Trip report has been slow going but I'm up to day 30 now, out of 40 so 1/4 to go!. My trip full report is over at another forum but here is the post for the DC to NYC train trip which I just posted today..
DC to NYC - Amtrak (Part 1)
We had breakfast at the hotel, it was really busy and we had to wait for a table. We were just about to leave when a table opened up for us. We had a 12:00 pm train so it was a rather leisurely morning. Train travel was not something we had done before in the US and I wasn’t 100% sure how we were going to go and if we would enjoy it. Many people on line recommended the train between DC & NYC. Flight at that time of years due to weather I read were delayed or cancelled a lot. And avoiding a US airport if at all possible can’t be a bad thing really. We chose to go on the Acela Express and the trip was 2hr 45mins. There is another train, The Northeast Regional which is a slightly longer trip at 3:30.
The tickets we had gave us access to the Acela Lounge at Union Station. He we stored our luggage and had a nice clean quiet place to wait for the train. There was actually an exit directly out from the lounge onto the platform. We had arranged a “Red Cap” with the lounge staff and they would take our luggage and store it in the carriage for us. The only thing I will mention is that the Red Cap put our luggage on first, along with some others who had used the service. Then when others came on they placed their luggage on top of ours. There are racks to place luggage and also some open alcove areas. Ours were mainly in this alcove. Because everyone else had put there on top and around ours, we couldn’t get to our luggage without moving all the others. It didn’t end up being problem as most people were getting off at NYC, but I was a little bit worried for a moment after the first few stops where they really only stopped for a short time so I thought we would have to be really quick in getting off., but it was worry for nothing. As I said earlier it was a 2hr 45min hour train trip. I had never been on a train this long in my life and I wasn’t really sure how I was going to like it, but I honestly loved it. We were in the First Class cabin which was really comfortable, though it certainly was a little dated. The ticket price included lunch and drinks as well as coffee/tea and snacks.
There were a number of stop in our 2hr45m our journey. The stops that were on our route were:
- Washington, DC - Union Station (WAS)
- BWI Airport, MD - BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
- Baltimore, MD - Penn Station (BAL)
- Wilmington, DE (WIL)
- Philadelphia, PA - 30th Street Station (PHL)
- Trenton, NJ (TRE)
- Iselin, NJ - Metropark (MET)
- Newark, NJ - Penn Station (NWK)
- New York, NY - Penn Station (NYP)
We got to see some countryside which we would never have seen, and even though it was just passing by it was nice to see. DS was kept noticing bridges which looked very similar to bridges we have back home, The Storey Bridge, The Harbour Bridge…
Here are some photos from both the Acela Lounge at Union Station and also during the train trip itself.
There were a variety of seat configurations, single, doubles and booth style for 4 (with foldable table in between) This is what where chose to sit.
continued next post....