Acela Express RTE to WAS (Boston Route 128 to Washington Union Station)
I have travelled on several LD trains in the past and many times on the NEC but this is my first trip report. My husband and I travelled from RTE to WAS in Acela First Class on Tuesday 2/16 and from WAS to RTE in Acela Business Class on Sunday 2/21.
With all the cancellations the week before we left, I was nervous that our train on 2/16 would be cancelled, so I was really happy when I learned the Acela service was back running normally the weekend before we left. On the morning of 2/16, we were expected to have a major snow storm where I live in southern NH so we left for the station early to avoid driving in the snow and got there at 8:00am for a 9:29am departure of Acela train 2159.
Right after we arrived, I went to the ticket desk to inquire about using my AGR upgrade coupons to upgrade to first class. I knew they could be used only one hour before departure but I wanted to check whether the first class was already full. The agent checked and said it was almost full and he would process the upgrade right then, even though it was 1.5 hours before departure. He reserved our first class seats and then asked me to return after 8:30 to print the tickets. But then he kept my upgrade coupons and said “I’ll keep the coupons in case you print the tickets at the machine”. So I am assuming that the tickets would have printed even if I tried to do before 8:30. I followed his instructions anyway and came back up at 8:30, where he printed out my tickets.
The train pulled up right on time and upon boarding, the first class car was almost full, but we did manage to get two seats together. I noted that the first class attendants had covered a group of two chairs near the service area with their luggage and a stack of NY Times newspapers. I thought they should leave those seats open for passengers, given the fact that there were other groups of two that would have liked to sit together but had to split up and take single seats scattered in the car. We were soon presented with the breakfast menu, which had options for vegetable frittata, french toast stuffed with peaches and served with ham, seasonal fruit plate with yogurt or a bagel and cereal. We both choose the french toast and ham, which was also served with a small side of fresh fruit. The food was excellent, as well as the service, with refills offered often on drinks.
The snow continued to come down hard throughout RI and we started losing time in CT. They announced that they could not use the “tilt function” due to the weather and would be slowing down 10mph lower than normal on all curves. Due to the delays, when we got to NYP, we stopped only very briefly, much shorter than normal it seemed. I again noted after the crowd changed over at NYP that the attendants should not have kept the set of two seats just to hold newspapers and luggage (that could have been in an overhead bin) when people were looking for seats together in the first class car such as a mother and young daughter. Also, a uniformed man boarded with a dog sniffer at NYP and walked through the train (starting in first class car). I’d never seen that happen before on my NEC trips.
Upon leaving NYP, we were presented with the lunch menu, with choices of chicken teriyaki, braised short rib, Spanish paella, or a fruit and cheese plate. This menu was the lunch/dinner menu and the meals were mostly suited more to dinner. It kind of made me miss the days of Acela first class where you could have an entrée salad or a sandwich and hot soup for lunch. We both chose the chicken. It was served with rice, vegetable, cous cous, roll with butter and chocolate mousse. The food was all excellent except for the chicken itself, which was fatty and rubbery. But overall, still a good meal. The service continued to be excellent, with the attendant trying to get us to order alcohol because “we want you to have fun on Amtrak”. I ordered a Pepsi and she said “don’t you want some rum with that?” and “taking Amtrak is supposed to be relaxing”. I didn’t want any at lunchtime but I thought it was nice to have very friendly attendants.
At Newark, another uniformed man boarded with another sniffer dog and walked through the train. We were running 30 mins late when we got to Metropark. In PHL, a third man boarded with a sniffer dog. I was wondering if there was something going on that particular day since I’ve never seen one before and this was 3 in one day (and we saw none on the way back either). Sometime after leaving BAL, there was an announcement that we would be further delayed as we were behind a Marc train which would be making many stops before getting to WAS (which was our next stop as this Acela goes right from BAL to WAS). He said we normally would have been in front of the train but because of our earlier delays, we were now behind the Marc train. This resulted in very slow speed the rest of the way. We ended up about 50 minutes late into WAS.
Overall, it was a very good experience, so we tipped the first class attendants well, and I was happy to have gotten the free upgrade. I will write about our return trip in another post.
Kim
I have travelled on several LD trains in the past and many times on the NEC but this is my first trip report. My husband and I travelled from RTE to WAS in Acela First Class on Tuesday 2/16 and from WAS to RTE in Acela Business Class on Sunday 2/21.
With all the cancellations the week before we left, I was nervous that our train on 2/16 would be cancelled, so I was really happy when I learned the Acela service was back running normally the weekend before we left. On the morning of 2/16, we were expected to have a major snow storm where I live in southern NH so we left for the station early to avoid driving in the snow and got there at 8:00am for a 9:29am departure of Acela train 2159.
Right after we arrived, I went to the ticket desk to inquire about using my AGR upgrade coupons to upgrade to first class. I knew they could be used only one hour before departure but I wanted to check whether the first class was already full. The agent checked and said it was almost full and he would process the upgrade right then, even though it was 1.5 hours before departure. He reserved our first class seats and then asked me to return after 8:30 to print the tickets. But then he kept my upgrade coupons and said “I’ll keep the coupons in case you print the tickets at the machine”. So I am assuming that the tickets would have printed even if I tried to do before 8:30. I followed his instructions anyway and came back up at 8:30, where he printed out my tickets.
The train pulled up right on time and upon boarding, the first class car was almost full, but we did manage to get two seats together. I noted that the first class attendants had covered a group of two chairs near the service area with their luggage and a stack of NY Times newspapers. I thought they should leave those seats open for passengers, given the fact that there were other groups of two that would have liked to sit together but had to split up and take single seats scattered in the car. We were soon presented with the breakfast menu, which had options for vegetable frittata, french toast stuffed with peaches and served with ham, seasonal fruit plate with yogurt or a bagel and cereal. We both choose the french toast and ham, which was also served with a small side of fresh fruit. The food was excellent, as well as the service, with refills offered often on drinks.
The snow continued to come down hard throughout RI and we started losing time in CT. They announced that they could not use the “tilt function” due to the weather and would be slowing down 10mph lower than normal on all curves. Due to the delays, when we got to NYP, we stopped only very briefly, much shorter than normal it seemed. I again noted after the crowd changed over at NYP that the attendants should not have kept the set of two seats just to hold newspapers and luggage (that could have been in an overhead bin) when people were looking for seats together in the first class car such as a mother and young daughter. Also, a uniformed man boarded with a dog sniffer at NYP and walked through the train (starting in first class car). I’d never seen that happen before on my NEC trips.
Upon leaving NYP, we were presented with the lunch menu, with choices of chicken teriyaki, braised short rib, Spanish paella, or a fruit and cheese plate. This menu was the lunch/dinner menu and the meals were mostly suited more to dinner. It kind of made me miss the days of Acela first class where you could have an entrée salad or a sandwich and hot soup for lunch. We both chose the chicken. It was served with rice, vegetable, cous cous, roll with butter and chocolate mousse. The food was all excellent except for the chicken itself, which was fatty and rubbery. But overall, still a good meal. The service continued to be excellent, with the attendant trying to get us to order alcohol because “we want you to have fun on Amtrak”. I ordered a Pepsi and she said “don’t you want some rum with that?” and “taking Amtrak is supposed to be relaxing”. I didn’t want any at lunchtime but I thought it was nice to have very friendly attendants.
At Newark, another uniformed man boarded with another sniffer dog and walked through the train. We were running 30 mins late when we got to Metropark. In PHL, a third man boarded with a sniffer dog. I was wondering if there was something going on that particular day since I’ve never seen one before and this was 3 in one day (and we saw none on the way back either). Sometime after leaving BAL, there was an announcement that we would be further delayed as we were behind a Marc train which would be making many stops before getting to WAS (which was our next stop as this Acela goes right from BAL to WAS). He said we normally would have been in front of the train but because of our earlier delays, we were now behind the Marc train. This resulted in very slow speed the rest of the way. We ended up about 50 minutes late into WAS.
Overall, it was a very good experience, so we tipped the first class attendants well, and I was happy to have gotten the free upgrade. I will write about our return trip in another post.
Kim
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