of my packed lunch (at 8:30 so that I’ll have an excuse to dine out in St Catharines) and watch the two guys doing what I did back in 1954-55, that is, build a crane.

Back then I used Meccano.

They are not as fast as I was; I could get a complete crane assembled in a little under a day.

More buses. I note with trepidation that the same guys who ruined the Hamilton Street Railway buses were turned loose in Burlington, until management realized its mistake and yanked them off the job.

That’s right! Windows are obliterated with decals, making it so much harder for passengers to see where they are or read street names. Visitors ditto. (I won’t get off a bus mid-route unless I see a model shop or a diner with really old folks sitting at the window tables).

I spot a micro-bus and ask the driver what it does. It services lower-population routes. What a good idea, I think. Smaller buses for low-traffic routes – low-traffic in terms of number of passengers AND in terms of quieter streets. There again, two sets of buses to maintain ...

Vroom Vroom! We are off (by 8:56) and I get a shot of the QEW traffic westbound. How often have I driven that stretch of highway? Three hundred times over thirty years? I am glad to be sitting in a bus and not driving.

A fuzzy shot, not my fault. We were bopping along horizontally and vertically at this stage. You are looking at The Niagara Escarpment, part of a huge (600-kilometre diameter) circular area whose western boundary is the western shore of Lake Michigan. Bruce peninsula and Manitoulin Island are part of the same structure.

The bus is peppered with overhead displays showing where we are going. Where we are (almost) is the bottom line in easy-to-read letters. Where we want to be is further up the screen in smaller letters. The bus’s final stop is at the top.

I like this.

If I were pushed to suggest an improvement (Oh, very well then) I would add an estimated time of arrival for each stop, in particular the next stop, so that we could unplug our headphones, put away our sandwich and water-bottle, slip the bookmark into place, pull on our coat and be ready to get off the bus when we arrive.

I am fascinated by GO Train service whose conductor reminds passengers leaving trains at Union Station to make sure they’ve not left anything behind; the admonition arrives ONLY as we pass through Union. Presumably passengers are allowed to leave belongings behind at any other station on the system.

And it’s up, up and away onto the QEW. But not for long.

We scoot over The Burlington Skyway and I see a couple of ocean-going ships anchored in the outer harbour of Hamilton. Yes, that’s the Niagara Escarpment in the background.

The steel works reminds me always of my first job at BHP in Newcastle NSW. Those were gritty smelly days.

And the blue structure reminds me of the same job, same place, but the steel and other metals finishing plants.

And no sooner are we on the QEW than we are off it. We do an extensive tour of a light industrial area in Stoney Creek solely for the purpose of arriving at a spot on the other side of ????? street to collect passengers.

What would happen if GO Transit ran all trains to Hamilton, got rid of the Aldershut-shottle, got rid of the Burlington hoo-hah, and ran buses to Niagara from Hamilton? It is no harder to get on the QEW from Hamilton, and close-by locations such as the Stoney Creek pick up area would be better served by Hamilton Street Railway which could make many more stops.

It isn’t going to happen in the lifetime of the human species, I know, but it gives me a warm feeling deep inside.

We leave the Stoney Creek stop at 9:16 and are back on the QEW at 9:20.

Then its off again. The young lady uses a yellow highlighting pen to mark up text. I wonder how she manages to make a straight line with the bus jiggling up and down and side to side.

I took the photo because I was fascinated by the way the colour of her pen matched the GO Bus fittings.

Then it’s back on the QEW and top speed until we reach Casablanca Boulevard; a quick exit to the right (means that it will be a lengthy exit to the left on my way home).

I recognize this place. I have stopped off here on driving trips to New York with a friend.

Yippee! I am getting off at the next stop, some 24 kilometres down the highway. Zoom zoom! Vroom vroom! St Catharines here we come.

I have eaten part of my lunch already. I munch half a carrot and realize that, for me at any rate, boredom leads to eating. I am bored and already contemplating what sort of establishment will be blessed with my presence in St Catharines at six of the clock tonight.

This highway is familiar to me, including this wreck, that restaurant, those trees ...

I took this shot to remind me to tell you that the lake was blue, the sun was golden, the leaves were – yellow, red, brown and falling.

Wonderful weather for November. I am lucky.

The GO Bus is a double-decker and an old couple had engineered their way to the head of the queue and grabbed the best seats upstairs, right at the front. He, in the hat, is surveying the road. She, bad cess to her, spends the trip with a copy of The Globe And Mail

I petulantly consider telling her to move so that I can enjoy the view, but restrain myself ...

And here I am on my second St Catharines bus. And therein lies a tale:-

The #12 GO bus pulled into the mini-terminal at Fairview Mall and sitting right there was a St Catharines #12 (Vine Street) bus. Who knows where it goes, but it’s a bus, right? I hop on and ask the driver if he goes near the downtown terminal; “I’m here for the day and want to get a bus pass and a bus map”. Sure. I go to swipe my Presto card but doh! They don’t do Presto here. I had seen passengers swiping something but those must have been local transit system cards.

I reach into my wallet for a $5 note; the fare is $3 but I’m on holiday. The driver covers the fare box “Just wait until you get to the downtown terminal” so I have a free ride.

Thank you St Catharines!

In the downtown terminal I obtain a map and pay $20 (senior’s rate) for a 10-ticket pass (more on that later) and leap aboard a #2 bus. The nice bus driver lady tells me that yes this route Interlines and becomes – tada! #12, so I ride around for a bit over half an hour and then back at the terminal hop off the now-#12 and hop on to a #4 at the end of whose run the driver suggests that I try a #16, and issues me a transfer for the same.

Here is the business side of a St Catharines Transit Transfer.

And here is the personality side of a St Catharines Transit Transfer.

Things get a bit hazy now, but I think I had about seven bus trips on the strength of my first two tickets.

This confirms my findings on Ground Staff (as in Drivers, Conductors, Ticket Sales, Information Officers) in every public transit system, Ground Staff are wonderful; it’s the management levels that appear to be clueless about giving passengers a good experience.

My introductory statement “I’m here for the day to explore St Catharines by bus” seems to open doors. I am a one-off deal, and it doesn’t hurt the bus drivers at all to offer transfers to successive buses. They seem delighted that I would do this.

Meanwhile back at the ranch – the fellow sitting across the aisle from me asks if this bus goes to the downtown area. “You’re asking the wrong guy” I laugh, but people around me re-assure him. And me.

The young lady sitting next to me strikes up a conversation. I say I find it odd that, dressed as I am as a tourist with an orange shoulder-bag, people seem to assume that I know where I’m going. The young lady lectures at Brick University, so we chat about education. And bless her, she points out the library to me as we swoop past.

I think I am going to enjoy my day in St Catharines.

So, back to the nice bus-driver lady. We are now a #12 and she has called out “Hey! Mister Map-Reader!” (That’s me) and tells me that there’s a detour, so please don’t be too alarmed that the route does not follow as laid out.

I respond, in a loud voice, that I am retired and on holiday, so every bus trip is an adventure, and the passengers laugh.

I note that without exception every passenger who leaves the bus calls out “Thank You”. Must be some city ordinance, a by-law that prescribes penal servitude if you fail to thank the bus-driver.

Either that or else there is a very healthy relationship between the citizens of St Catharines and their transit system.

I reflect on my experience at Fairview Mall and ponder the possibility of a transit system issuing a short-term ticket, say one dollar, valid for travel ONLY between the GO Transit terminal and the Downtown terminal (or from the VIA rail terminal), or a regular-fare ticket that can be discounted once one buys an all-day pass or book of tickets. It’d be a useful adjunct in any satellite town or city.

We trundle through a variety of residential areas.

I learn that the 2/12 route travels clockwise and anti-clockwise, and that this holds for almost all the routes in the city. The #4 shuttles back and forth on the same road; perhaps a couple of other routes do that.

We travel through pretty parts of town. This is a hurried shot of an attractive flower-bed, hurried and over-exposed, but the low shrubs were really a bright splash of colour.

I pass through the Fairview Mall for the second time and hop out at the Downtown terminal after asking the nice bus-driver lady for another In-lining route pair besides 12/2; she hesitates then says “Do 1/6, it’s really beautiful along the lake”, which I find off because neither route runs along the lakeshore, but let’s find out ...

So the #4 trundles off and I follow along on my paper bus map. We head south out of the terminal, east, then north-east out of downtown, then east, then south-east and will end up heading south, then south-west ... This route is labeled Oakdale-Pen-Brock because it travels along Oakdale Avenue to Pen Centre and ends up at Brock University.

Above is a shot of a walking ramp down to one of the many rivers and creeks in St Catharines. This early in my day (it is only 11:12 because my camera is on jet-lag time) I am under the impression that one could spend a day with a packed lunch exploring Centennial Gardens alone.

We travel up a valley side.

I have a note that reads “@Smythe, poorer part” and I think that was a note that this is an older part of town. Some of the houses look just like those in the valleys of the Southern Tier in New York State.

We shuffle into the Pen Centre (I must ask who/what was “Pen”) and I spot this solar panel assembly (note the three-faced structure) which powers an electronic display of route and schedule information.

Clever.

We turn from Glendale Avenue onto Glenridge Avenue and I marvel at the confusion this could cause to strangers who are told “Glendale Avenue“ but spot a sign “Glenridge Avenue” and mistakenly assume that they are in the right place.

Up Glenridge Avenue we go and ascend the Niagara Escarpment, or at least, a part of it, and up there in the stratosphere we roll onto the campus of Brock University.

Students pour off the bus, students pour onto the bus, and we set off back to downtown. This #4 is out-and-back, it does not describe a circular route, and the driver gives me a transfer to switch to a #16 which will take me back downtown but by an alternate route.

It is difficult to use my 10-ride pass when drivers keep giving me transfers, But I’m not complaining.

The philosophy of encouraging people to explore and use public transit is a philosophy to be, well, encouraged.

As we pull out of Brock U I spot a student running for the bus; the driver pulls away from the bus stop but must have signaled to the student who keeps up and gets to hop aboard at the stop lights. The young man sits next to me and I tell him “I’m glad you caught it, I was afraid that you’d miss it”, and he says so was he.

He is a student of accounting and I enjoy a chat with him, another case of a kindly act by a bus-driver opening up a brief conversation between two strangers.

We barrel north along Glenridge Avenue and for the second time I find myself riding past The Toy Trove. This time I get smart and observe the path from The Toy Trove along St Paul Street to the downtown terminal. It is not far, perhaps a five-minute stroll, and I note too the number of dining places (a lot!).

By 11:57 we are back in the downtown terminal and it begins to dawn on me that buses leave terminals on the 15- or the 30-minutes of the hour. How easy is that to remember? Now I know that I have three minutes to work out my next bus route!

Well it turns out that my next route is the 15/18 pair, as suggested by my second bus driver. I check with the driver of the #15 that this IS a bus pair, but sadly he says “No; only on weekends”.

No matter! I am on my sixth (or seventh?) bus route on three tickets. I am ahead of the game, and am not worried about tickets or fares.

It may not have escaped your attention that I have made my third or fourth trip past The Toy Trove!

We stop at the bridgeworks and I ask the driver about the 10-ride card: Yes, two people can share a card (but it must be swiped once for each person) and yes, it has an unlimited lifetime (unlike me). I wonder who it should be left to in my will.

The photo above shows what I believe is The Welland River running away from us northwards to Port Dalhousie, and part of Highway 406 running alongside. I used to drive #406 down to Port Colborne on business back in the very early nineties, so this looks like an old friend.

I try for a high-speed zoom shot of some rapids.

We hurtle past the VIA rail station; I’m glad I took the cheaper GO system, because by accident (my fault!) it gave me half an hour in Burlington and a Burlington Transit hard-copy bus schedule and map.

We drive through what I think of as early-sixties housing, for these are the bungalows we drew in perspective view in Technical Drawing classes in 1962/63.

The #15 like most routes has both a clockwise and an anti-clockwise sense.

We are back in the Pen Centre terminal before 12:30. Why “Pen”? This is starting to bug me.

The driver has given this some thought and hands me off to the #20 (Thorold) and so at 12:30 I set off for Thorold.

Now I confess to some confusion.

I has seen a “Thorold” inset on the map, and thought I was going to travel out-of-town. Well I was, sort of.

I thought too that I’d be traveling under the Welland Canal (think “St Lawrence Seaway”) through the Thorold Tunnel. I rather liked to idea of typing “through” and “thorold” so close together; but it was not to be.

Now I had thought of St Catharines as a flat city, because I’ve driven through it 300+ times along the QEW between Toronto and Lewiston, but today I am delighted by the number of times we swoop up and down valleys and ridges.

Here we are climbing up Burleigh Hill Drive. I think.

Another shot of spacious lots and bungalows. This time at Collier Road and Sullivan.

I want to get out and rake leaves, and then build a compost pile.

At the intersection of Ormond and Clairmont I realize that we are IN Thorold; this used to be a village separate from St Catharines but St Catharines has reached out and enveloped it.

For all that, it has some charm. (Read on, Dear Reader, Read on)

I note too that at some stage Ormond Street South changed its name to Ormond Street North. Are you allowed to do that on a street that is less than a mile long?

I realize too (as I type this up) that bus route #20 could have been my jumping-off point not only for the village of Thorold but also for the triple locks on the Welland Canal!

This definitely calls for a return trip. I wonder how much a motel room costs – I could spend several days here quite contentedly.

I took a couple of snapshots of the village to show the well-kept store fronts.

Definitely worth a half-day here.

We roll merrily back down Burleigh Hill Drive where I fail to get a good shot of the limestone rocks that form the escarpment. Take my word for it, it’s just like coming down the #403 highway into Hamilton but nowhere near as scary.

Back in Pen Centre I realize that I have been using this terminal as a base, a jumping-off point for several smaller trips around the southern part of St Catharines.

In Pen Centre I switch to a #10 bus which is a short trip along Chestnut, Glen Morris Drive and another Glen intersection with Glenridge Avenue. That’s Glenridge, Glendale and Glen Morris all within about a quarter of a mile of each other, and the intersection of at least four route-pairs (10/16, 15,16, 15/4, 4/16)

What’s left? At 1:15 in the downtown terminal I hop on a #1 (which will become a #6) to head West and then North to Port Dalhousie.

Above is a shot of “The Niagara Health System Health-Care Complex”. They used to be called “hospitals” when I was younger. Today you could die of old-age while telling the taxi-driver where you wanted to go ...

Back past the Wal-Mart plaza again.

The modern shopping centres look depressingly like San Diego. Don’t get me wrong; I love San Diego; it is congruent with my home-city of Perth in Western Australia, but nowhere else has those climates, and it seem like cheating to mimic San Diego or Perth without the climate or Spanish heritage to back you up.

We pause as we approach the QEW for what I imagine to be a timing stop. We must be ahead of schedule. Or else the schedule has been expanded (I think it has, see shortly ...).

I take advantage of the stationary moments to take shots of my bus pass.

The ticket itself arrives in a handy slim cardboard sleeve which helps protect the magnetic strip against damage.

I have been here less that six hours and already I feel that this IS my community; certainly MY bus system.

Opening up the pouch reveals the ticket and the instructions. I plan to ignore the bit about the ticket being non-transferable on account of the earlier driver telling me that it can be used for two people, as long as it is swiped once per person.

In that sense it is no different from, say, a strip of ten paper tickets purchased from the Toronto Transit Commission.

Here is the face-side of the ticket.

And here is the back-side and with it (I had not noticed until a driver pointed out to me) a history of travel.

Note that I am using my fifth ticket and by the time this trip ends I will have ridden on the 12, 2, 12, 4, 15, 16, 20, 10, 1 and 6 routes.

According to this log I have three plus two hours of travel for $10 – three hours on the log plus two hours of a transfer should I request one.

St Catharines Transit gives good value as well as convenience.

I laughed when I saw this. Is she selling real estate or spectacles?

I reached new heights of confusion. How can St Catharines Transit system make the spelling mistake and have “Fourth Avenue Louth” on the scrolling display when obviously it should be “Fourth Avenue South”?

Odder still since “Fourth Avenue” runs east-west, not north south. Same mistake on the printed bus map too.

Then again ““First Street Louth”, but at least First Street runs north and south.

Came the dawning: Louth (like Thorold and Grantham) were small localities in times past. Silly me!

We fly across a small bay off Martindale Pond. I think “Great canoeing lake” inasmuch as it comes in from Lake Ontario and as far as I know runs all the way up to Glendale; except I saw those rapids below St Paul Street West (downtown area).

My notes read “1340 Angela (timing stop) but I have no idea where this photo was taken.

We drive along main Street in Port Dalhousie. The houses are older stock, probably the original “spread” of suburbs from the port. This would be the most direct route to Hamilton and Toronto from Port Dalhousie port.

Another fine old house.

Unlike most “Main Street”s in America, this Main Street does not have shops. It is, as far as I could see, wholly residential.

My bus map shows “Foot bridge” at this point, but I am not sure at all why it shows up on the right-hand side on my map but on the left-hand side from the bus. We are traveling North up Martindale Road and South down Lake Street, that is, in a clockwise sense.

Martindale Pond stretches away to the south, into the sunshine. Oh! To be canoeing right here right now with this glorious autumnal weather.

We sit stationary for another three to five minutes. More bridgework (just like the delay at St Paul and Yates streets). I zoom in for a shot of a small Hydro-electric generating station.

Also a zoom shot of the little lighthouse on what I think must be the point at Lakeside Park.

Then we are off, a direct line south down Lake Street. I have spotted a mixture of strip and shopping plazas today. This is an example of the totally-blah school of design; one long line of retail and service stores.

I mentioned earlier the potential for confusion between Glenridge, Glendale and Glen Morris all within about a quarter of a mile of each other. Here we have Lakeport Road, Lakeshore Road and Lake Street all within about a quarter of a mile of each other.

The Armory on Lake Street, and thence to the downtown terminal.

At 2:15 I am off the public transit and start walking around the downtown core.

I made my way from the terminal to St Paul Street which street intrigues me with its shallow S-bend.

I stopped to take this shot looking back along the east side of St Paul Street; I can’t remember why; perhaps I was struck by the warmth of the sun.

Both sides of the street are lined with restaurants, pubs, tea-shops and the like.

Everything from fast-food joints through pubs through restaurants. If you can’t find a place on St Paul Street in St Catharines that suits your current mood, then you deserve to go hungry.

The pubs have their “walls” open and folks are sitting as close to the outside as they can get.

I asked one waitress if this were normal for November (I know it is unusual but happens) and she laughed, looked away before replying as if I was already not going to believe her, and said no, but that all the businesses were capitalizing on it.

The Ranking gateway is a footbridge that leads to a building housing I know not what and below it what I suspect is “The Parkway”.

Old red-brick buildings line the passageway with faded advertisements on the walls.

This building boasts TWO layers of signage!

Newer buildings have been built in the same style, which – be praised! – preserves the atmosphere of St Catharines.

The building at the extreme left is perhaps “Cars Pub”; next to it is The Saucy Chicken (express takeout) and then a restaurant which is not yet open for business.

Propped up against the lamppost in the foreground a sign for “Touch Of India”.

So you see what I mean about eating-places. In just these four you can have anything from “grab chicken and sit in the park in the sunshine” or have a waiter hover near your linen tablecloth.

Same thing here, from Pizza take-out and delivery through The Pour House (pub?) and then two more eateries before you get to Scotia Bank.

I didn’t know that highway 406 runs along the bed of the old Welland canal. I knew that the current canal isn’t the original. What a clever use of a level canal route!

Ferranti-Packard were involved at some stage with early computers. Ferranti was a UK firm and Packard, my guess, became Hewlett-Packard. I would not have associated St Catharines with valve- or chip-manufacture.

These “St Catharines Heritage Corridor” signs are spread around this downtown core. If each sign carried a pointer to the “next sign” giving approximate walking distance in minutes one could visit every historic spot in the town.

I think I am still on St Paul Street heading towards The Toy Trove. Or I may be on my way back.

I wasn’t at all certain what this was – sporty car with the top down or boring-old VW. It is the boxiest sports car I’ve seen yet.

This fairy-castle spire kept popping into my vision; I didn’t arrange myself to walk up to it to see what it is.

The shorter days have their impact. I started at 5:28 from home on my way to Peterborough which had me at the Peterborough bus terminal by 8:30. Today I started from Union at 7:13 and arrived in St Catharines around 11:00. Sunset will be around six o’clock It was daylight when I arrived back from Peterborough in Union Station at around 8:30.

A consequence is that I feel as if my day is done after only five hours or so.

But I carry on. St Catharines does not have as many “For lease’ signs as some towns I’ve visited, but it does have some.

Now THIS is brilliant; it may not be unique but it’s the first manifestation I’ve come across.

My passion is SUFE – Second Use For Everything – and that really does mean everything.

Bring your good-condition furniture and appliances here and you get a tax receipt. Not cash, but a tax receipt.

You can’t buy anything here; you can only drop good stuff off (and take away a tax receipt).

The furniture and appliances are channeled/funneled through bona fide agencies to people in need.

People get furniture and appliances, you get tax receipts, your furniture and appliances get a second use and the garbage dumps starve to death.

YaaaaaaaaaaaaY!

I just have to come back and investigate this tower.

Attractive buildings appear at the end of each street (this is a zoom shot), urging me to “come visit” but I have a date with the library.

The covered market was in operation as I made several passes on the buses, but after noon the place is shut down.

I’ll just have to come back to St Catharines.

Another place for lease.

I am at the corner of King Street and (I think) Garden Park. I was struck by the warm glow of this building in the afternoon sunlight. The time is four minutes past three; remember that my camera was jet-lagged.

This either is or it isn’t the downtown bus terminal. If it isn’t then it is adjacent to the terminal. I think it is a car-park tower and the wing-like structures provide some shelter on the upper deck.

Whatever ... if you are wandering around downtown St Catharines and want to walk to the bus terminal, look for this landmark! It stands out very well.

On my way to the library I passed this building; I’d never heard of Grantham Township. Was there really such a place right here, or is the porch a souvenir from another time, another place?

I circle the library and am greeted by sunlight and a beautiful red-leafed tree.

Glorious!

Here is what turns out to be one of the entrances to the library.

Across the street on Church Street (natch!) is a beautiful church.

Hmmm! Should I mention this sort of event to the Toronto Writers Cooperative?

I make my way into the library and am struck by the art-work. I sought permission to take photos, but the entire process was bureaucratic with me being passed through a chain of at least four people, each one of whom had to refer to someone higher up the chain until I was able to sally forth with a minder. This is unlike any other library I have visited this year. I suspect that the chain was longer than four, with a couple of behind-the-scenes actors.

It’s not every day that a sober well-dressed mature white male asks permission to take photos. You better be on your guard, right?

A consequence of this was that I felt rushed and just popped off shots without pausing to see if the quality warranted taking a second, better shot.

The Public Library in St Catharines is unlike any library I have visited in the past couple of years.

So I apologize for the quality. This won’t happen again.

First off a wooden sculpture which made me think of the pipe organ in Metropolitan United Church. I know that it Met U’s organ is not a wood-pipe organ, but the variety of channels of wood (which you can’t make out in this photo) is amazing.

Next the Calder Cleland memorial Trophy. Again a poor shot, rushed as I was.

Here is the text which accompanies the trophy.

This set of five statues amused me. The fifth statue is actually a succulent, but the way it has sidled up to be included in the group amused me.

(The most difficult stage scenery task is to build a fake tree out of wood ...)

Over in the children’s section is a large mural.

I also spotted two owls, but the shot is no good.

The final item on my ushered tour is a statue of a little girl reading a magazine; a welcome into the library.

On my way out I struck up a conversation with Helen.

Helen! It was nice, truly, talking with you. You added a personal touch to my library experience. God bless!

I took a shadow of my former selfie in Burlington and on reflection I thought to take a reflection of my former selfie in St Catharines.

Here is the Tribute To Women statue in all its glory.

I inadvertently exited by another door, so here is another façade of the St Catharines library.

Now the plaque on the wall in the foyer (I’d lost my minder so didn’t feel inclined to take a photo) said that the library was built in 1977.

This must have been an awfully “modern” shock back then. My guess is that there have been extensive renovations, for the interior finishing’s (floors, walls and so on) don’t appear to have forty years worth of scuffing.

I’m not lost; I know where I am, but am not sure of the bus terminal, so I’ll just circle the library until the terminal reveals itself. Thanks to the young lady on my first bus ride in St Catharines earlier this morning!

This is the police headquarters. The floors are arranged as if they tiers had twisted before the mortar had set!

I walked across the street to pay tribute at thee war memorial, as is my wont. I feel it doesn’t hurt to stop and read the names one by one, a relatively small price to pay.

This plaque commemorates action in the South African wars (massacres really; it was guns against spears). Backup to my reading of colonial history of Africa,

Here is the monument in full, with an interesting plaque on each side.

This is NOT the memorial to deaths in The Great War.

A lovely bit of Art Deco, from before my time (grin!)

Another fine church.

It is after half-past four and the day seems to be winding down very quickly.

Now I remember! The footbridge across the road! THERE is the bus terminal.

My airplane-wing building is peeking in from the right-hand side. I told you that it was a landmark.

I made an executive decision; The GO buses leave at 44 minutes past the hour. I will miss the 16:44 bus but can easily catch the 17:44 if I wolf down my food quickly; or I can easily catch the 18:44 if I savour my repast slowly.

I ask the first bus driver I come to where I can catch a bus to Fairview mall. “Mine!” he smiles, so waddyaknow! I’m on a #9 Geneva bus.

Now have ridden on the 12, 2, 12, 4, 15, 16, 20, 10, 1, 6 and 9 routes

So – decisions, decisions. This one is easily made. I’ve been up since 4 a.m. and am growing tired. It’s Harvey’s for a burger-and-fries-and-onion-ring treat (supper for me is most often boiled chicken and rice) and the earlier bus home.

The sweet young lady at the till talks me up into a two-for-one deal and for $14.21 I get a root beer, two burgers, a large fries and a serve of onion rings.

On my way to gorge myself (I’ll take the second burger and half the fries home) I pass my bus-pass to a couple of seniors who say that they can see that the remaining rides are put to good use.

My belly full I stroll across the parking lit and through the north end of The Fairview Mall.

The sun has set; night draws on, and I am still walking around in shirt-sleeves and not feeling a chill at all.

The GO bus pulls out of the mall at 17:48.

By 19:00 I am strolling up and down the platform at Burlington, trying to take night-time photos of the two construction cranes, with little success as you can see.

The platform was empty when we arrived so we had just missed a train and had almost 30 minutes to wait ...

The train pulls in, the ear-buds go in, the train pulls out and given the number of travelers who use ear-buds or head-phones nowadays I wonder why GO Transit doesn’t introduce introductory chimes to each announcement (the conductor pushes a button before speaking) so that we can have enough waning to unplug our ears and hear what is being said instead of just the trailing “ ... thank you for your patience”.

We pull into Union Station at 20:00 and by 20:08 I have discovered that my new balance is $17.55.

My GO transit fares set me back $15.15 (which remember is one-third of a five-zone Navigo card for a week’s travel throughout the Île-de-France!)

(Late News: on Saturday, November 07, 2015 I checked and a five-zone Navigo is now €21.25 for the week, €70 for the month, and at $cdn1.43 that works out to about $30 and $100 respectively)

I spent $20 on the St Catharines bus pass, so say $35 travel costs for the day.

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7092187927 CPRGreaves@gmail.com

Bonavista, Wednesday, June 03, 2020 8:39 AM

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