Boston LSL Service Disruption

[lyke99]

Hello,

I got a call from Amtrak yesterday saying there was a service disruption for my trip to Boston this weeked due to flooding between Albany and Boston. The agent said there would be a bus to get me to Boston. I am wondering what to expect now that I will be finishing the trip in a bus rather than a roomette.

Thanks.

 

[sttsxm]

I had the opposite thing happen a week or so ago.

YMMV...BUT when I went from BOS to CHI, we were bussed to Albany in a fairly nice bus and given a REALLY YUMMY box lunch: sandwich, chops, fruit, cookie and a bottle of water...the conductor also accompanied us.....

I would guess that you'd probably get a lunch as well (they fed everyone, not just sleeper pax.)

Any checked baggage was moved for us...we just carried our hand luggage (my one wheelie that i take onto the trains with me went below the bus.)

It really wasn't that bad. We did not make any stops along the way. We did have about 3 hours in ALB to wait for the train out of NYP but there is a coffee place there.

Hope that helps. I know that you're doing opposite of what I did, but I would say that the people in BOS handled the whole thing very well.....they posted the service advisory, the agent informed me of what was going on, and all was smooth. That's more than I can say for the 2 rides I had on the Empire Builder in the last several weeks.....yikes!

 

[amamba]

So this was supposed to be on Sunday, but rather than take the bus, I switched and took 49 out of NYP and then a regional back up the NEC. If you really don't want to take the bus, you could consider this option. I was going west and I just didnt' want to wait for hours in Albany. It sounded boring.

 

[sttsxm]

I'd thought of that but in my case the NYP-CHI option was either waaaayyyyyy more expensive or sold out ......

 

[amamba]

Yeah I was luckily on an AGR reward so price didn't matter.

 

[lyke99]

Thanks for the responses. Although I'd prefer to ride the train over the Berkshires, it sounds like the bus might get us there a little early for a little more time with the nieces.

 

[Guest]

So - any predictions for Mon Mar 28, ALB-BOS?

 

[amamba]

Supposedly the service disruption was only continuing through March 25th...but I don't know for sure. That is what they told me when I was scheduled to take it on 3/20.

 

[PRR 60]

The latest service alert has the closure through March 27 (today). The washout was major and in an inaccessible location. They had to build a road just to get equipment and material to the site. The road was completed last week. The rest of the work should not take too long, so your train getting through on Monday (3/28) is a definite maybe.

 

[lyke99]

We were "bustituted" on March 27. The charter bus had less room between seats than a charter airliner. We were refunded our sleeping car fare for the Albany-Boston portion of the trip and given a box of snack foods. The one redeeming quality of the bus was that it got us to Boston early - that being said, it was a shame to miss the scenery of the Berkshires.

Our return trip on April 1 we took the train and the Berkshires were beautiful - especially so since there had been a bit of snow overnight. There was an extra P42 on the back of the train to facilitate a detour - at the west end of the route we ran out on to a bridge over the Hudson Valley, reversed direction to use an 8-mile connector to the New York-Albany line, then ran forward into Albany-Rensselear station.