The Top 10 Reasons I’d Rather Take the Train to New York City than Drive or Fly…
10. On the train, the wifi is free (although not always so reliable…)
9. On the train, the wine is sold by the half bottle – which means there’s more than enough to unwind with at the end of a long day.
(Hat tip to the U.S. Airways Shuttle – they offer free beer & wine for the 45 minute flight. The one time I’ve taken this flight, when I attended a funeral on Long Island, I downed two of those suckers. It was awesome.)
8. Amtrak offers two options for zipping up & down what they call the Northeast Corridor: the Northeast Regional (D.C. to New York City’s Penn Station: 3 hours, 30 minutes) & the Acela “high speed rail” Express (D.C. to New York City’s Penn Station: 2 hours, 55 minutes). Since the price difference between the two is usually around $100-$150 each way, I’ve only ever taken the cheaper & slower Northeast Regional, but I hear the Acela is really nice.
7. When I fly out of DCA, my home airport, I have to leave my office in the city at least two & a half hours before departure time, take a $20 taxi or an unreliable subway ride to the airport, stand in a long security line & then race to the gate. When I take the train from Union Station, I can walk out of my office less than an hour before departure time, take a $13 taxi ride through rush hour traffic & stroll up to the line at the boarding door five minutes before departure time.
(C) Christina Saull – All Rights Reserved
6. With the train, when work (or life) makes me miss my train, I can stroll up to the counter, no questions asked, & exchange my ticket for one on the train an hour later. With no change fee.
5. I have only driven this route once & only because I was forced to in order to transport my husband’s bike (big downside of the Northeast Corridor route: no bicycles allowed). The traffic, as usual, was horrific leaving D.C. Once the traffic broke up, we found ourselves on the New Jersey turnpike. At 10:00pm. Without having had dinner. Our option: Nathan’s hot dogs or Burger King at a rest stop. $27 in tolls later, we pulled into my cousin’s driveway at midnight, after a four hour drive took six.
Never again.
4. When you fly, you’re looking at clouds most of the time. When you’re on the train, the view out the window constantly changes.
(C) Christina Saull – All Rights Reserved
(C) Christina Saull – All Rights Reserved
3. When you fly, after you get off the plane, you’re facing a 45 minute, $50 taxi ride into the heart of Manhattan. When you take the train, you arrive in the middle of the city. A short escalator ride up to the street & this is where you are:
2. There’s a moment, when you’re rolling north toward Penn Station, just after you’ve pulled out of Newark, that the Empire State Building comes into view. A few seconds later, the Freedom Tower comes into view. It’s magical & gives me chills & makes me smile. Every single time.
1. The saying goes: “Getting there is half the fun.” But these days when flying means removing your shoes/belt/jewelery/cardigan/laptop/sanity to get through security & dealing with fees for everything except breathing, & driving means sitting in hellish D.C. traffic & paying out the wazoo in tolls & having to pay to park your car in the city… this saying really no longer seems true. But, even on the worst day of delays on the train, it’s just a much more pleasant, much more (dare I say) humane way to travel.
Note: While it might read like it, this post was not sponsored by Amtrak. After over a year of gushing about how in love I am with the Amtrak Cascades route, I just thought it was high time to give the route I ride much more often some love. Plus, I just really love the train.
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