This week my travels bring me to see some friends in New York. So while I love making plane posts and traveling through space and time, Amtrak takes the win for convenience in this case. My office and hotel were both in the heart of Manhattan, so arriving at Penn Station was a better choice than having to take an Uber, a flight, and then a train from Queens.
Booking
I first considered booking these tickets outright with cash. Tickets priced at about $45 each way for the Northeast Regional trains. But the 6AM Acela train was on sale at $59. Upon checking my points balance I found I was only about 500 points short of the Acela redemption cost. So I bit the bullet and (*gasp*) bought points for $19, redeeming all my points for the Acela business class ticket (there is no Coach class on Acela services). Funny enough, my Amtrak account now has just 6 points. Six.
Boarding
Service begins at South Station, but I live along the Green and Orange lines, so I opted to board the train at Back Bay instead. Back Bay has limited amenities and no Metropolitan Lounge for Acela First class passengers. But it also means shorter walks between the train platform and the entrance.
There are no ticket fare gates like they have at North Station. Everyone has access to the platforms, so you just walk downstairs and wait for the train to pull in. At Back Bay, the train was already about 40% full.
Boarding was quick and easy. Keep in mind that Business and First class cars have assigned seating so you have a seat number and a train car number. The floor had signs for the car number locations, so finding my reserved seat was quick and easy.
The Seat
These seats are quite dated and old, but large and spacious nonetheless. The new Acela trains should have better, sleeker seats but they won’t enter service until late 2024. Each seat had an individual tray table that pulls upwards and out. There is also a center armrest in between each pair of seats.
The seats were wider than most airplane seats. It’s nothing like the Air Canada Business class cabin, but hey my expectations can’t be TOO high, can they? The tray tables are sizeable. It was able to fit my laptop with ease, with extra space leftover! Each row also has their own set of outlets along the window, so it was the perfect environment to start working (when not napping, at least). Oh and by the way, remember when I said the seats were dated? The buttons definitely needed a little bit of love.
Most trains do have these awkward configurations at tables where 4 seats face each other. It’s great if traveling in a group or with family, but it’s a tight squeeze with everyone playing footsie. It would be awkward with random strangers across the way!
The Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeed
A lot of people give Amtrak a hard time for their “high speed rail” going super slow in places. And for the most part, maybe that’s true. Passenger rail just doesn’t take priority in the US, so cargo trains can cause significant delays along the way because they have the right of way.
Well as soon as we got to the open road (open rails?) of southern Rhode Island into Connecticut, we were CRUISING, reaching top speeds of 150 MPH!
But that quickly ended and we were soon back on the crawl of just 40-45 MPH. The curves in Connecticut are just too sharp and the trains create too much noise. We were barely crawling for the rest of the journey.
The Views
Sure the upholstery is dated, the train is slow, and the service is almost nonexistent. But travel by train has one major benefit over car, bus, and air travel. The sights are unbeatable! Rural Connecticut on a beautiful clear day is one of the most beautiful things I’ve witnessed in a while.
And before you knew it, we were approaching New York! If you’re heading South from Boston to NYC, I recommend choosing the right window seat just to cherish this final view. Going North, pick the left window seat.
Final Thoughts
Say what you want about Amtrak, but it’s still one of the better ways to travel between two major cities. Delays aren’t uncommon and the service is limited (sorry, no free soft drinks) but it gets you from A to B for a lot cheaper than flying and for a lot more comfortable than a bus. If you book far enough in advance, you can find fares between NYC and Boston for as little as $20. Try it and let me know what you think!