This trip is caused by someone needing to drive my Grandmother back from Maine, the job that was the main cause of my Downeaster to the Cape Flyer Trip a little less than a month ago. My original thoughts for the trip were to wend my way up Maine over two days spending the night in Rhode Island or Boston. The hope was to take the 9:05 morning Downeaster Train that would connect with the 12:05 Concord Coach Lines Bus to Bangor that would have only a half-hour Amtrak to bus layover. I then remembered something I had to do in New York on Saturday night making this trip need to occur over one-day.
A one day trip from New York to Bangor is complicated. I realized that the only Amtrak option to connect to the 9:05am Downeaster would be the Twilight Shoreliner/Night Owl/Federal Northeast Regional that leaves New York at 2:40am. As much as I want to ride this unusual Northeast Regional (that I photographed with four engines on my Downeaster to CapeFlyer trip) it just didn’t seem necessary to lose sleep for. I could have taken the 7:00am Regional to the 11:35am Downeaster to Portland but that seemed excessively early and the 11:35 Downeaster would give me two hours in the middle-of-nowhere Portland bus/train station. The 9:00am would have provided the shortest layover but when I booked this trip it was nearly ($101 vs. $109) the same price as the 8:03am Acela so I decided to do that (I don’t know the next time I’ll be in Boston and when I’ll use my remaining two upgrade coupons, breakfast doesn’t seem like a good value). I decided to take the 8:03am Acela have a long enough layover for a walk and if the train is early might get myself across Boston in time for the 11:36 Downeaster. Acela’s I’ve learned going up to Boston have about 15 minutes of padding.
After a late night, I get to the station at 7:42, dropped off by my mother who is driving anyway up to Westchester this morning. If the train stopped in New Rochelle I would have gotten on there. No tracks are listed on the board as I walk through the station. I stop at the ClubAcela, walk in and the attendant tells me track 13. Train #2290 (normally a Saturday only train) originates in New York. I grab a muffin and walk outside find a blob at 13E and no one at 13W. They announce boarding gates, were at 13W while a southbound Regional is at 14E. The tracks share a platform. I go down to the exit concourse and find the platform is one with LIRR signage and unguarded. This track I finished my Downeaster to CapeFlyer Trip http://subwaynut.com/updates/2013/08/13/home-from-cape-cod-in-high-speed-luxury-the-provincetown-iv-to-acela-express-first-class/ arriving on. I go down the stairs and am surprised to find about a half-dozen people already on-board in the first class car at the rear of today’s train. I go find the last 2-by-2 table right next to the galley. One of the two attendants asks for my ticket and it’s put in the headrest. This wasn’t done on my last trip. I ask for tea and drink it with the muffin I grabbed in the Club before I leave. Not as glamorous as a gin and tonic on an evening train, but I’m a big fan of eye-openers (like bloody marries),.
At 8:03 I here the automated “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.” We slowly leave. We break out into Queens and the morning light at 8:08. The attendant comes and asks for my breakfast order and if I want to eat now or later as we go over Queens. I order the waffle because I’m intrigued by that option over the Denver Option (no continental or Fruit Plate for me).
- At 8:13 were going over the Hell Gate Bridge and in the Bronx at 8:16.
- 8:17 – Through the garbage yard and then past containers under the 6 train and out of Pelham Bay Park.
- 8:24 – Pass Party City and enter Westchester as my breakfast arrives, the waffle is tiny! It’s definitely one you can buy in a grocery store freezer. It comes with a package of the Belvita breakfast biscuits looks really tacky. They also have minimal taste. The only other thing on my plate is a fancy car of normal corn-syrup based breakfast syrup, no real maple syrup on Acela either. My silverware is all Acela branded (a first) with a generic steak knife. The waffle tastes perfectly good but isn’t what I pictured, a full plate sized waffle that you order in a restaurant.
- 8:28 – I miss seeing New Rochelle distracted with breakfast and see Larchmont as the hum of the tilting mechanism stops and the ride becomes more jerky.
We arrive in Stamford at 8:43. I notice one person standing by the first class car who boards. No conductor yet to collect our tickets. We leave at 8:46, one minute early. The conductor immediately comes to scan our tickets. I still don’t like the headrest scans. I enjoy the moment of chatter as my ticket is collected. The conductor asks the crew if he should bother with seat checks, they say no. I count 7 of us total with 2 attendants and doubt there will be anyone more.
- 9:02 – Going through Southport I notice the Southport Freight house, do I have photos of it? A Metro-North diesel passes the other way.
- 9:03 – Pass Bridgeport
- 9:22 – As we go through West Haven, I notice it has an entrance sign in the same style as Madison’s, the conductor announces are New Haven arrival.
We get to New Haven at 9:26. A diesel arrives in the station going towards New York on the opposite platform. According to my phone we leave 2 minutes early at 9:29.
We wrong rail taking the north track as I expect since we’re a morning train so the Sunday morning New Haven-bound Shore Line East trains can make the intermediate stops.
- 9:37 – Shore Line East passes us the other way just before we go through Branford. We finally speed up. The attendant comes to gather trash. I tell her Im still hungry and ask if I can have an omelette. She says yes. Most excellent, time to compare it to my eggs on United. Heating it is quick, I have it just before we pass Guilford. The glass I get with my second bottle of Perrier (I’m not a fan of imported fizzy water but I also hate those half-pint bottles that is the other option on Acela) doesn’t have the logo either.
- 9:51 – We slow down at MP-102 and the first southbound Acela passes from Boston going the other way.
- 9:54 – Regain speed through Old Saybrook. We switch back to the normal track going slower along the beach and the sound. I eat my second course enjoying the sound views.
- We go through New London at 10:09 slowly and one attendant tells the other it’s 10:00 as they make another meal and comment on how everyone is sleeping. This must be the one person who asked for their meal later.
- 10:24 – Zoom through Westerly into Rhode Island and pick up speed.
- 10:36 – We pick up much more speed through Rhode Island
- 10:37 – Pass Wickford Junction.
- 10:42 – T.F. Green Airport
We stop in Providence at 10:49, 2 minutes late, losing a few minutes for the brief slow down because of single tracking. I refuse a third bottle of Pierre. We leave at 10:50 as it starts raining! There goes a nice walk in Boston, at least I’ll have the ClubAcela. I don’t think I’ll make the Downeaster connection since were 2 minutes late.
10:53 – Pass the MBTA yard with a few trains. I notice two teenagers have boarded with tickets only from PVD to BBY. I bet there considered minors under Amtrak’s policies and have been ‘upgraded’ for the short ride with the two attendants to look after them. I see the attendants offer but they refuse food. We regain speed on the fast segment of track trough southern Mass that took me so much longer to ride just last week on my MBTA Commuter Rail local trains adventure.
- 11:05 – We get the announcement for Route 128. We all of a sudden slow down in the rain. The app says we were originally supposed to arrive in Route 128 about now (that would get me in 15 minutes early to Back Bay, enough one to most likely make my Downeaster connection. It isn’t going to happen now!
- 11:11 – Crawl over the Canton Viaduct
- 11:12 – Through Canton Junction. Something has clearly happened in this rainstorm to the signal system meaning we can’t go full speed.
- 11:18 – We finally get “Now Arriving Route 128” 15 minutes after approaching, this is normally high speed track!
At 11:23 we finally arrive at a platform at Route 128. It doesn’t look like anyone is getting off here in the rain from First Class. I hear the conductor say, not over the PA “Someone tripped on the platform.” The conductor is chatting with the attendants, he’s disappointed we’re late to. He is ending us shift deadheading back to New York and wanted to catch the 11:35am, not 1:35pm train! He would have made his connection if we were 15 minutes early.
We speed up again passing the CSX yard and Hyde Park, finally regaining full speed. If we didn’t have the delay before Route 128 I think I would have made the 11:35 Downeaster (at least I now can enjoy Boston in the rain and don’t have to contend with a two-hour layover in the Portland Bus Station in the middle of nowhere).
We stop in Boston-Bay Bay a couple minutes late at 11:37.
I find out the attendants are New York based and will be in Boston until Tomorrow morning because of the holiday schedule. Their complaining about how the hotel charges for wi-if. They tell me their normal route is day trips to and from Washington and that overnight layovers like today don’t happen to them very often.
We arrive into South Station at 11:42 (2 minutes late) I hand the attendants a bigger tip than last time. No one else seems to be tipping as I get off. I got two meals and they had that New York business first yet friendly attitude that I still remember once trying to explain to a friend from Texas in College in Colorado and she just didn’t get that New York service attitude.
I drop my bag off in the empty ClubAcela. In Boston left luggage is simply behind the agent’s desk. The nice friendly agent who upgraded me a few weeks ago (not the agent last week who asked me for ID convinced I didn’t blog) is there swiping my Select+ card at her computer, not typing in my information! She asks me what train I’m taking and say a bus (she rolls her eyes) before I explain that I’m transferring from Acela. I notice the next southbound Amtrak isn’t until 1:40 (except for the Lake Shore). My Camera is acting up (again) but I enjoy listening to the boarding announcement for the Lake Shore who’s computerized south station voice lists the stops with the states after every one them. The stops are all listed to Chicago except someone forgot the final S in Syracuse! I discover my camera is dead (I thought I just charged it?), maybe I need a new battery or my camera itself has finally bit the dust (its been really temperamental for the past couple of weeks). The photos in this post are all from my iPhone 4.
My first stop is the Concord Coach Lines ticket counter and I buy my ticket for the next bus to Bangor at 2:15. I confuse the agent by saying express. He replies there all no express buses to Bangor (they all stop in Portland). I explain I simply don’t want the Coastal Bus (that I took to Brunswick for the Downeaster that leaves at noon).
I go and have a nice hour and a half wander through Boston with the rain nearly fully stopped. I might have taken some MBTA entrance photos but my camera has died. I return to the ClubAcela at 1:30 and it takes a minute for someone to respond to the buzzer. I push twice. I walk upstairs and there is a Red Cap at the desk. He isn’t ac I flash my card tell him I’ve left my luggage and will grab it after visiting the bathroom. I go to the bathroom in the Boston club that I realize has muzak inside it. I come back and grab some pretzels and gold fish and some water to eat with the peanut butter sandwich I made at home this morning for my lunch on the bus. A different attendant has just begun his shift it appears. The Club is completely empty on this holiday Sunday! I got distracted walking and didn’t have a chance to enjoy it.
Next I walk back up the maze of ramps to the bus station getting there at about 1:45. There is just a small line. I have a brief chat with the people in front of me who live in Augusta but drove to Portland for more frequent service. They comment that this bus is like the one down is also going to Augusta (this bus is express through Augusta but I looked at the timetable and noticed the one an hour before went up to Augusta and tell them). I explain this to them and say “Don’t have you have pay for parking in Portland unlike Augusta?” The response is “At least in Portland Parking is only $4 a day instead of $40 a day that we would have paid in Boston!” The high cost of free parking! The crowd is definitely a bit more middle class than on most of my Greyhound trips.
Boarding definitely comes after 2:00pm when the agent told me it would start. We slowly board and I notice the driver lifting a paper Amtrak ticket. I didn’t realize that Amtrak has this bus as a Thruway Connection (could I have gotten points for my bus trip? I’ve noticed the Concord Coach Lines connections between Bangor and Portland at least are the same as the normal Concord Coach Lines fare between those cities). I finally board the bus at 2:07.
The bus slowly nearly fills up, people are doubling up but no one picks on me sitting in the middle of the bus. I hear 36 to Portland, 14 to Bangor (I think I’m included in both numbers).
We pull away ontime at 2:15 as the driver starts the movie, a comedy who’s name I forget to write down. I don’t watch. We get on I-93 going through the Big Dig and getting out of the tunnel at 2:22 passing the side and above north station tracks. There is a decent view of the MBTA yard off in the distance.
We get to Portland at 3:58. Were told we have about a five minute break before we’ll have to re-board to reclaim our seats. I get off the bus and ask what are departure time is (I think I’m too used to train trips!) he says they will make an announcement but you have about five minutes. I notice a cooler for water bottles with a bin of pretzels at the entrance to each bus gate. I guess Portland-bound trips don’t have this amenity and Amtrak passengers can’t steal Concord’s water and pretzels. I go into the station. There is a quite long line of passengers waiting to board our bus. I notice someone talking to the Amtrak agent about bus to train tickets. They finish and I ask her if I could have been ticketed by Amtrak all the way to Bangor (not just on the Downeast to Concord Coach Lines throughway connections) mentioning that I began my trip on Acela up from New York. She says yes (I didn’t notice this in Amtrak’s reservation system) but to remember that Amtrak tickets for non-reserved Concord Coach Lines are valid on any Concord Coach Lines bus (not just the one time printed on the ticket). At that point I can’t inquire further seeing the long line of passengers boarding in the terminal as they make the “Please Reboard Announcement”. I go back outside grab a bottle of water and more pretzels from the fridge and box at the entrance to the bus. My plan is to stand outside the bus until the crowd boards behind me but the bus driver soon comes with the wave that you need to get back on now. He tells us on board that were waiting for about 25 more people (I assume some travelers are originating in Portland, but most are connecting to the non-stop Logan Express bus that arrived from Logan Airport just before us). The bus fills up again and I end up sitting on the aisle seat that my legs appreciate.
We leave at 4:20, getting back on I-295 as the bus driver switches on the Lion King II (this I have zero interest in watching! Luckily concord has earphone jacks). We take the I-295 way to August (that I’ve always been told is faster) not the I-95 route via Lewiston (that Greyhound did to stop there).
It rains again and I do type NYP to POR into the Amtrak website and get both Downeaster Connections and Concord Coach Lines buses from South Station to appear (my bus is Amtrak Thruway #8257 and according to Amtrak terminates in Portland, not Bangor, I’ll have to try this next time!). The lack of sleep last really catches up to me on this part of the ride and I pass out for a could have hour on the asile seat taking advantage of the non-adjustable winged headrest. I really wish Amtrak could get these. I’d sleep a whole lot better, I’ve learned there great for napping on planes too.
I’m trying to finish this post but the next thing I know were at the airport exit and driving north into Bangor. We arrive at 6:24. I’m not quite ready to get off and I’m one of the last off the bus. I see my grandmother with the look of where is he? before I finally step off. I grab my backpack that has gone under the bus in the pile of luggage. As we get in the car I notice a large crowd from my bus are connecting to the CYR Bus (this bus is in a similar but less intense wrap that doesn’t cover the windows compared to the one that I saw when I was coming back from Maine last time). There two people going up to Orono (where the University of Maine is) and switch to a different Concord Coach Lines bus.
All in all it was a long, but productive with little waiting that was as good as it could be trip from New York to Bangor, this is definitely a way I’d do the trip again. I also realized that (especially with ClubAcela access to leave luggage) that the two hour stop in Boston was perfect for breaking the trip up and not feel that I had spent quite all day traveling.
Just like the reason I like taking stopovers on my Amtrak Trips (not just for photo essays)!