Has anyone taken Amtrak or Bus to Montreal recently? (New York: 2013, rent)
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Airplane from new york to montreal is pretty high cost. Amtrak I see its $65 only but theres only one trip a day and it departs at 8:15am and arrives at 7:06pm. Has anyone who taken the amtrak can tell me how long it took all together? Surely it takes longer than 11 hours and thus 7:06pm is incorrect? I also read that if you take amtrak, customs would check every single person inside the train for 1 hour plus? So that would mean even though arrival at montreal is 7:06pm, then one doesn't really get out of the airport till 8:30pm? How early would you need to be at penn station to check in? I assume you have to get there 30 minutes early just to be safe? Is that train ever full?
I did read that the only good thing about amtrak is the ride is beautiful. Can someone who took it can give their experience?
Also,
Has anyone taken a bus recently from nyc to montreal? I see the bus that goes is trailwaysny. Its $86.50 and the ride is about 8 hours which is 3 hour less than the train. But is it accurate? How long does the border crossing take? I think it would be shorter than a train? Also i see they have a lot of buses that go daily. Such as they have one at 12:01am that leaves and gets to montreal at 7:55am. Then you have ones in the morning like at 9:00am and get there at 5:05pm. Can someone tell me how the bus trip feel? I read some ppl say it suck because its many hours and you can't really move around because its a bus unlike the train. So a 5:05pm arrival time mean you are probably done with border patrol crossing by 6:30pm?
Another question I have is how early do you need to be there to get a seat? For example if you want to take the 9:00am bus, does that mean you need to get there at 8:00AM? I know penn station always have a very long line for many buses. Thus if you are on the long line and then no more space, you basically wait for the next one available right? I'm wondering for the earliest bus at 8:00am, how early do people wait in line? What time arrival would be safe where you don't have to worry about not getting in and having to take 9:00am bus etc.
Does anyone know which time slot generally has the least amount of people?
And would you recommend bus or amtrak if only these two options? I read reviews from people but those reviews were very old ones. Would like to know if anyone took it recently and can give opinion.
The customs check is at the Canadian border. It can indeed take an hour--or more, if they're in a bad mood. The trains are also slow because, thanks to our pro-car transportation system, the passenger trains are forced to share infrastructure with freight trains. The trains fill up sometimes, but it's not really a problem since you have a guaranteed space via your ticket and the seats are very roomy. It's a good way to relax and get a lot of reading done.
You do, indeed, arrive around 7 p.m. If customs is slow, that can be a little later. The check, as high iron said, is at the Canadian border, south of Montreal.
Why are you shocked at the 7 p.m. arrival time? It only takes about 6 hours to drive there in a car, so when you factor in the speed of the train and the stops, 7 is about right. We were held up at customs because of two dumb girls, so I think we got in closer to 7:30 p.m.
Buy your tickets in advance, but it's very casual once you get to Penn. You can get there 15 minutes before, or less.
I've taken the trailways bus to MTL (it is really a code share with Greyhound - so you might be riding a Greyhound or Trailways bus). I think it usually stops in Albany briefly and then on to the border. I took an overnight bus so customs was very fast - it can be much slower. I think the bus is probably the best since you can pick from multiple departure/arrival times. Barring horrible traffic or customs delays it should be faster (but much less scenic) than Amtrak.
My kid recently took the train back from Montreal to NY and liked the trip a lot. It doesn't sound like the customs inspection was too bad. The passengers were herded into one area while the dogs went about sniffing the bags.
My kid recently took the train back from Montreal to NY and liked the trip a lot. It doesn't sound like the customs inspection was too bad. The passengers were herded into one area while the dogs went about sniffing the bags.
Weird, we didn't have to get off the train at all and there were definitely no dogs. That doesn't sound normal.
The bus is slightly better than the train, but I used to always take the overnight bus so it would be express. Not as many stops. Train is more comfortable but only leaves once a day. If there is any holdup with Amtrak you are sitting there forever on the track. That happened to me and they sent buses to get us and that took forever.
Bus has more departures but some buses make multiple stops. Customs is a crapshoot. You never know how it will go. Once we had a stowaway on the bus. We sat at the border FOREVER.
I went to school in Montreal so I have made the trip many, many times.
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