jis
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Yeah. Red Lake Road comes to mind as such a stop. My neighbor in the Sleeper on my ride westbound traveled all the way from Toronto to that flag stop to visit her parents who came to pick her up. She was delightful company on the way, and the train stopped long enough at the flag stop for me to even get introduced to her parents. The station is a gravel parking lot off of Red Lake Road at the point where the road crosses the railroad. She said she was returning by Coach a few days later on the eastbound.They'll stop at nothing more developed than a rural highway crossing if you request it far enough in advance. It's kind of amazing actually. My understanding is that Amtrak has been cutting back on both flag stops and primary stops but I'm not sure why.I also somehow have the impression, which may be inaccurate, that the Canadian for example, has a much more dense set of flag stops than equivalent Amtrak routes.
That was an eye opening example of the basic transportation function that the Canadian serves in spite of everyone here saying that it is just a tourist train. I bet no "tourist" ever gets off or on at these dozens of flag stops.