100 Ideas to Slightly Improve your Travel Experience: # 27 Trains

Sadly in much of the United States, passenger rail service either does not exist, or it is terrible. Where is train travel does exist it can be a very pleasant way to travel.  On the east coast, from Boston to Washington DC, passenger rail service is good, relatively frequent, and often a bargain.  The California coast has good service, a mixture of a state run service and Amtrak, there is a main line up the west coast to Seattle.  Florida has expanded passenger rail. And there are a few other regional train services are out across the country. 

We are a ten minute walk from a subway station, two stops up the line and the train station is next to the subway station.  Wait on the platform.  Board, find a seat and settle in.  The train staff will come by to scan you boarding pass in a few minutes.  You can get up and walk about, the cafe car will be open most of the ride.  There is no X Ray, body scanner, metal detector. 

For me, from Washington to DC taking the train beats flying or heaven-forbid trying to drive up the east coast.  Our nearest station is Alexandria, Virginia.  If I take a train from there to New York, it takes about 4 hours.  It is a 20 minute ride into DC, then the train changes engines with a layover that takes 30-40 minutes.  If I take the subway into DC and take the train from DC to NYC the travel time is about 3 hours. It takes about 45 minutes to take the subway into the train station in DC from home. Strangely it is often cheaper to travel from Alexandria than it is from DC.   If I avoid holidays, Fridays and Sundays, trains are inexpensive.  The trip we just did was about $80 per person round trip.  If we took the night train it is about $50 round trip.  

Fridays and Sunday a lot of people travel to see family for the weekend, and it can get expensive.  A couple of years ago we went to Philadelphia to have lunch with a dear friend who was in for a conference (she lives in British Columbia) and the train was almost $200 a person round trip, up and back on a Friday.  

There are a few places, like Wilmington Delaware, that do not have airline service. To get there you take the train, or deal with miserable east coast traffic.  

When we travel internationally, I always look at rail.  Train service in Europe is generally excellent.  In some countries it is a bargain, in others it is not. Always worth looking into.