DowneasterPassenger
Lead Service Attendant
I am completed a combined Amtrak-BART-Airtrain-United-SEPTA-MBTA-Casco Bay Lines
father-son AGR rewards trip to Portland Maine from my home in the California central valley.
My son lives in Philadelphia, and I travel there often to see him. My family is mostly in the state of Maine, and we have made the same trip several times, varying our transportation options.
This time I took the Amtrak San Joaquin line to Richmond, California, and transferred there to BART. There was nothing special or unusual about the San Joaquin segment. Train 711 has been reliable and more or less on time for the last couple of years, except for one or two incidents. The transfer to BART is convenient, and BART takes about
90 minutes from Richmond to SFO. I was surprised by the relatively small number of passengers taking BART to the airport. All the way from downtown SF to Daly City, I was the only BART passenger carrying luggage who looked like he was going to the airport. A few more got on in Daly City, but I wondered why so few people seemed to take this option to
SFO. When I reached the airport and realized I didn't have enough money on my BART card, the reason became clearer. BART fares to the airport are pretty high. From Richmond, I had to pay $9.25. Still, much cheaper than leaving your car at the airport for a week.
Comparing travel times, I could get from my home to SFO in a car in about 2 hours. The San Joaquin + BART takes about 3 hours, plus another 30 minutes to walk to the station from my home. Yes, I walked about a mile with my luggage, saving a few bucks on taxi service.
Another factor was that I couldn't get the lowest possible airfares due to early or late arrival and departure times. There is no way to get to SFO (or Oak or Sac) by Amtrak early enough in the morning for a 6am departure, nor return after a 3pm arrival. So I had to pick flights that were cheap, but not the cheapest, in order to make the connection with my Amtrak/BART segments.
I would have preferred to take a cross-country Amtrak trip, as I have before, but this time couldn't afford the extra 6 days of travel time. I'm a very infrequent flier, so I wasn't fully prepared for all the changes at the airport. United charges $15 for one checked bag using the online check-in system, or $30 at the airport. (I'm going off on a bit of non-Amtrak tangent here). I was able to do the online check-in, but then my printer was acting up, so I wasn't able to print
my boarding pass. According to United's web site, it would be possible to print it at the airport. But when I confronted the
automated check-in at the airport, there was no way to print the boarding pass without paying the $30 fee for my bag! So now I've paid $45 for one stupid piece of luggage that I probably didn't need. The workers at the United check-in were useless. They could not help me with my problem at all. They did not even speak English very well. They could only do two things: check my ID, and send me back to the automated check-in machines. I requested a refund of the $30 from the airline.
I stayed a couple of days in Philadelphia. Over the years, I've probably stayed in every hotel in Philadelphia, or at least every one under $150 a night. My favorite at the moment is the airport Microtel. Not because it is a great hotel, which it is not, but because of the price and the location. The Microtel is about 100 yards from the SEPTA R1 Eastwick stop, only 2 stops on the airport line from 30th St. Station. I rented a car for one day there, but the rest of the time got around on SEPTA. Also, the Microtel was the cheapest hotel listed on Kayak.com within the city limits of
Philadelphia.
My son lives near a stop on the SEPTA R7 line in northeast Philly, which is also the Amtrak NEC. It's a great place to watch a parade of Regionals, LD trains, and Acelas thunder past at high speed while you wait for the local SEPTA train. We took the R7 to Trenton.
I cashed in 12,000 AGR points for the two of us to travel round trip from Trenton to Portland, Maine. Given the summer discounts underway, it wasn't that great of a redemption, only around $0.03 per point. But it was the trip that I needed. All that commuting on the San Joaquin line during the Spring Promotion paid off.
We took the Downeaster+self transfer on the way up and the bus from Portland to Boston on the way back. The Downeaster adds almost 2 hours to the trip, partly due to the long layover in Boston and partly because the bus is faster and goes directly to South Station. Train 172 was delayed arriving in Boston however, but that actually made the
layover shorter and less painful. You really have to want to ride the train to take the Downeaster. The “self-transfer” from BBY to BON is a pain in the butt, especially if you have luggage. At BBY, I overheard a lady with 2 kids asking the
conductor how to do the transfer, so I asked her if she would like to follow us because I'd done it before. Now picture the five us with luggage cramming onto a busy Boston orange line subway. OK, maybe we should have split a taxi.
Then even after you get to North Station and wait around for the Downeaster depature time, the train ride still takes 30 minutes longer than the bus trip. The pleasure of riding that train makes up for it however. The scenery is great, and the cafe car is a gem. They serve Maine cuisine like clam chowder, Italian sandwiches, and local beers and coffees.
Early the next morning, we boarded a Casco Bay Lines ferry to head out to see our family on an island in Portland harbor. By that point I had taken three Amtrak trains, an airline flight, rides on 3 commuter/subway systems, and a boat!
I had hoped to spend some time in Portland just walking around the area near the Amtrak station, to take some notes about what businesses and restaurants are there. But I got kind of busy with family activities and didn't find time for it. There are definitely a few places on Congress St. though. The best way to walk from the Amtrak
station to Congress st. is not the "official" pedestrian path. Go across the parking lot and down Sewall St.
Returning from Portland, the 8:50 AM Downeaster and the 10:30 AM bus both connect to the same Amtrak Regional #137. This is where the bus saves 1:40 hours. Wouldn't it be great if Amtrak could someday run Regionals all the way to Portland (and beyond) without the hassle of a transfer to BON.
After Boston, it was pretty much the same trip in reverse: Regional to Trenton, SEPTA to northeast Philly, and SEPTA again back to the Microtel at the airport.
The Regional train was a bit crowded, and at one point, while my son and I had wandered up to the cafe car, a lady had sat down in our seat. I politely said, “this is our seat”, and she got mad and asked me “how was I supposed to know?” I started to say, “you should look at these seat checks above the seat before you sit down”, but she walked away angrily without listening. I suppose a lot of novice Amtrak riders don't know about seat checks. Also, I noticed that the
LSA on the Regional wasn't checking ID's of people buying alcohol, even for youngish looking customers. I don't know how it usually works on the east coast, but on Amtrak California they are sticklers for checking ID's even for fairly oldish looking customers like me.
Apart from that, I would say the Amtrak Regional segments were “uneventful”.
During the stay in Philly, I also got to ride the Market-Frankford line, the Broad St. Line, and a couple of trolleys, as well as a bus or two. For an American city its size, Philly has great transit.
Departed PHL at 6:50AM in order to get back in time to make a connection on the San Joaquin line. In SFO I rode the AirTrain people mover to the BART stop. This time there seemed to be more airport passengers taking BART. There was a long queue for the cash-only BART ticket machine and no one in line for the ATM-only one. A lady at the cash-only machine was perplexed by the sign that said "Downtown San Francisco: One-Way $8.10/Round Trip $16.20". She asked me if I knew how to select the "round trip" option, and I told her it just means you buy one ticket with the value $16.20.
I took the $9.25 BART trip to Richmond and caught #716 home.
father-son AGR rewards trip to Portland Maine from my home in the California central valley.
My son lives in Philadelphia, and I travel there often to see him. My family is mostly in the state of Maine, and we have made the same trip several times, varying our transportation options.
This time I took the Amtrak San Joaquin line to Richmond, California, and transferred there to BART. There was nothing special or unusual about the San Joaquin segment. Train 711 has been reliable and more or less on time for the last couple of years, except for one or two incidents. The transfer to BART is convenient, and BART takes about
90 minutes from Richmond to SFO. I was surprised by the relatively small number of passengers taking BART to the airport. All the way from downtown SF to Daly City, I was the only BART passenger carrying luggage who looked like he was going to the airport. A few more got on in Daly City, but I wondered why so few people seemed to take this option to
SFO. When I reached the airport and realized I didn't have enough money on my BART card, the reason became clearer. BART fares to the airport are pretty high. From Richmond, I had to pay $9.25. Still, much cheaper than leaving your car at the airport for a week.
Comparing travel times, I could get from my home to SFO in a car in about 2 hours. The San Joaquin + BART takes about 3 hours, plus another 30 minutes to walk to the station from my home. Yes, I walked about a mile with my luggage, saving a few bucks on taxi service.
Another factor was that I couldn't get the lowest possible airfares due to early or late arrival and departure times. There is no way to get to SFO (or Oak or Sac) by Amtrak early enough in the morning for a 6am departure, nor return after a 3pm arrival. So I had to pick flights that were cheap, but not the cheapest, in order to make the connection with my Amtrak/BART segments.
I would have preferred to take a cross-country Amtrak trip, as I have before, but this time couldn't afford the extra 6 days of travel time. I'm a very infrequent flier, so I wasn't fully prepared for all the changes at the airport. United charges $15 for one checked bag using the online check-in system, or $30 at the airport. (I'm going off on a bit of non-Amtrak tangent here). I was able to do the online check-in, but then my printer was acting up, so I wasn't able to print
my boarding pass. According to United's web site, it would be possible to print it at the airport. But when I confronted the
automated check-in at the airport, there was no way to print the boarding pass without paying the $30 fee for my bag! So now I've paid $45 for one stupid piece of luggage that I probably didn't need. The workers at the United check-in were useless. They could not help me with my problem at all. They did not even speak English very well. They could only do two things: check my ID, and send me back to the automated check-in machines. I requested a refund of the $30 from the airline.
I stayed a couple of days in Philadelphia. Over the years, I've probably stayed in every hotel in Philadelphia, or at least every one under $150 a night. My favorite at the moment is the airport Microtel. Not because it is a great hotel, which it is not, but because of the price and the location. The Microtel is about 100 yards from the SEPTA R1 Eastwick stop, only 2 stops on the airport line from 30th St. Station. I rented a car for one day there, but the rest of the time got around on SEPTA. Also, the Microtel was the cheapest hotel listed on Kayak.com within the city limits of
Philadelphia.
My son lives near a stop on the SEPTA R7 line in northeast Philly, which is also the Amtrak NEC. It's a great place to watch a parade of Regionals, LD trains, and Acelas thunder past at high speed while you wait for the local SEPTA train. We took the R7 to Trenton.
I cashed in 12,000 AGR points for the two of us to travel round trip from Trenton to Portland, Maine. Given the summer discounts underway, it wasn't that great of a redemption, only around $0.03 per point. But it was the trip that I needed. All that commuting on the San Joaquin line during the Spring Promotion paid off.
We took the Downeaster+self transfer on the way up and the bus from Portland to Boston on the way back. The Downeaster adds almost 2 hours to the trip, partly due to the long layover in Boston and partly because the bus is faster and goes directly to South Station. Train 172 was delayed arriving in Boston however, but that actually made the
layover shorter and less painful. You really have to want to ride the train to take the Downeaster. The “self-transfer” from BBY to BON is a pain in the butt, especially if you have luggage. At BBY, I overheard a lady with 2 kids asking the
conductor how to do the transfer, so I asked her if she would like to follow us because I'd done it before. Now picture the five us with luggage cramming onto a busy Boston orange line subway. OK, maybe we should have split a taxi.
Then even after you get to North Station and wait around for the Downeaster depature time, the train ride still takes 30 minutes longer than the bus trip. The pleasure of riding that train makes up for it however. The scenery is great, and the cafe car is a gem. They serve Maine cuisine like clam chowder, Italian sandwiches, and local beers and coffees.
Early the next morning, we boarded a Casco Bay Lines ferry to head out to see our family on an island in Portland harbor. By that point I had taken three Amtrak trains, an airline flight, rides on 3 commuter/subway systems, and a boat!
I had hoped to spend some time in Portland just walking around the area near the Amtrak station, to take some notes about what businesses and restaurants are there. But I got kind of busy with family activities and didn't find time for it. There are definitely a few places on Congress St. though. The best way to walk from the Amtrak
station to Congress st. is not the "official" pedestrian path. Go across the parking lot and down Sewall St.
Returning from Portland, the 8:50 AM Downeaster and the 10:30 AM bus both connect to the same Amtrak Regional #137. This is where the bus saves 1:40 hours. Wouldn't it be great if Amtrak could someday run Regionals all the way to Portland (and beyond) without the hassle of a transfer to BON.
After Boston, it was pretty much the same trip in reverse: Regional to Trenton, SEPTA to northeast Philly, and SEPTA again back to the Microtel at the airport.
The Regional train was a bit crowded, and at one point, while my son and I had wandered up to the cafe car, a lady had sat down in our seat. I politely said, “this is our seat”, and she got mad and asked me “how was I supposed to know?” I started to say, “you should look at these seat checks above the seat before you sit down”, but she walked away angrily without listening. I suppose a lot of novice Amtrak riders don't know about seat checks. Also, I noticed that the
LSA on the Regional wasn't checking ID's of people buying alcohol, even for youngish looking customers. I don't know how it usually works on the east coast, but on Amtrak California they are sticklers for checking ID's even for fairly oldish looking customers like me.
Apart from that, I would say the Amtrak Regional segments were “uneventful”.
During the stay in Philly, I also got to ride the Market-Frankford line, the Broad St. Line, and a couple of trolleys, as well as a bus or two. For an American city its size, Philly has great transit.
Departed PHL at 6:50AM in order to get back in time to make a connection on the San Joaquin line. In SFO I rode the AirTrain people mover to the BART stop. This time there seemed to be more airport passengers taking BART. There was a long queue for the cash-only BART ticket machine and no one in line for the ATM-only one. A lady at the cash-only machine was perplexed by the sign that said "Downtown San Francisco: One-Way $8.10/Round Trip $16.20". She asked me if I knew how to select the "round trip" option, and I told her it just means you buy one ticket with the value $16.20.
I took the $9.25 BART trip to Richmond and caught #716 home.
