Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Washington DC

[Ben]

My friends and I want to do this route, by train. Please can someone tell me the cheapest time to travel, and when the best time to book is? Can you get cheap tickets on the day?

 

[DingDong]

My friends and I want to do this route, by train. Please can someone tell me the cheapest time to travel, and when the best time to book is? Can you get cheap tickets on the day?

You're in luck because that's the route in the United States with the best train service. The best time to book is as early as possible. Ticket prices generally only go up. Tickets are almost always more expensive the day of travel.

Good news: tickets are (for now, although it may be changing) fully refundable. If you buy a ticket online, you can cancel it online and get a full refund up until you actually print the ticket out at ticket machine in the station. So only print your ticket right before you get on the train.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

My friends and I want to do this route, by train. Please can someone tell me the cheapest time to travel, and when the best time to book is? Can you get cheap tickets on the day?

You're in luck because that's the route in the United States with the best train service. The best time to book is as early as possible. Ticket prices generally only go up. Tickets are almost always more expensive the day of travel.

Good news: tickets are (for now, although it may be changing) fully refundable. If you buy a ticket online, you can cancel it online and get a full refund up until you actually print the ticket out at ticket machine in the station. So only print your ticket right before you get on the train.

If you're talking about the most frequent and reliable, then that would be the best. ut if talking about most comfortable or scenic, then probably not.

Remember that e-tickets are NOT fully refundable. Amtrak will have e-tickets across the whole system very soon, possibly by the end of the year. Book as early as possibly, but don't think that you can just change it with no penalty.

 

[caravanman]

Hi Ben,

Greetings from a fellow UK resident, and a long time Amtrak fan.

Broadly speaking, fares rise in a way similar to airline seats... the more in advance you book, the cheaper the fare. I find that Amtrak fares are pretty reasonable compared to many UK fares. You can visit Amtrak.com and play with the "buy tickets" function to experiment, and get an idea of fares that are available around the times you expect to travel... The Accela (my spelling!) fast trains are much more expensive, look for "regional" trains for cheaper seats. You can buy a ticket on the day, and might be lucky and pay no more than you would by booking in advance... winter time is less busy on many trains... but if you have the chance to buy in advance, that would tend to be the best bet.

As mentioned, Amtrak are modernising, and will be soon offering print at home "E tickets", but this should not affect the actual cost of fares, in my opinion.

Please feel free to ask any further questions... I am now going to remove my anorak!

Ed

 

[Acela150]

Remember that e-tickets are NOT fully refundable. Amtrak will have e-tickets across the whole system very soon, possibly by the end of the year. Book as early as possibly, but don't think that you can just change it with no penalty.

Why wouldn't it be fully refundable? If there's a penalty it's only 10%.

eTickets are happening by the end of the Summer is what Amtrak has promised. Monday has been tossed around as the official launch date. I will be able to confirm of deny the reports as I am traveling on 642 and 86 on Monday then 175 Tuesday.

 

[Tracktwentynine]

Ben, Welcome to the United States. I hope your trip is a pleasant one!

The route from Boston to Washington is called the Northeast Corridor. It's a high(ish)-speed, electrified rail line with frequent service. There are several classes of service on the Corridor.

Acela Express: This is Amtrak's premium high-speed rail service. Between Boston and New York, it has a top speed of 150 mph and 135 mph south of New York. It has two classes of service, First Class and Business Class. It can be fairly expensive. If you were to book a train today for travel today, you'd pay $271 for business class Boston to Washington ($393 for first class). It takes about 6.5 hours to get from Boston to Washington.

Northeast Regional: These trains are still fast, but they make more stops and use older equipment. The top speed for the NER is 125. It has two classes of service, Business Class and Coach Class. Depending on when you book, it can be fairly cheap. If you were to book a train today for travel today, you'd pay $185 for a daytime train or $165 for a red-eye in coach from Boston to Washington ($233/$213 for business class). From Boston to Washington, the trip takes about 8 hours.

It probably doesn't matter to you. But some of these trains switch to diesel power at Washington and continue south into Virginia, with most service continuing to Richmond, and some trains running to Newport News or Lynchburg.

Long-Distance & Corridor Trains:

These trains won't be any help for you in Boston. However, some trains that are running down the Atlantic Coast to the Carolinas and Florida or the southeast or west start in New York and run south along the Northeast Corridor to Washington. On most of these trains, you can't book trips between stations on the corridor (for example, you couldn't book from New York to Washington, but you could book from New York to Richmond). These trains can vary greatly in price and amenities. Some trains have sleeping cars, where you would have your own compartment.

If all you care about is Boston to Washington, you can ignore those trains. But if you are considering train travel to other parts of the East Coast, those trains might be something to think about. They all have names, like the Silver Meteor or the Carolinian.

Commuter Services: Along much of the Corridor, states and local agencies run trains intended for commuters. These trains generally have fixed prices and open seating, so you can buy a ticket 5 minutes before departure for a reasonable price, but aren't guaranteed a seat (you could stand, though).

If you're traveling all the way from Boston to Washington, you can ignore this. But if you're actually visiting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, these trains might make sense. Unfortunately, the only 2 cities that you can travel between on commuter services in that list is New York and Philadelphia.

To get between New York and Philadelphia, you can ride NJ Transit Northeast Corridor Line trains from New York to Trenton, where you'd need to transfer to a SEPTA Regional Rail train to continue to Center City Philadelphia.

You can also get between Philadelphia and Wilmington (Delaware) on SEPTA and between Washington and Baltimore (Maryland) on MARC (weekdays only).

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Why wouldn't it be fully refundable? If there's a penalty it's only 10%.

A 10% penalty is a penalty anyway. 90% is not 100%, thus e-tickets are not fully rufundable, which would be 100%.

Ben, Welcome to the United States. I hope your trip is a pleasant one!

Long-Distance & Corridor Trains:

These trains won't be any help for you in Boston. However, some trains that are running down the Atlantic Coast to the Carolinas and Florida or the southeast or west start in New York and run south along the Northeast Corridor to Washington. On most of these trains, you can't book trips between stations on the corridor (for example, you couldn't book from New York to Washington, but you could book from New York to Richmond). These trains can vary greatly in price and amenities. Some trains have sleeping cars, where you would have your own compartment.

If all you care about is Boston to Washington, you can ignore those trains. But if you are considering train travel to other parts of the East Coast, those trains might be something to think about. They all have names, like the Silver Meteor or the Carolinian.

This is some good information. Just wanted to add that you can take other LD trains to Chicago, New Orleans, and points further west. There's even a train from Boston-Chicago, a section of the Lake Shore Limited. Flying is pretty bad in America these days and if you came all the way from Britain, you might as well see America, right? I really recommend the LDs, best trains I've ever taken, especially the Empire Builder if you want to go across the continent, or the very interesting Crescent / Sunset Limited combo, New York-New Orleans-Los Angeles.

Flying is so bad over here that I would rather take National Trailways Bus!

 

[me_little_me]

This is some good information. Just wanted to add that you can take other LD trains to Chicago, New Orleans, and points further west. There's even a train from Boston-Chicago, a section of the Lake Shore Limited. Flying is pretty bad in America these days and if you came all the way from Britain, you might as well see America, right? I really recommend the LDs, best trains I've ever taken, especially the Empire Builder if you want to go across the continent, or the very interesting Crescent / Sunset Limited combo, New York-New Orleans-Los Angeles.

Flying is so bad over here that I would rather take National Trailways Bus!

A bit of an exaggeration! It is not that bad. And remember, if someone is coming from the UK, they want to visit places and spending 3 days in a train, while fun for some of us, is not what I'd want to do if it meant I couldn't see the Grand Canyon e.g. because I couldn't spend the extra 3 days. Since one-way fares often cost more than round trip, it also reduces the advantage of plane one way and train the other.

If I were visiting this country, I would wonder if a round trip to San Francisco even by first class air might be more effective use of my money than round trip by train unless of course I had the time to stop and see various cities along the way. However, it looks like the OP is looking at only northeast cities so the Northeast Regionals are sufficient. In addition, price seems to be an issue and LSL/Empire Builder by coach is not a lot of enjoyment either.

 

[gatelouse]

Friday and Sunday afternoons tend to have the highest fares. If you're flexible with times and book 14+ days out, you should be able to get the lowest fare.

If you want to stopover for less than 24 hours in any city, the stopover is free and you'll be charged the end-to-end "through" fare, which could save you quite a bit. You can make multiple stops using this trick. Highest price prevails, so select each train carefully.

 

[Acela150]

Why wouldn't it be fully refundable? If there's a penalty it's only 10%.

A 10% penalty is a penalty anyway. 90% is not 100%, thus e-tickets are not fully rufundable, which would be 100%.

But why wouldn't it be fully refundable? If there is someway in the system to tell the rider did not print their ticket or have it sent to his or her cell phone then the rider would get 100% back. If it's printed they can get an eVoucher for I believe the full value. Not sure on that.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

This is some good information. Just wanted to add that you can take other LD trains to Chicago, New Orleans, and points further west. There's even a train from Boston-Chicago, a section of the Lake Shore Limited. Flying is pretty bad in America these days and if you came all the way from Britain, you might as well see America, right? I really recommend the LDs, best trains I've ever taken, especially the Empire Builder if you want to go across the continent, or the very interesting Crescent / Sunset Limited combo, New York-New Orleans-Los Angeles.

Flying is so bad over here that I would rather take National Trailways Bus!

A bit of an exaggeration! It is not that bad. And remember, if someone is coming from the UK, they want to visit places and spending 3 days in a train, while fun for some of us, is not what I'd want to do if it meant I couldn't see the Grand Canyon e.g. because I couldn't spend the extra 3 days. Since one-way fares often cost more than round trip, it also reduces the advantage of plane one way and train the other.

If I were visiting this country, I would wonder if a round trip to San Francisco even by first class air might be more effective use of my money than round trip by train unless of course I had the time to stop and see various cities along the way. However, it looks like the OP is looking at only northeast cities so the Northeast Regionals are sufficient. In addition, price seems to be an issue and LSL/Empire Builder by coach is not a lot of enjoyment either.

Hmm, not exactly an exaggeration in my opinion. A Trailways bus is pretty good and beats flying for how cheap it is, and a Greyhound bus is usually worse than Trailways, but I was comparing to Trailways.

The big complaint I have about domestic flights are the small seats, not "high" prices, "crazy" airports, or "too much" security. I've seen much larger people on planes, but even I can't fit comfortably into that seat. Many people exaggerate the "bad" on planes a lot more than I do.

 

[zephyr17]

Why wouldn't it be fully refundable? If there's a penalty it's only 10%.

A 10% penalty is a penalty anyway. 90% is not 100%, thus e-tickets are not fully rufundable, which would be 100%.

But why wouldn't it be fully refundable? If there is someway in the system to tell the rider did not print their ticket or have it sent to his or her cell phone then the rider would get 100% back. If it's printed they can get an eVoucher for I believe the full value. Not sure on that.

The local agent here said that once an eticket is issued upon payment, it will be considered ticketed and only eligible for the 90% refund. With an eticket, you won't absolutely have to have a printout or an image in a phone, the conductor can look it up and see you are ticketed. That is what an eticket is -- you don't have to have ticket media, they hold it electronically, hence the "e".

The 10% penalty only applies to cash refunds. If you want a voucher for future transportation, those get 100% of the value.