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.