I had occasion today to try the two rail routes between Montreal and its airport - the commuter rail line operated by AMT, and the intercity line run by VIA Rail Canada.

Both were interesting and different: at some point I'll put a note of how to use both of them on our website, www.airportrailwaysoftheworld.com.

However, there were three other interesting things which happened on the rides.

Getting in to the commuter train to Dorval isn't easy - you have to climb four steep stairs, then slide a rather stiff vestibule door back to get into the passenger compartment.

At one of the intermediate stations, a lady who I guess was in her fifth decade managed to do this with a bicycle. This took some doing - especially the 90-degree turn at the top of the stairs while sliding open the stiff door!

Unfortunately, having done this, she was then told that for security reasons she couldn't take her bike on the train, and after some debate had to get off. Ouch! I wasn't quite sure why - the timetable says you can.

On the VIA Rail train back, I happened to choose a seat quite near the end of the coach. I was given very comprehensive information about how to break the window to get out in case of emergency. This involved pulling a tab, getting a hammer, breaking two skins of window, clearing the debris out with a seat cushion and putting my jacket over any remaining sharp edges. Wow!

Finally, the bilingual welcome to Montreal included a very stern warning about remaining seated until the train had come to a complete stand . Given the slow speed of approach of the train, this seemed to be a little excessive.

These last two events were rather reminiscent of air travel - the briefing if you sit in an emergency exit row, and the warnings as you taxi in to the terminal having landed at an airport.

Yes, both industries need to learn from each other, but were these two events over the top?

It was an interesting day!