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I've only ever ridden it on the Bosh-Wash Corridor, where it's really the only place that it makes sense to choose over flying or driving. It's a really good way to get around the region, as it skips I-95 traffic and puts you in the center of the cities it goes to.
This is basically the default city data Amtrak conventional wisdom.
"Well, outside of the northeast it just doesn't make sense."
Lol.
I've taken the Pac Surfliner 100's of times between San Diego and Los Angeles, between which 26 trains run per day.
I've clocked the Surfliner at 95 mph going through Orange County.
I'll be taking it Monday morning for a 2 hour, 9 minute trip from Solana Beach to DTLA. When I get off the Amtrak there I'll walk a few hundred feet to L.A.'s subway.
Half of this trip will be right along the ocean, does "Acela" do that?
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnnieA
I was so excited when I saw this thread. I am halfway between Tampa and Orlando, Florida and need to go to a graduation in Charlotte, NC in June. I hate flying. I told everybody I was going to take the train. I began to research my options and it was kind of hard to navigate to be honest. I am almost 80 but, I'm breathing and in my right mind. I dont mind the 18-24 hour trip. I read, I watch You Tube on my Apple phone, I do cross word puzzles, I like looking out the window. Although to get a trip I could really afford, I would be doing a lot of traveling at night, I think, and I couldn't afford a sleeper.
I could actually meet the train at Winter Haven, Fl or Lakeland, Fl but that would add 2-3-4 hours to the trip. Getting on at Orlando, it would be abt 18 hours, with a train change once in, I think, NC. That was a little concerning to me, the train change not the time. Also, I have a daughter in Charlotte and one outside Greensboro but, I never could figure out some problems with that, which one to disembark at. Another story and, I could have called Amtrak for clarification, I guess.
The biggest problem I had was quite a few negative reviews about trains being late, not on time, etc, etc. and something very concerning was, being stuck at a station for a long time and the station help locking up at 5:00 pm. Leaving you locked outside, waiting for a train. I never could find out if bathroom facilities were not available, if that happened. I would be traveling alone. I decided it wasnt a good trial run trip, maybe something shorter to see how I liked it. I am very interested.
If it was not too much trouble, just a long ride, I would feel more free to visit my children more often. They are always after me about it. They do not understand or don't want to, I have an almost phobic fear of flying. I do it but, it is nerve jangling for me.
I'm the one who has taken the train from Cary, NC to Orlando, FL. If I were you, I would get on the Silver Star Train in Lakeland, if that is convenient for you. It boards just before 6 PM. Then I would take it to Hamlet, North Carolina (arrives there a little after 6 AM), and have your children pick you up there. Hamlet is a 1 1/2 hour car ride to Charlotte. Of course if they live on the east side of Charlotte, it will be closer. This way, you do not have to change trains, and it will only be a 12-hour train ride. You can sleep in your seat. It is not bad at all, as it reclines pretty far back.
The return trip leaves Hamlet at 11:30 PM, not the best time, but might be doable. And arrives in Lakeland around noon the next day.
ETA: I just saw you also have a daughter in Greensboro. Southern Pines or Cary would also be a possible stop for her to pick you up at. Heading north, it goes Hamlet, Southern Pines, Cary in that order. For the return trip to Florida, Southern Pines and Cary would board earlier than 11:30 PM, so would probably be better for you.
I'm the one who has taken the train from Cary, NC to Orlando, FL. If I were you, I would get on the Silver Star Train in Lakeland, if that is convenient for you. It boards just before 6 PM. Then I would take it to Hamlet, North Carolina (arrives there a little after 6 AM), and have your children pick you up there. Hamlet is a 1 1/2 hour car ride to Charlotte. Of course if they live on the east side of Charlotte, it will be closer. This way, you do not have to change trains, and it will only be a 12-hour train ride. You can sleep in your seat. It is not bad at all, as it reclines pretty far back.
The return trip leaves Hamlet at 11:30 PM, not the best time, but might be doable. And arrives in Lakeland around noon the next day.
ETA: I just saw you also have a daughter in Greensboro. Southern Pines or Cary would also be a possible stop for her to pick you up at. Heading north, it goes Hamlet, Southern Pines, Cary in that order. For the return trip to Florida, Southern Pines and Cary would board earlier than 11:30 PM, so would probably be better for you.
Good luck!
I live in Hamlet, it's crazy how a town our size has an Amtrak stop. Hamlet from my understanding serves as the halfway point between NYC and Miami on the sliverstar.
The Silverstar line seems to be the 2nd most used line outside the northeast corridor since the lots of people travel to Florida by train.
It's the busiest in the Southeast, but the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland & Seattle and the Coast Starlight from San Diego to Seattle have higher ridership.
This is basically the default city data Amtrak conventional wisdom.
"Well, outside of the northeast it just doesn't make sense."
Lol.
I've taken the Pac Surfliner 100's of times between San Diego and Los Angeles, between which 26 trains run per day.
I've clocked the Surfliner at 95 mph going through Orange County.
I'll be taking it Monday morning for a 2 hour, 9 minute trip from Solana Beach to DTLA. When I get off the Amtrak there I'll walk a few hundred feet to L.A.'s subway.
Half of this trip will be right along the ocean, does "Acela" do that?
Amtrak/rail makes sense wherever it makes sense (LA to SD does) that being said...
The current Acela can get from DC to NYC (on an express route) in almost the same time it takes for the Surfliner to get from SD to LA.
Acela's run DC-Baltimore @135mph, Baltimore-Philly-NYC @125mph, NYC-Boston @150mph (in small segments) so they are substantially faster than anything on the west coast. The new Avelia's start replacing the entire fleet EoY and are going to run the corridor even faster.
Regarding the ocean scenery, that's just perk of geography. No one rides the Acela for the scenery, they do it to avoid I-95 traffic (magnitudes worse than the I-5) and because flying makes zero sense in the North East.
Amtrak/rail makes sense wherever it makes sense (LA to SD does) that being said...
The current Acela can get from DC to NYC (on an express route) in almost the same time it takes for the Surfliner to get from SD to LA.
Acela's run DC-Baltimore @135mph, Baltimore-Philly-NYC @125mph, NYC-Boston @150mph (in small segments) so they are substantially faster than anything on the west coast. The new Avelia's start replacing the entire fleet EoY and are going to run the corridor even faster.
Regarding the ocean scenery, that's just perk of geography. No one rides the Acela for the scenery, they do it to avoid I-95 traffic (magnitudes worse than the I-5) and because flying makes zero sense in the North East.
I had years of doing frequent business in Philly from New England. Providence is 30 miles as my closest Amtrak station. The rail infrastructure from the Connecticut line at Westerly RI to NY Penn is so pathetic that I always flew. Acela is a scheduled 3 hours between PVD and NYP. It’s only 180 miles so the average speed is less than 60 mph. For Philly, I could fly and make a 10:00 meeting I did a lot of day trips. With Amtrak, that isn’t possible because the rail infrastructure in Connecticut is so awful.
I had some months where I was working in Philly 3 days per week from Hartford paying for my own transportation and lodging. I took the Amtrak regional trains on saver fares because that was by far the cheapest way to get there.
If they fixed Connecticut, I’d always take the Northeast Corridor trains. The way it is now, it’s fine for Manhattan but I’d certainly fly to get to DC.
This is basically the default city data Amtrak conventional wisdom.
"Well, outside of the northeast it just doesn't make sense."
Lol.
I've taken the Pac Surfliner 100's of times between San Diego and Los Angeles, between which 26 trains run per day.
I've clocked the Surfliner at 95 mph going through Orange County.
I'll be taking it Monday morning for a 2 hour, 9 minute trip from Solana Beach to DTLA. When I get off the Amtrak there I'll walk a few hundred feet to L.A.'s subway.
Half of this trip will be right along the ocean, does "Acela" do that?
I don't care about whether I get to see the ocean or not on my trip. I care about not wasting time getting there, and just about everywhere outside the NEC, Amtrak wastes hours getting anywhere. Also, good luck getting around anywhere without a car once you're at your destination.
I don't care about whether I get to see the ocean or not on my trip. I care about not wasting time getting there, and just about everywhere outside the NEC, Amtrak wastes hours getting anywhere. Also, good luck getting around anywhere without a car once you're at your destination.
There are a few places outside the Northeast Corridor that work like some branch lines that run on parts of the northeast corridor (someone mentioned the extensions in Virginia, but there's also such in PA and parts of New England), the SD-LA-Santa Barbara Line that LosFrisco's post you quoted mentioned, the Bay Area-Sacramento bit, the Pacific Northwest into Canada, the NYC route up through Albany arguably Schenectady, and the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha line. There are also a lot of other lines that technically are pretty low hanging fruit to become far better and the ones mentioned above also have some low hanging fruit to be even better than they are.
The ones mentioned so far though are as good as they are partially because for many of those services quite a few of those services are owned by states or Amtrak or something of the sort. The issue a lot of other Amtrak services have is that there's essentially a handshake agreement with private railroads to serve as host to respect Amtrak's schedule, but Amtrak is not allowed to have any teeth to enforce such. This is pretty ludicrous given that Amtrak pays for usage and a lot of this railroad infrastructure was essentially given to private interests after Conrail's demise and/or often given public funding for improvements. This doesn't just delay trains (which yes, of course it does) and makes reliability an issue, but also pushes Amtrak to deal with it by putting fairly massive buffers within their schedules. And of course doing that also then costs them more to run each trains in terms of energy expenditure, staffing, and inability to get more uptime for their rolling stock in order to greater amortize such costs with more service. Amtrak needs teeth and/or their own tracks, because there are a lot of additional corridors in the US that are very reasonable for Amtrak to run very competitive services in times and price were they not screwed over by this arrangement.
As for the car bit at the end, things have gotten a lot better since rideshare services plus some mass transit improvements in some cities.
Also, good luck getting around anywhere without a car once you're at your destination.
The good news is that you won't need good luck upon arrival by Amtrak in either San Diego or Los Angeles to get around.
Both stop in intermodal stations with metro rail, commuter trains, and buses!
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