Intro and question about trip to Boston

[Tied Down]

Hello, I go by "Tied Down." I've been riding trains since the early 60's. I wound up here because I am considering a trip on the Silver Comet to Boston and I was trying to find out if I could reserve a room in one of the Viewliner II cars.

 

[jis]

Hello, I go by "Tied Down." I've been riding trains since the early 60's. I wound up here because I am considering a trip on the Silver Comet to Boston and I was trying to find out if I could reserve a room in one of the Viewliner II cars.

Welcome Aboard!

There is no train called Silver Comet that runs today, and no direct train from Florida to Boston. You will have to take one of the Silver trains to New York and change there to a Northeast Regional or Acela Express to Boston.

You should be able to get a room in a Viewliner II between Florida and New York. The 10, 12 and 14 cars in the currently operating Silver Star are normally Viewliner II cars.

 

[Tied Down]

Of course there is no Silver Comet anymore. I guess I bicycled that bygone line too many times. So, if you like to bicycle rails-to-trails, you can't do better than the Silver Comet trail that starts in the NW suburbs of Atlanta and goes all the way to the Alabama state line, but then it continues seamlessly all the way to Anniston AL as the Chief Ladiga Trail. You could get the Amtrak Crescent there in Anniston. The whole trail is almost 100 miles. I've biked much of it. Here is a video clip of the Brushy Mountain tunnel near Rockmart, GA. The Norfolk Southern runs very near this tunnel, but they dug out their tunnel a long time ago.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/scWYLyYgXEnXtPFx7
I'll be going from Deerfield Beach FL to Boston on #98, the Silver Meteor, but I might change over to Acela in D.C. Does anyone know if Acela has their new train set in operation yet? I understand that the Silver Meteor will restart northbound service on May 23. I'll be traveling after that.

Thanks for the Viewliner II car numbers for the Silver Star. I'll have to check that out.

 

[joelkfla]

Amtrak has 2 trains from So. FL to NYC: the Silver Meteor in the morning, and the Silver Star midday. But the Silver Meteor is currently suspended due to staffing shortages related to the pandemic.

The only time you can make a connection to Boston from the Star is if you depart FL on Saturday, arriving in Boston at 1:15am Monday morning. For the rest of the week, there is no train to Boston departing NY Penn Station late enough to make a connection, and you would have to stay overnight in either Washington DC or NYC to get a train to Boston the following day.

You can't specifically reserve a VL II, but you can request a specific car number when booking on the phone (but not online.) Currently, the Star is running with combined equipment from both the Meteor & the Star, including 5 sleepers for the past couple of weeks. As @jis said, on the combined Star, Sleeper cars no. 10, 12, and 14 have been VL II's, but there's no guarantee.

As of now, Amtrak's booking engine has the Meteor resuming on Monday, May 23, but of course that could change. If you choose to wait until the Meteor resumes service, know that prior to the pandemic, the Meteor usually ran with 3 sleepers, and cars 10 & 12 were usually VL II's.

There was also an overnight train at 10pm from Washington to Boston which is currently suspended, and also scheduled to resume on May 23. So after it resumes, if you would prefer to ride the Star, you could get off at Washington and wait 6 hours for the overnight train to Boston. The pre-pandemic Star usually had 2 sleepers, with car 11 being the VL II. The overnight from Washington to Boston had a single VL I sleeper. Amtrak's booking engine does not offer this connection, so you would have to book it on the phone, or you could try booking it online as a "Multi-City Ticket".

Remember that train consists and, especially, resumption dates for suspended services are highly subject to change.

 

[Tied Down]

Excellent info for me. Thank you.