Taking a Sleeper down the NEC

I took a short weekend trip to Washington, DC this past weekend, and of course, I wanted to take the train!

While looking up pricing on tickets from Providence (PVD) to Washington (WAS), I remembered a tip that I had read about on Amtrak discussion forum, and that was to check out the long distance trains from New York (NYP) to Alexandria, VA (ALX).

So I went over to amtrak.com, and noticed that the schedule for the Silver Star, train #91, which goes from New York to Miami, had a nice afternoon departure from New York and a late afternoon arrival in WAS. Perfect! I plugged in my dates and saw that for just $178 I could travel from PVD - ALX in the sleeper, and have lunch in the dining car. Sweet!

So I booked my ticket online, and was emailed a .pdf which showed that I would be on train #95, departing PVD at 6:50 am, arriving in NYP around 10 am. Then I would be boarding train #91, the Silver Star, at 11 am and arriving in ALX around 4 pm.

Now, some of you might be asking why I would book to ALX when my ultimate destination was WAS. That is because most of the time, one can only book the long distance trains when traveling past WAS. ALX is the first stop after WAS. While on the NEC heading south, most long distance trains are board only and vice versa, while heading north, most NEC trains are discharge only from WAS - NYP.

Since they change out the engine in WAS from the electric that goes up and down to the corridor to the diesel that they will need to travel to Florida, I knew that I would have no problem getting off the train in WAS even if I was ticketed to ALX.

Now, the other fun part! I invited my friend to ride with me in the roomette to DC. She lives in Philadelphia, so since I had already paid for the viewliner roomette sleeper accommodation, she would just need to pay the railfare portion of her trip from PHL - WAS. To do this, one needs to book what is called an "open sleeper ticket." An open sleeper ticket allows someone to just pay the railfare, and the ticket must be a paper ticket. It looks funny because it will have a date on it but NO train number. It is very important that your friend with the open ticket know the car number and room number of your sleeper accommodation so that they can find you on the train. I called and reserved the open sleeper for my friend, got her a reservation number, and then she just had to call back and pay for it. Success! We were booked and ready to go.

I woke up early with lots of anticipation about my train trip. I would be riding down the NEC in style!

Train #95 arrived right on time in Providence. The PVD train station is a busy time in the morning, as there is a southbound acela, southbound regional, and a northbound regional that are all due in the station within about 10 minutes of each other. As the southbound acela pulled into the station, the conductors made lots of announcements that they were the acela and folks with tickets for train #95 should NOT board. I noticed a few people who were confused and had to have the conductors check their tickets.

Quiet Car

Then, train #66 (northbound regional) pulled in from one direction at the same time as the southbound regional #95 pulled in across the platform for the other direction. All of the commuters knew which train to get on, as did I, but I could see that some other casual travelers were confused about what train to board.

I headed directly for the quiet car and grabbed a seat pair to myself on the left hand side - the water side! Score. The quiet car was only about 20% full during my entire trip down the corridor, which was pretty uneventful. We slowed up and stopped just outside of the sunnyside yard in Queens, and then we crawled into NYP. We arrived just about 15 minutes late. I hustled off the train and up the first set of stairs I saw off the platform.

Except somehow I ended up in a part of Penn Station I did NOT recognize. I think I was maybe in the LIRR corridor/level. I had to follow some more signs and go up another staircase until I ended up in the familiar surroundings of the Amtrak concourse. The area outside of the Solari board was PACKED. I weaved my way through the crowd and into the relative calm of the Club Acela.

Joyce greeted me there, and I showed her my ticket for the sleeper #91. She told me to take a seat and that they would call me when it was time to board the train.  I grabbed a muffin and some diet pepsi while I waited at a table. Then there was an announcement that the Star was still in the yard and would be delayed 15 minutes. 15 minutes turned into another announcement that the train was "delayed", with no further information available. I called my friend in Philly to let her know that we might be a little late, but about 10 minutes later they made an announcement that the train had left the yard and would be in the station shortly.

A few minutes later, they made an announcement that an usher was here to take us to the train from the club. We were escorted over to the escalator for track 8 west. We then had to wait in a line for a few minutes as they said they weren't ready for us yet on the platform. Then they called down sleeper passengers only, and I was greeted at the door of our sleeper by Donna, our sleeping car attendant (SCA). I found my way to room 2 in car 9110, which was the car next to the diner.

This was my first time in the roomette, which is considerably smaller than the bedroom which I had during my cross country trips. There are roomettes on either side of the hallway, and there are wide seats that face each other inside. Then there is an upper bunk, and the lower seats combine to form a bottom bunk.

My suitcase is on top of the toilet

 The viewliner roomette is also famous for its in room toilet. Yup, its right there next to your bed! It does have a shelf that goes on top of it. Some people love the in room toilet, some hate it. It's certainly convenient at times, but not really when traveling with a companion.

In any case, we finally pulled away from NYP sometime between 11:45 and 12 pm. Donna, the SCA, came by and let me know that the dining car would open for lunch at 12:30. I also let her know that my friend would be boarding in Philly, just so I could make sure that the door would open and she would be able to board.

At 12:30, I headed over to the dining car and was seated with a man in his 30s and a woman in her 50s, both traveling in the sleeper. She was going tall the way to Florida, and he was headed to North Carolina. We had a nice lunch, and I ate from Trenton all the way down to Philly. I ordered the angus cheeseburger, which was totally overcooked and dry like a hockey puck. It came with some potato chips, which were definitely the highlight of the meal. I left a tip for the LSA and then dashed back into my room as I noticed us passing the zoo in Philly, which meant we were just minutes from the station. As we pulled into the station, I saw my friend waiting on the platform.

Seat across from the toilet

I sat in my room and was surprised that she wasn't boarding, so I headed over to the door of the car and noticed the other SCA arguing with my friend. The SCA was confused by the open sleeper ticket, but Donna popped out and said that everything was good and my friend was allowed to board.  We closed the door to our roomette and chatted the whole way down the corridor, eventually ending in WAS about thirty minutes late.

As Donna walked by, she asked if we were detraining in ALX. I told her we would just get off now, and she smiled and said no problem. She helped me down the stairs to the low platform with my bag and I gave her a small tip.

All in all, it was a great trip down the corridor! I highly recommend that if you are considering a trip to WAS, check out the prices for two on the sleeper to ALX. You may be surprised as a long distance train might be cheaper than acela or a high bucket regional.

Quick trip to NYP and back

My friend in NYC invited me to come visit her, so I planned a quick weekend trip to NYP and back.

I wasn't able to leave on Friday night and I wanted to maximize my time in the city, while of course using another free upgrade to First Class on the Acela, so I booked the first Acela out of BOS in the morning on Saturday, train #2251. It is scheduled to leave Boston South Station at 8:10 AM.

Of course being the crazy person that I am, I had to find a way to go north to board the train before heading south to NYC. This is important for two reasons. The first is AGR point maximization. By boarding the train at one of the three Boston stations (BOS, BBY or RTE) I would get 750 points for my acela trip in FC, instead of 2 points per dollar spent. Since my ticket was only $125 (plus the free upgrade), this is a bonus of 500 points.  Secondly, boarding in PVD stinks because all of the best seats are gone. I really crave the single seats in the FC car, so its worth it to go north to go south.

I booked myself on the #66, which is the overnight train from Washington, DC to Boston. It arrived early into PVD, and I was on the train and settled into a seat by 6:40ish. We stayed on the platform in PVD for quite some time, as they are not supposed to leave early, although by my cell phone we rolled out of PVD at 6:55 AM instead of the 6:58 scheduled time.

Now, the 66 doesn't arrive in BOS until 8:00 by the schedule, so I was a little nervous about riding the train all the way into South Station and missing my southbound Acela. I decided to detrain at the Route 128 Station in Westwood (RTE). After I got off the train, I realized that we were running early. I had arrived in RTE 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I checked the status on my amtrak app, and the 66 arrived at BOS at 7:42 AM - which would have given me plenty of time to change trains. Oh well.

I had actually never really spent much time at RTE so I was kind of excited to see it. After I detrained, I took the pedestrian bridge over the tracks and then down into the station. On the ground level they have a few kiosks that sell snack items and newspapers. There is a big ticket counter area for Amtrak and then lots of screens with all of the trains on them. There was also a large, sun-filled waiting room that had a wall of glass looking out over the tracks. When heading south, we could walk from the waiting room directly to the platform. When heading north, one has to take the escalator or elevator up to the sky bridge, cross over the tracks, and then had back down to the platform on the other side.

Acela Menu

There were lots of people waiting to board the FC car but they seemed to be mostly pairs. I grabbed the last single seat on the train, which was on the ocean side of the car but riding backwards. The car was pretty full and the two attendants seemed a little overwhelmed. I didn't even get to order anything until we were almost into PVD, and then my food came when we were halfway to New Haven.

Caprese Omelet Selection

They have some new menus this year which are quite nice. The breakfast selections were devoid of seafood (finally) and the lunch and dinner selections looked quite tasty, too. I ordered the omelette choice which came with sausage, a croissant, and some fruit. It was pretty standard fare for this car. Not horrible, but not amazing. I also had two bloody marys on the way into New York. It's never too early to drink on a long weekend, right?

We pulled into NYP right on time, and I headed up to the Club Acela to use the restroom and wait for a friend. The staff checked me in after eyeballing my ticket, and I left my suitcase in the Club Acela for the day while I explored NYC with a friend. My friend was also allowed to come into the Club to use the restroom which was very nice.

The two of us headed uptown on the subway to go to brunch/lunch. Upon the recommendation of a friend, we chose the Parlor Steakhouse at the corner of 3rd Ave and 90th St. Our original plan was to go to the Metropolitan Museum after our brunch, but after our "boozy brunch" that included unlimited mimosas, bellinis and bloody marys, we decided to walk through Central Park instead. The day was gorgeous and sunny, and we sat and watched the people and the ducks for a while. We wound our way through the park and come out at the south-west corner. We grabbed another drink before heading back to Penn Station to collect my bag and take the subway to Brooklyn. We caught an F train at Herald Square almost right away and the ride to Brooklyn was uneventful.

We had a great dinner in Brooklyn at Buttermilk Channel, and then the next morning woke up to head back into Manhattan to see the NYC Ballet. They did one act of Swan Lake and then two other pieces that were the music of Tchaikovsky with Balanchine choreography.

I stayed another night, and then on Monday was scheduled to take the 2250 north back to PVD. Of course I was ticketed to BOS so I could get the 750 points. Since it was Martin Luther King Day, the earliest acela was the 2250 which is normally the 12:05 pm train on Sunday. I guess they were running a holiday schedule.

I arrived at NYP at about 11:30 after taking the subway in from Brooklyn. I took the F train to Herald Square and then walked down 32nd street between 6th and 7th Avenue. It was very convenient!  I had the club attendant process my upgrade and give me a new print-out showing my first class seat on the train, and I also requested a redcap. The redcap came to collect a big group of us at about 11:45. He expertly managed his big cart with all of the bags and directed us down the escalator to the empty platform. As we walked down the platform the train pulled in.

There was a big group of folks and I was towards the end of the group boarding with the redcap, so again, I got the last single seat on the train. This time I was in last row on the non-ocean side before the end of the car where the entrance, bathroom, and old phone booth are located. The car was very full although not quite completely sold out, and the two attendants were moving pretty slowly. They handed out nuts pretty quickly but it took a while to get a drink. I didn't get a menu at first, and I was the last person to place an order. The attendant informed me that they were out of the Asian chicken salad, so I ordered the veggie quesadilla. The other selection was the small bites which was really just antipasto and also a pork selection. I was slightly disappointed that they had changed the menu from Saturday as I was hoping to get the chili on that menu.

Breakfast for Lunch

In any case, it took a long while for them to turn out the food, and finally at 2 pm - two hours after leaving NYP and well after leaving New Haven, the attendant headed down the aisle with a plate of food for me. However, I was surprised to see an omelette on it, and I let the attendant know that I had ordered the quesadilla. She looks puzzled and said that she thought they were out of them, and goes back up to the front to consult with the other attendant.

The two of them then came back and let me know that they were out of all of the lunch dishes except the small bites. I asked if they had a kids meal like the mac and cheese or the spaghetti, and they went up to check. Unfortunately the commissary failed to provide any kids meals on this run, nor did they provide enough lunches for everyone on board. The kind attendants offered to bring me something from the cafe car, but since I know how amtrak works and that they would have to pay for the item out of their tips, I declined. I settled on the omelette, and they brought it out to me quickly along with the yogurt and fruit plate and a croissant. I had asked for one of the desserts but somehow that didn't make it onto the tray.

I ate quickly and then the ride was uneventful up to PVD. There was actually a big group getting off in PVD, which was a little surprising to me.

Bloody Mary on Acela

All in all, I had another delightful trip south on Acela. Clearly there are still some service kinks that Amtrak needs to work out surrounding the service in the FC car, however. If I had paid top bucket for that ride to NYP in the FC car, the price could have easily been $300 each way. I would not have been happy with the service delays and the lack of food items in the car at that price point, but for a free upgrade, I was happy to enjoy the quiet ride with a free cocktail or two.

Stay tuned for more of my Amtrak adventures!