- Joined
- Jul 10, 2019
- Messages
- 7
Hi all, longtime lurker, first-time caller.
Is the experience of traveling on the Acela rather than the Northeast Regional more interesting for a minor train nerd?
I have a trip booked on the Northeast Regional round-trip from Philadelphia to Boston in October. I'm debating whether it's worth the extra $200 to upgrade to the Acela. Honestly the cost is not super important to me if the experience is worth it.
The time savings is about 45 minutes and not particularly important to me--this is a leisure trip. I'm thinking more of the actual experience. I've ridden the Northeast Regional from Philly to NY many times for work, and I've been stuck with getting the lowest price ticket, so I've never taken the Acela and I am curious about it.
I took a trip on the Keystone last year from Philly to Lancaster and was on one of the upgraded trains and boy was it nice. Just a very pleasant journey with the nice new seats. On the way back I was on the Pennsylvanian on a car which had NOT been updated and it was a completely different experience--also more crowded, which might have had something to do with it. I guess a lot of them had traveled from Pittsburgh and there were pillows and blankets scattered all over the train, backpacks in the aisles, toys and magazines littered everywhere, and a couple people giving me attitude about sitting next to them, basically telling me to find somewhere else to sit. But also the seats were the tired old cloth seats and not as nice and comfortable, to my mind, as the Keystone had been with the new seats.
So I guess my question is, are all the Northeast Regional cars updated with the new seats, or is it possible I'll have the tired old seats? Are the seats on the Acela really as tired as a lot of the reviews I've read/viewed say? Considering a lot of the reviewers routinely travel on airlines in business class, I'm not sure how to take their reviews. The Amtrak site is not helpful on this count.
Is the experience of traveling on the Acela rather than the Northeast Regional more interesting for a minor train nerd?
I have a trip booked on the Northeast Regional round-trip from Philadelphia to Boston in October. I'm debating whether it's worth the extra $200 to upgrade to the Acela. Honestly the cost is not super important to me if the experience is worth it.
The time savings is about 45 minutes and not particularly important to me--this is a leisure trip. I'm thinking more of the actual experience. I've ridden the Northeast Regional from Philly to NY many times for work, and I've been stuck with getting the lowest price ticket, so I've never taken the Acela and I am curious about it.
I took a trip on the Keystone last year from Philly to Lancaster and was on one of the upgraded trains and boy was it nice. Just a very pleasant journey with the nice new seats. On the way back I was on the Pennsylvanian on a car which had NOT been updated and it was a completely different experience--also more crowded, which might have had something to do with it. I guess a lot of them had traveled from Pittsburgh and there were pillows and blankets scattered all over the train, backpacks in the aisles, toys and magazines littered everywhere, and a couple people giving me attitude about sitting next to them, basically telling me to find somewhere else to sit. But also the seats were the tired old cloth seats and not as nice and comfortable, to my mind, as the Keystone had been with the new seats.
So I guess my question is, are all the Northeast Regional cars updated with the new seats, or is it possible I'll have the tired old seats? Are the seats on the Acela really as tired as a lot of the reviews I've read/viewed say? Considering a lot of the reviewers routinely travel on airlines in business class, I'm not sure how to take their reviews. The Amtrak site is not helpful on this count.