If you don’t read my other sites you probably missed all the hoopla about the “Today” show. In a nutshell, I submitted a turkey burger recipe and was selected to showcase it on air. Click here for the whole story.
As one of the finalists, the “Today” show would fly me out to NY, cover my hotel expenses and take care of the travel arrangements.
If you guys don’t know, I live just outside Baltimore — about a 45-minute drive from BWI. The flight to NYC is about an hour. Add the early arrival for parking, shuttle riding, security and check in, I’m looking at about 4 hours of “travel” time.
I can and have driven to NYC multiple times. It’s about 175 miles from my house and if I get lucky with traffic (doubtful) I can be there in under 3 hours.
How can I justify driving south to the airport to fly north to NYC and have it take at least an hour longer?
Nope.
Didn’t want to do it.
Instead, I suggested the train and I’m so glad I did!
Right now Mom and I are enjoying a 2 hour, 5 minute Acela train ride from Penn Station in NY to Penn Station in Baltimore.
Mom living it up on the Acela train
We have big cushy seats with a work table and electrical outlets. There’s wi-fi, a snack car and easy-to-access bathrooms.
What more can a traveler ask for?
I may never drive to NYC again!
Well, unless I’m bringing a bunch of people with me. The price tag for a round trip train ride from Baltimore to NYC is about $300 on the Acela Express. The Northeast Regional is a little cheaper (especially when traveling with kids) but it’s still steep for a mode of transportation I think benefits the Northeast significantly and could possibly reduce some traffic on our severely overcrowded highways (says the woman who basically lives on the 95 corridor).
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the train as a mode of transportation. I know it’s very popular overseas but here in the States, it’s totally underutilized and almost forgotten as an option for travelers.
Click here for more information about he Acela Express train. That’s where I got the photo as well.
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Patty
August 31, 2013Love the train even the northeast regional. It's what I always took to Fitbloggin when it was in Baltimore. The Acela is much better. I take that to Philly when work picks up the tab. ;)
Melissa (@TheDailyMel)
August 31, 2013I wish we had more/better train options on the west coast. It still boggles my mind that there isn't a train between the L.A. area and Vegas.
Erin
September 4, 2013LOVE the train. I am in CT so we have the Metro-North Train that goes right into the city- its so easy and not too expensive (but not fancy at all either!) Makes a day trip totally doable!
Thea @ It's Me Vs. Me
September 6, 2013Ooooh, I've only ever driven to NJ and taken the train from Princeton. It never occurred to me to take a train from Baltimore. We really want to take the kids to NYC and have looked into taken a bus from Frederick, but now I'm going to check out the train.
sherijung
September 11, 2013Acela is great (I took it from Boson to NYC) and I'm so jealous. Amtrak on the West coast is the absolute worst. They don't have priority on the tracks, so if there's a freight train, they have to get out of the way. My boys took it from Oregon to San Jose a few years ago, and it took nearly 24 hours to get home, no lie. I will never use it. Japan has it all over us, their trains are beautiful. And I've booked my boss on lots of train trips in Europe which seems so much more civilized than the effort it takes to get on an off a plane nowadays. I suspect our lack of proper passenger train infrastructure is because we spent so much public money on defense for generations, while Japan/Europe put their money into public transportation. And we do love our cars!
Amanda
September 17, 2013I live in Indianapolis and this summer we took the Amtrak train from Indy to Chicago. It was one of my bucket list items for my kids. We LOVED it!! I would totally do it again. Yes it takes longer to get there than driving but we didn't have to pay to park in Chicago or buy gas. Our tickets for the four of us were around $150 total ROUND TRIP. We couldn't drive it for that and pay for gas/parking. I totally want to do a girls weekend to Chicago and take the train again. It was a BLAST!