# Boston Self-Transfer



## Jeffrey (Jan 3, 2016)

I am in the process of planning a trip from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Maine. There is a self-transfer requirement at Boston between stations. Does anyone have any insight as to the best way to go about this other than a taxi?


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## lo2e (Jan 3, 2016)

Welcome to AU, I hope you become a member. You have a couple of options:

1) If you do not have checked baggage, you can get off at Back Bay (BBY) station instead of South Station (BOS) and take the orange line from there directly to North Station. No transfer needed to any other line.

2) If for any reason you need to go all the way to BOS, take the red line to Downtown Crossing and transfer to the Orange Line to North Station.

#1 is much easier if you do not need to go to BOS.


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## Palmetto (Jan 3, 2016)

There are only two ways this person will have checked baggage, and neither of them are ideal IMO:

1- Travel on #66--the ONLY train east of NY that has a baggage car; or

2- check your bag ahead [presuming you are leaving from a point that actually has checked baggage service] and pick it up in Boston when you arrive.

With more and more senior citizens traveling the rails, you'd think Amtrak would do something about the lousy checked baggage possibilities east of New York. And this is an old problem; my mother faced it 25 years ago.


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## Acela150 (Jan 3, 2016)

It is possible with the extra bag cars.


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## Palmetto (Jan 5, 2016)

Agreed. But let me share with you a brief paraphrase of the Amtrak response to my letter of complaint about the situation. Amtrak's position was that most people on the NEC were business travelers, who didn't need checked baggage. Hilarious, even 25 years ago.


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## Triley (Jan 5, 2016)

Palmetto said:


> Agreed. But let me share with you a brief paraphrase of the Amtrak response to my letter of complaint about the situation. Amtrak's position was that most people on the NEC were business travelers, who didn't need checked baggage. Hilarious, even 25 years ago.


Lets think of it this way. Look at the time it takes 67/66 to traverse from Boston to DC or the reverse, even without the crazy layover in NY. Is it worth adding baggage cars to more Regionals, and doubling or tripling the time the train needs to spend in PVD, NHV, PHL, or BAL, just to name a few stations, in order to be able to load/offload the baggage?

67 is scheduled to take 31 minutes longer traveling BOS-NYP than 173, the Regional with the shortest scheduled travel time. And it still takes 26 minutes more longer than 137, the Regional with the second longest travel time. South of NY? Quickest Regional is 93 (HA!) with 3:13, while 67 is again the slowest with 3:58.

Granted there is even more padding in the schedule aside from the long layover at NYP, but you get the idea. In my opinion, the ability to check bags on 67/66 regardless of the service being traveled on simply needs to be advertised better. But, that is a discussion for another thread.


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## CCC1007 (Jan 5, 2016)

Triley said:


> Palmetto said:
> 
> 
> > Agreed. But let me share with you a brief paraphrase of the Amtrak response to my letter of complaint about the situation. Amtrak's position was that most people on the NEC were business travelers, who didn't need checked baggage. Hilarious, even 25 years ago.
> ...


the primary reason for the very slow scheduled of 66/67 is to allow for reasonable arrival and departure times in Washington and Boston.


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## Triley (Jan 5, 2016)

CCC1007 said:


> Triley said:
> 
> 
> > Palmetto said:
> ...


I understand that, but I'd like to think the majority of that is the layover in NYP (remembering I'm only using 67 BOS-WAS as the hypothetical.) Either way...To be on the safe side you'd have to allow a 5-10 minute dwell at PVD, 5 at NHV, add some time to NYP (10 minutes?) to let the car get loaded before boarding a couple of hundred passengers, as that is NOT a safe thing to do with the vehicles they use to transport the luggage with so many people around), 5 at PHL, and 5 at BAL. And now that I look at the timetable, a few minutes at RTE too. So you're talking about adding up to 40 minutes for baggage, when to be honest....there's few bags in the car on 67/66 depending on the time of year. It just doesn't make sense. Now we'd probably lose more passengers than we'd gain, because of the extra time enroute. Trust me, the complaints I hear working 66 when we're sitting in PVD for 15 minutes, even though we're just adhering to the schedule...

Also, what's the cutoff on which Regionals do and don't get service? Just the Virginia Regionals? Just ones that originate/terminate in Boston?


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## peconicstation (Jan 12, 2016)

Back to topic, the Self Transfer in Boston in very easy.

That said, I added a couple of notes to make it fool proof.

Disembark at Back Bay Station.

Buy your subway ticket from any vending machine (some only take plastic, these are well marked).

Take any "Oak Grove/In Bound" Orange Line train to North Station.

Your done !

Yes, the only issue is if you are riding one of the few trains with checked baggage service, my advice, don't have checked baggage.

Downeaster trains don't have checked baggage service at all.

Ken


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