NEPATrainTraveler
Service Attendant
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2018
- Messages
- 204
Way back when I was a kid, my mom had considered taking Amtrak for one of our family vacations. For various reasons, those plans never materialized and my first Amtrak ride would be by myself in my 20s. Now here I am in my 30s and my mom and I finally took our first Amtrak ride together. She had mentioned wanting to visit Boston again (we did so once back when I was teenager and we enjoyed our time in the city) and was open to the idea of using Amtrak to get there. I, of course, have had riding Amtrak to Boston on my bucket list for years, so I was very excited to hear that she was interested in doing this. After much debate, we opted to ride the Acela from NYP to BBY and then ride the NER from BBY to NYP. My mom decided to let me put this trip under my rewards account because she wasn’t sure about getting her own and figured I could make good use of the points for my solo Amtrak journeys.
We took Martz to NYC and stayed overnight. We had dinner at the Stardust diner and got to see Back to the Future: the Musical. They made some changes from the movie, which I didn’t fully agree with, but overall it was pretty fun. The next day, we rode the C to Penn Station and I led my mom to Moynihan Train Hall. She was very impressed with it, just like I am. While one can still board at the old Penn Station, which looks better than it used to, I really wanted to wow her. Plus I greatly prefer Moynihan Train Hall over the old station. We got coffee from Starbucks and it wasn’t long before our train began boarding.
When we picked our seats on the app, we chose the quiet car because it was the only place that had two seats together that was not a table seat. Seats were comfortable, but we could not get them to recline and from what I can see we weren’t the only ones with that problem. With that said though, the leg room was vastly superior to that of Martz Trailways, which is the first thing my mom mentioned when I later asked her what she thought of Amtrak, and the seats were wider too. We moved pretty slowly through Metro North territory, which I kind of expected, but wow was this slow. After New Haven, though, we began picking up speed and got to see some really nice scenery along the CT coast. My favorite was when we passed by a beach. It seemed funny to me to have the train tracks so close to the beach like that. I agree with what others say that New London, CT should be made a stop because we pass through that station so slowly that we may as well have stopped there. It was during the eastern CT portion of our journey that I visited Cafe Acela for the first time. I got a drink and the cheese and fruit tray, which was pricey, but really good and just enough food for a pre-lunch snack. My drink and food came to me in a cardboard box similar to the one I got my flex meals in last year, except this box had Aclea branding on it instead of Coca-Cola. I felt a bit awkward chewing down on crackers in the quiet car, but thankfully no one complained.
It was somewhere between Kingston, RI and Providence that I experienced the glorious stretch of 150 MPH running. I downloaded a speedometer app on my phone to confirm this and showed it to my mom who was just as impressed as I was. It was at this moment, where I felt like riding the Acela was worth it. I know there's supposed to be another high speed section in MA, but I forgot to get out my speedometer app and confirm. It certainly felt like we were going high speed through parts of MA though. We arrived in BBY a about half hour late, which is apparently late enough that Amtrak decided to give me an extra 250 points. We chose Back Bay instead of South Station because it was closer to our hotel in Fenway. For a major station, Back Bay doesn’t have a lot going on. The station looks pretty drab, the waiting room is small and there are only a small handful of food options. Also, the bathrooms are closed between 1 and 2 PM, so if you arrive during that time like we did, you’ll have to go across the street to the fancy mall and use their bathrooms. Not a terrible station, but I expected better I guess.
After having lunch at the Tasty Burger inside the station, which lived up to the name, we rode the commuter rail to Lansdowne to get to our hotel. Lansdowne station is just a basic station, with no bathrooms and no Ticket Vending Machines either. This forced us to download MBTA’s mTicket app to buy tickets, after checking in to our hotel. We didn’t need to create an account, though that might have been due to us paying with Apple Pay. We exclusively rode the commuter rail to get from our hotel to downtown Boston throughout our vacation because the commuter rail was much closer to our hotel than the green line was and we both prefer commuter rail over subways anyway. The Framingham/Worcester line isn’t terribly frequent, though frequencies do pick up during rush hour, but it worked with our schedule. The seats were pretty comfy and we were able to fit our suitcases in the luggage rack (on the single level coaches anyway, they wouldn’t fit on the luggage racks on the lower level of the bi-level coaches. We didn’t try the luggage racks on the upper level). We were also amazed at how cheap the commuter rail was, only $2.40 each way. Not sure if we hit upon some kind of summer sale or what, but we’re not complaining. We did go to South Station during one of these commuter rail rides, so I can say that I have ridden the entirety of the northeast corridor. South Station is much bigger than Back Bay and has more food options, but the current construction makes it more difficult to navigate. We went to the Boston Tea Party museum that day, which was very educational and entertaining. Loved getting to throw the tea into the harbor. We went to a night game at Fenway after that, and while the seats were a bit uncomfortable, it was fun to watch the game, even though the Red Sox lost that night. It was cool to be in such a historic stadium.
We took a train Salem the next day, using the Framingham/Worcester to BBY, then orange line to North Station where we caught the Newburyport/Rockburyport line to Salem. Even the ride from North Station to Salem was only $2.40 each way. North Station is pretty nice, quite a few food options plus a gift shop for Celtics/Bruins fans. One thing to note about North Station is that the waiting area can only be entered/exited by scanning your ticket, which is not the case at Back Bay or South Station. We liked Salem, but didn’t love it. It was a bucket list item for both of us and while we are glad we went, we’re not sure if we need to revisit. Our favorite museum was Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery Monster Museum, it had a nice collection of wax figures ranging from silent movie creatures to modern villains from movies like The Conjuring II. The Witch History Museum, which was a few doors down, was a bit of a letdown and while the ride on the Salem Trolley was educational, it was uncomfortable due to the heat (no A/C on the trolley). We ate at the Village Tavern, where I had a really good burger, so that’s one place I would recommend if you’re in Salem. Salem’s commuter rail station is just another basic one. No TVMs, no bathrooms, and a small waiting area and only one train platform. What’s really annoying about this station is that it is right next to a busy highway, so crossing the street can take awhile.
After a brief stop at Quincy Market, we went back to the hotel and had dinner. Nothing much to say about the orange line or its stations that we used other than that it was fine.
(To be continued...)
We took Martz to NYC and stayed overnight. We had dinner at the Stardust diner and got to see Back to the Future: the Musical. They made some changes from the movie, which I didn’t fully agree with, but overall it was pretty fun. The next day, we rode the C to Penn Station and I led my mom to Moynihan Train Hall. She was very impressed with it, just like I am. While one can still board at the old Penn Station, which looks better than it used to, I really wanted to wow her. Plus I greatly prefer Moynihan Train Hall over the old station. We got coffee from Starbucks and it wasn’t long before our train began boarding.
When we picked our seats on the app, we chose the quiet car because it was the only place that had two seats together that was not a table seat. Seats were comfortable, but we could not get them to recline and from what I can see we weren’t the only ones with that problem. With that said though, the leg room was vastly superior to that of Martz Trailways, which is the first thing my mom mentioned when I later asked her what she thought of Amtrak, and the seats were wider too. We moved pretty slowly through Metro North territory, which I kind of expected, but wow was this slow. After New Haven, though, we began picking up speed and got to see some really nice scenery along the CT coast. My favorite was when we passed by a beach. It seemed funny to me to have the train tracks so close to the beach like that. I agree with what others say that New London, CT should be made a stop because we pass through that station so slowly that we may as well have stopped there. It was during the eastern CT portion of our journey that I visited Cafe Acela for the first time. I got a drink and the cheese and fruit tray, which was pricey, but really good and just enough food for a pre-lunch snack. My drink and food came to me in a cardboard box similar to the one I got my flex meals in last year, except this box had Aclea branding on it instead of Coca-Cola. I felt a bit awkward chewing down on crackers in the quiet car, but thankfully no one complained.
It was somewhere between Kingston, RI and Providence that I experienced the glorious stretch of 150 MPH running. I downloaded a speedometer app on my phone to confirm this and showed it to my mom who was just as impressed as I was. It was at this moment, where I felt like riding the Acela was worth it. I know there's supposed to be another high speed section in MA, but I forgot to get out my speedometer app and confirm. It certainly felt like we were going high speed through parts of MA though. We arrived in BBY a about half hour late, which is apparently late enough that Amtrak decided to give me an extra 250 points. We chose Back Bay instead of South Station because it was closer to our hotel in Fenway. For a major station, Back Bay doesn’t have a lot going on. The station looks pretty drab, the waiting room is small and there are only a small handful of food options. Also, the bathrooms are closed between 1 and 2 PM, so if you arrive during that time like we did, you’ll have to go across the street to the fancy mall and use their bathrooms. Not a terrible station, but I expected better I guess.
After having lunch at the Tasty Burger inside the station, which lived up to the name, we rode the commuter rail to Lansdowne to get to our hotel. Lansdowne station is just a basic station, with no bathrooms and no Ticket Vending Machines either. This forced us to download MBTA’s mTicket app to buy tickets, after checking in to our hotel. We didn’t need to create an account, though that might have been due to us paying with Apple Pay. We exclusively rode the commuter rail to get from our hotel to downtown Boston throughout our vacation because the commuter rail was much closer to our hotel than the green line was and we both prefer commuter rail over subways anyway. The Framingham/Worcester line isn’t terribly frequent, though frequencies do pick up during rush hour, but it worked with our schedule. The seats were pretty comfy and we were able to fit our suitcases in the luggage rack (on the single level coaches anyway, they wouldn’t fit on the luggage racks on the lower level of the bi-level coaches. We didn’t try the luggage racks on the upper level). We were also amazed at how cheap the commuter rail was, only $2.40 each way. Not sure if we hit upon some kind of summer sale or what, but we’re not complaining. We did go to South Station during one of these commuter rail rides, so I can say that I have ridden the entirety of the northeast corridor. South Station is much bigger than Back Bay and has more food options, but the current construction makes it more difficult to navigate. We went to the Boston Tea Party museum that day, which was very educational and entertaining. Loved getting to throw the tea into the harbor. We went to a night game at Fenway after that, and while the seats were a bit uncomfortable, it was fun to watch the game, even though the Red Sox lost that night. It was cool to be in such a historic stadium.
We took a train Salem the next day, using the Framingham/Worcester to BBY, then orange line to North Station where we caught the Newburyport/Rockburyport line to Salem. Even the ride from North Station to Salem was only $2.40 each way. North Station is pretty nice, quite a few food options plus a gift shop for Celtics/Bruins fans. One thing to note about North Station is that the waiting area can only be entered/exited by scanning your ticket, which is not the case at Back Bay or South Station. We liked Salem, but didn’t love it. It was a bucket list item for both of us and while we are glad we went, we’re not sure if we need to revisit. Our favorite museum was Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery Monster Museum, it had a nice collection of wax figures ranging from silent movie creatures to modern villains from movies like The Conjuring II. The Witch History Museum, which was a few doors down, was a bit of a letdown and while the ride on the Salem Trolley was educational, it was uncomfortable due to the heat (no A/C on the trolley). We ate at the Village Tavern, where I had a really good burger, so that’s one place I would recommend if you’re in Salem. Salem’s commuter rail station is just another basic one. No TVMs, no bathrooms, and a small waiting area and only one train platform. What’s really annoying about this station is that it is right next to a busy highway, so crossing the street can take awhile.
After a brief stop at Quincy Market, we went back to the hotel and had dinner. Nothing much to say about the orange line or its stations that we used other than that it was fine.
(To be continued...)
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