Cary, NC (Raleigh) to San Antonio

[CapLmtTexasEagle]

I am planning on visiting family this November in San Antonio. I live in Cary, NC (just west of Raleigh). I have looked at the options and I do not see any good ones, but I wanted to see if anyone here may have a tip that I'm not thinking of.

I think the easiest would be to take a NC by Rail to Greensboro, NC or maybe Charlotte to get on the Crescent to New Orleans. But this would mean I would get on the Crescent at like 12:00 or 2:00 am. Then I would get to New Orleans and need to spend a night there before taking the Sunset Limited, which I know gets to San Antonio late. And it seems that the Crescent and Sunset Limited are only a few times a week and they may not coincide.

The only other option is to go to D.C, then Capital Limited and Texas Eagle, but this looks to be out of the way.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

Thanks!

 

[Bob Dylan]

I am planning on visiting family this November in San Antonio. I live in Cary, NC (just west of Raleigh). I have looked at the options and I do not see any good ones, but I wanted to see if anyone here may have a tip that I'm not thinking of.

I think the easiest would be to take a NC by Rail to Greensboro, NC or maybe Charlotte to get on the Crescent to New Orleans. But this would mean I would get on the Crescent at like 12:00 or 2:00 am. Then I would get to New Orleans and need to spend a night there before taking the Sunset Limited, which I know gets to San Antonio late. And it seems that the Crescent and Sunset Limited are only a few times a week and they may not coincide.

The only other option is to go to D.C, then Capital Limited and Texas Eagle, but this looks to be out of the way.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

Thanks!

Unless Track work is going on, the Crescent runs Daily to NOL, but the Sunset is staying on its Historic 3 times a week NOL-LAX Schedule.

You would need to spend a night in New Orleans, but there are deals to be had there, Google up Hotels.

The Sunset usually gets into SAS around 11pm- Midnight.

 

[John Bobinyec]

I live in Cary, NC, also, and am a host on the NC trains. If you're going to take the Piedmont or Carolinian to transfer to the Crescent, I would suggest you do it at Greensboro rather than Charlotte. Greensboro is a much grander station than the station at Charlotte.

The one other option is one my daughter and wife did. They were scheduled to take 79 to Charlotte and then 19 to New Orleans but 19 left NYP about 6 hours late due to a bad ordered diner, which was replaced by another diner, which then was also bad ordered. This would have put them into New Orleans in the wee hours of the morning, after sitting in Charlotte station all night long. So instead they took 91 overnight to Jacksonville, taxied to the airport and then rented a car and drove to New Orleans in the daylight.

jb

 

[zephyr17]

No. You got it. And yes, Chicago is pretty far out of the way.

If you go via New Orleans, you'll be looking at heading to Greensboro on the Carolinian #79 from Cary at 5:43 pm, laying over for 5 hours and picking up the southbound Crescent at 12:32 am. You get to New Orleans at 9:02 pm the next evening. Pick up the Sunset (which only runs 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) at 9:00 am the next morning, getting to San Antonio at 12:05 am.

Going via Chicago from Cary or Raleigh gives you a 12 hour overnight layover in Greensboro waiting for the northbound Crescent. That would put it out of the question for me, personally. Since you mentioned Charlottesville as an option, you can catch the northbound Crescent there at 5:31 am (or drive to Greensboro and catch it at 7:22 am. Greensboro looks marginally closer to Cary than Charlottesville and 5:31 am is brutal), connect to the Capitol Limited at DC at 4:05 pm with a 2 hour layover, get to Chicago at 8:45 am. Have a 5 hour layover for the lounge-less Texas Eagle and arrive at San Antonio at 9:55 pm

Going via New Orleans from Raleigh or Cary, you spend two overnights out, one on the Crescent and a hotel night in New Orleans. Going via Chicago from Charlottesville, NC or Greensboro, NC likewise gives you two overnights, one on the Capitol, one on the Eagle.

Via New Orleans, you'd leave Cary at 5:43 Day One and arrive in San Antonio at 12:55 am Day Three plus 55 minutes

Via Chicago, you'd leave Greensboro at 7:22 am Day One and arrive in San Antonio Day Three at 9:55 pm

To my mind it is close to a wash. You are trading more train time and a 5 hour daytime layover in Chicago against a 12 hour overnight layover in New Orleans.

If it were me, I'd probably elect to go via Chicago, I like the train and 12 hours in New Orleans is just enough to be tantalized. But it is your trip. Neither option is great. If you want to leave from closer to home, the New Orleans option is better.

 

[John Bobinyec]

A long time ago (10 years?) the Silver Star (92) connected to the Capital Limited (29) at Washington, but doesn't anymore. So now we usually rent a car and drive to Washington in order to catch 29.

jb

 

[CapLmtTexasEagle]

Thanks everyone (so far) for the replies. I didn't realize that the Greensboro station would be better than Charlotte (since it is a smaller city) so that's good to know. Plus, it's easier to get on the Crescent in Greensboro since its a few hours earlier than Charlotte (2:30 am or so!). Yeah, I'm thinking going through New Orleans is better than Chicago.