# Considering Taking The Lakeshore CLE -> NYP



## Andraleia (Jun 19, 2019)

I don't normally travel by train, but have a day to spare traveling home from Cleveland, and figure I might as well save a couple-of-hundred-dollars and get a new experience in the process?

I have some questions, though...

I've seen that people recommend Business class as being leagues over Coach; however, as far as I can see, there are no business class tickets bookable on this line for the foreseeable future? Any idea why that is / am I missing something?

My biggest concern I suppose is not having a neighbor; I'm perfectly happy to spend 12+ hours on a train, so long as I'm not wedged next to someone that whole time. That was a reason I was looking at business class – as I understand it, one side has solo-seats, whereas in coach both sides are two-seaters. Do you think it's likely that I'll end up with a neighbor on my side?

Timing-wise, I don't imagine there will be much inclement weather this time of year; do you think it's likely that it will arrive fairly close to on-time? Or are these lines consistently delayed by hours, as negative reviews would have me believe?

Any other considerations I should be made aware of?

Thank you so much for your help


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## bratkinson (Jun 19, 2019)

On the Lakeshore Ltd, the business class seats are part of the cafe car which goes to Boston rather than New York City. As a result, BC is only available for New York bound passengers as far as Albany. At Albany, one can change to 'regular' coach seats, or, wait for and Empire Service train through Albany (originates at Buffalo, so you could change trains anywhere between Buffalo and Albany, as ticketed). So, it would be necessary to book using the 'multi-city' option. One part, Cleveland to Albany (or anywhere between Buffalo and Albany) as business class, then from Albany (or other city) to New York City. The only catch to switching to one of the Empire Service trains is that if the Lakeshore Ltd is running too late, you'll miss your connecting train. 

It should be noted that the Lakeshore Ltd is actually two trains running as a single train that splits at Albany, #48 and #448. So you'd be riding business class on #448 (physically the first car of the train until September) and then ticketed on #48 from Albany to New York City.


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## bms (Jun 19, 2019)

The Lake Shore Limited has removed business class seating, at least for the summer. The business class seating was in half of the cafe car, which they have replaced with a car that has tables on both sides of the cafe.

In coach, I normally have a seatmate during the busy travel season from roughly May-September or around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Other times of the year, I usually have both seats to myself. You are not wedged in like an airplane and the trip is during the day, so having a seatmate is not as bad as you might think.

On-time performance is luck of the draw, this chart shows how it has done this year.

https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/historychart.php?train_num=48&station=NYP&date_start=01/01/2019&date_end=06/19/2019&sort=d_ar&chartsize=2&smooth=0

So it's normally on time or up to an hour or two late, but there have been four times it was 6+ hours late this year.


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