Amtrak 66

[Tlcooper44]

Hello,

I'm scheduled from BOS - WAS tomorrow on Amtrak 67, and was hoping to take Amtrak 66 back up to BOS from WAS with a scheduled arrival at 7:58am.
I have work at 8am (on Zoom) and noticed that Amtrak Metro Lounge in South Station has free Wifi.

Couple Questions:
Does this train tend to run on time? If the train runs on time, I could walk to the lounge, and set up shop there.
Is Wifi in Amtrak lounges good? Do they have rooms to go to and not be disturbed?
Should I just opt to travel back the day before?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cal]

Not familar with the NEC, but you can always use this to see how the train has done on whatever date you want. NA Intercity Rail Tools

 

[Tlcooper44]

Seems to arrive about 10 minutes early consistently. Looks good. Any thoughts on Amtrak Wifi and facilities in the Boston Lounge?

 

[Cal]

Seems to arrive about 10 minutes early consistently. Looks good. Any thoughts on Amtrak Wifi and facilities in the Boston Lounge?

No idea. I do know that the WiFi wasn't great in the Chicago lounge when I was there last week

 

[fdaley]

I've used 66 to Boston quite a few times over the years and never had it be more than a few minutes late -- and often up to 20 minutes early.

I have occasionally seen it suffer extreme delays (2-plus hours) south of Washington that wound up making it late throughout the rest of its run. Fortunately I was not taking it any of those times. But there is quite a bit of padding -- and opportunity to make up time -- at New York, New Haven and Providence. So if it were even an hour late south of New York, it might still make up all of that time before Boston.

 

[MARC Rider]

Actually, all of South Station has free wifi, as I found out once when 67 broke down, they hauled us back to Boston, and we had to wait in the main station in the middle of the night. But, yeah, if you can get into the Metro Lounge, it's probably easier to find a secluded corner where you can do your zoom meeting in semi-privacy.

 

[bratkinson]

Pre-Covid, I was a couple-times-per-year visitor to the BOS lounge and never had any problems with their Wifi. There's VERY FEW passengers in the lounge that is larger than that in WAS. I always found a seat at a table to plug in my laptop and access the web, email, etc and nary another passenger in view.

Being hard of hearing, I have to sit fairly close to the desk area so I'll hear when they call my train. I've never heard the PA used there.

Also, I think BOS had the best snacks except for CHI, pre-Covid. What's there these days is anyones' guess.

 

[IndyLions]

I was at the lounge during the middle of the current pandemic, and I think there were three of us in there total. It’s a huge Lounge - very nice – I would think you could easily find a place to get some work done for sure. I know I wouldn’t hesitate.

 

[oregon pioneer]

There are desks and dividers in the lounge, but I don't think there are any separate rooms (ask!). There are two levels, and a corner way in the back where no one ever sits. The wi-fi is not fantastic (it's typical Amtrak Connect), but at that hour of the morning you should not have much competition for bandwidth, as everyone is headed inbound to work. Very few people waiting for outbound trains. If I can use Zoom with my abysmal rural connection, it should be workable for you.

I have only used the lounge in the afternoon, outbound, and found there was always a corner for conversation without bothering the few other people I found there. I assume you've check the hours, and it will be open. Do you have a headset or ear buds, so that only your end of the conversation will be audible?

 

[niemi24s]

This other website will let you find perhaps a half years worth of arrival times in one fell swoop - plus provide average and median delays for that period: Christopher Juckins - juckins.net Here's the last seven months for 66 into BOS: ASMAD - Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database - Train History Search