Greetings from Boston where I made an unexpected (didn’t even go home first) trip to deliver a relatives passport so she can make her flight to India tonight!
This trip began at about 10:00am this morning. I am getting off the subway in Brooklyn going to my internship this morning when I get a bunch of frantic texts and phone calls from a relative in Boston who is supposed to go to India tonight and her Visa just got processed, confirmation email 9:11. I call her up and realize that as long as I go to my morning meeting I can be the cousin to the rescue. I buy a ticket on 2:00pm Northeast Regional Train #86, the 3:00 is already up to $125 and is the backup train that arrives just only 5 minutes after the Regional. I have an important morning meeting, but luckily it ends early. After that I’m on my iPhone and notice that the fare has gone down for the 2:00pm Regional to the low day of travel bucket amount of $71. I try and reissue my ticket to get the $29 in the form of a voucher (A refund to take the 12:20 train gives me a credit card refund with a $5 processing fee) but the app won’t rebook you to the same train. I then realize the 1:03 Acela is at the low-bucket of $107. I consider rebooking on the 12:30 Regional at $71 (and rebook again) but the iPhone won’t offer voucher and has a $5 service fee. Realizing I have nothing to lose (except a voucher for $6) more I decide I might as well give myself the option of the 1:03 Acela and if I miss it take the 2:00 Regional hopefully with a $30 voucher (processed by the agent in Club Acela).
I finally get to the Visa office at 12:10 on 2nd Avenue and 53 Street is slow but a success. The main issue is they can’t find the passport. They finally find it in their outgoing mail to be sent pile. (If this was yesterday morning than the post wouldn’t work, not me acting as an emergency courier). I leave at 12:28 and even check the Metro-North schedule to see if I could connect to my Acela train that way in Stamford. It’s a 5 minute miss, the 1:07 Stamford Express arrives at 1:51, my Acela is scheduled to stop at 1:43. Throw that idea out the window. I head down to the Lexington Avenue stop on E train. I have enough time to walk to the front of the platform and sure enough my E train arrives. I get off at Penn Station at 12:41 and rush into the Amtrak Concourse. No track yet for my Acela train and I go into the ClubAcela. The agent prints my ticket for me entirely based on my Select+ card, not bothering to ask for ID. My one disappointment is not being able to use 1 of the 6 Free Upgrade coupons gathering dust in my desk. Had I had a chance to go home before this trip to Boston I would have definitely grabbed one. No track number yet. The soda machine is broken so their the mini cans of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Ginger Ale. I throw a Ginger Ale in my bag and am sad to see only pretzels are out, grab a couple of those. I was hoping for something more substantial like a muffin. It’s better than when I stopped by the club last week to no food.
I then call my cousin to report that I’m at Penn Station and will be on the 1:03 train. She’s very relieved to hear from me. Apparently the Visa processing office has just sent her an email (time stamped 12:45), complete with a FedEx tracking number informing her that her passport will arrive in the mail tomorrow morning, too late for her flight. The boarding call comes at 12:50 in the ClubAcela. No word about the 1:00pm Southbound Acela to DC yet. A line has already formed outside Gate 11E, the Club Acela did not beat the main departure board. I see the AmCops rolling what looks like there table for checking bags for explosives. I go down to the Exit Concourse beneath. The staircase down to track 11 is unguarded, no employee is there. I go down the staircase to the platform (I would NEVER do this with my camera. Almost all my Penn Station photos are getting off of trains), liking the destination signs confirming I’m on the train to Boston not Washington. They make a few announcements confirming this is Penn Station and the train is heading to Boston. I grab a seat in the Quiet Car (one of just three coaches on the Acela trainsets that really need to be longer). The train isn’t crowded. It’s in the category of most seats taken but no one has to double up. I notice the overhead bin across from me has a broken latch.
At 1:03 we leave Penn Station on time and enter the East River Tunnels my ears popping, I definable feel the tilting mechanism. We get to daylight at 1:08 and I see two cars of the circus train clearly visible in a portion of the yard visible from a local street albeit through a security fence. We slowly go through Sunnyside and pass the Harold Interlocking with a LIRR sign on it and over what I assume is East Side Access construction. The conductor comes as we go over Astoria, such a scenic line. The conductor says their more seats at the very front of the train, nearly every seat is taken in the Quiet Car. Going up the Hellgate on the left side track. I get a fill ticket stub since I’m going the full trip. He also notices my train book. I’m tempted to chat but don’t want to disrupt the peace and quite of the Quiet Car. We pass the end of the Astoria Ditmars Blvd Subway Station.
- 1:13 – actually going over the bridge and the sewage treatment plant. The Manhattan skyline is off in the distance. At 1:16 were in the Bronx, snow is along the opposite tracks, and piled up in the middle of everything. We pass some freight trains with green containers that I believe is garbage/recycling.
- 1:18 – pass concrete plant park and into the industry and follow Sacket Avenue through the Bronx, were on the correct right hand track and through the Bronx. There is fragments of snow everywhere melting away after yesterday’s strange storm as we go through Pelham Bay Park and over the Hutchinson River Bridge and through Pelham Bay Park, following the New Enlgand throughway, slowing down, passing the golf course.
- 1:25 – Pass Party City and enter Westchester. We then pass a southbound Regional train with two locomotives as we slowly pass through New Rochelle.
I’m hungry with all my morning running around. I walk up to the Cafe Acela and am very disappointed to find out that clam chowder isn’t on the menu. I assume Amtrak Cascades and the Downeaster still serve it. I confirm with the attendant that they did once have clam chowder but don’t anymore. Reading the menu there is nothing I really want and want to try something other than an AmPizza. The menu is worse than a long-distance train. I even consider the breakfast sandwich for lunch. I end up getting the Artisan Sandwich, Smoked Turkie with brie. The attendant asks me if I want it warmed, I say yes. I like to eat lunch at a table, not my seat. The sandwhich is awful and has practically no taste. The bread is soggy from the microwave. I guess I’ll stick to Am Pizza’s (or perhaps the Tuscan Italian panini next time, that’s what a friend of mine had that looked good). I go and try one of the stubby Cafe Acela stolls. Their extremely hard and uncomfortable. No way am I sitting in one. I go back to my seat
and wish it was one on an Acela Superliner for the seat. The leather isn’t nearly as comfy, and the footrest is too high for my use. I would even take a regular Amfleet Regional seat over a seat in Acela business, their really not comfortable. The leather tries to be luxurious but I much prefer soft cloth.
2:29 – Get to New Haven, the one person I notice boarding is an older woman with a red cap. I hear the conductor realizing there is a run by, on his walkie-talkie asking if we can make a quick stop at Branford. The Acela starts making noises, the tilting mechanism is being activated as we slowly leave New Haven. The man goes and graps his luggage and the conductor tells him to come with him. An inbound Shoreline East train passes the other way as the Springfield line goes off on its route.
We go much slower than normal on the right hand track, clearly for our emergency stop in Bradford. We go through a tunnel gathering some speed out of New Haven. We go slowly and clearly come to a stop at Branford at 2:43. They’ve opened up some other door up front (should have walked-up there), and then announce there is a fault in the lead locomotive and the engineer is communicating with Boston. I’m stopped off looking at a parking lot and decide to walk to the front of the train to try and get some photos. I get to the open door at the very front of the train and the friendly conductor tells me I can get some pictures. I ask if I can get a locomotive photo but I’m told to stay where I am. I’m outside for maybe a minute and were soon on our way. We leave leave at 2:52 and are back to the marshland of Connecticut regaining much smoother speed the tilting mechanism is full gear, going faster the Long Island Sound off in the distance.
We regain our much faster speed. Another Acela zooms by the otherway. This is the fun fast part of the ride after the far too slow portion through Metro-North/CDOT territory.
- 3:00 — pass Guilford
- 3:02 — Clinton
- 3:07 — Go through Old Saybrook and get the nice view of the Long Island Sound. There is a Path along the tracks. We go on and off the Shoreline hugging the rocks. This is the most scenic part of the ride up to Boston.
- 3:23 — slow down for the coastal scenery and grade crossings of New London and along its high/low level platform. I’m surpised more Acela’s don’t stop here you go so slowly through New London anyway and curve onto the bridge over the Thames River, going slowly across it. The train makes noises like an airplane, I assume its the tilting mechanism. We curve inland onto the less interesting part of the ride through Groton as I see an Amtrak Police Car.
- 3:32 — see the Long Island Sound again, I’m dissapointed, the man across from me has pulled the curtain so no views from that side of the trian.
- 3:33 — Mystic on a curve, and go through Stonington. Go across another grade crossing and over the river into Rhode Island.
- 3:40 — Westerly
- 3:51 — 150mph through Kingston and the blur of the trees. There is snow and a river.
At 4:02 we slow down as we come into Providence and get the ding-ding for the station stop. We arrive at 4:06 21 minutes late after the Bradford incident. We leave at 4:08. 20 minutes to Route 128. The conductor comes through to collect our seat checks.We leave Providence and pass an abandoned overgrown rail yard with a device that looks like it was once used for piggybacking rail cars, then we pick up speed on the fast stretch along MBTA Commuter Rail trackage through southern Massachusetts.
- 4:21 — The blur of a freight train. There is noticeably more snow along the line as I head north.
- 4:26 — Canton Junction and the announcement for Route 128-Westwood-Denham: The conductor announces there will be a pause of a few seconds after we arrive before the doors open on the right hand side of the train.
- We stop at 4:29, 5 minutes late. We leave at 4:30. The lights turn on. The conductor is telling an older women about Amtrak Guest Rewards and claims the 4 for 1 promotion is still running. He’s not close enough for me to correct.
- 4:36 &mdsah; making good speed following the Orange Line.
At 4:38 we go through Ruggels with the announcement for Back Bay. The car is nearly empty. 4:41 we stop at Back Bay. The conductor lets three commuters on going to South Station, ‘compliments of Amtrak’ for the short ride. He starts telling them to consider Amtrak and Acela for their next trip to New York or Washington. I then hear him radioing Garie the engineer walking through train to High Ball it out of Back Bay, it takes a few tries. The fact the station is mostly underground I wonder with the radio communication issues. We leave Back Bay at 4:42, 8 minutes late. An Amtrak K-9 has also boarded and walks through the car as we make the slow less than two mile trip into South Station along the Kensington Rail Yard and by the commuter trains getting ready for the evening rush. We arrive in South Station 4 minutes later at 4:48. The conductor keeps yapping to try Amtrak to these commuters. One asks if Amtrak goes to Chicago, he tells them yes and the train has sleepers.
I get off and slowly snap some pictures of my Acela across from a Commuter train. There is even an Acela on the parallel track and get some pictures there. I then walk into South Station and wonder where I can get a CharlieCard so I can spend $4 instead of $5 (the price now with Cash or a Charlie Ticket). I have one at home that I know has a little money on it (like 30 cents from before the last MBTA fare hike I would have grabbed had I been home). The MBTA’s solution is to not charge for CharlieCards but ration them. You can’t get them from vending machines or at the most subway stations. I ask at the information desk where I can get a CharlieCard. The response surprises me go to the main MBTA commuter rail ticket office. I know that commuter rail tickets are now printed on the back of CharlieTickets but I go in and ask and the friendly agent grabs me a new CharlieCard. I put $5 on it (forgetting what the actual fare is). Then I head to the Red Line off to Harvard where my relatives live getting there at about 5:15.
In conclusion Acela Business Class did the job today. It’s definitely not worth the upgrade for the comfort, I definitely prefer the seats on a Superliner or Amfleet-II (and maybe on a Regional, I’ll have a better opinion in an update tomorrow) to the leather ones on Acela. It’s something I think I would only pay for if I have an upgrade coupon I want to use, 750 points and the nice free meal is worth it to me for an extra $50, but not the $80 cash on top of my Acela ticket (or the fare difference is $7 like today, just to get the 300 extra AGR points). In terms of time though on the New York to Boston Corridor this is where it shines. It saved me 45 minutes today. If I had ended up on the 2:00pm Northeast Regional I would have left New York less than an hour later but gotten to Boston until over an hour and have later at 6:33pm. This would have meant meeting my relative at the airport or on her way to the airport instead of going to their house myself and having a nice cup of tea. The time difference between these two trains is even greater without incidents like the Bradford delay. This train can also be early. When I did my Acela vs. Fung Wah trip (Fung Wah is now off the roads) into Select+ Status we got into Boston 11 minutes early, nearly two hours before a trian that leaves New York less than an hour later arrived. That is a big difference.
Stay tuned for tomorrow. My plan is to ride the inland route. The Lake Shore Limited to the Vermonter the only way to ride it today with no direct New Haven to Boston trains, with a little Commuter Rail spice thrown in at each end.