Changing trains at Philly

[Alexandria Nick]

Later this spring, I'm taking a four day weekend to go back and visit family in Pittsburgh. I was planning on taking the Capitol Limited westbound. For the way back, I don't want to run the risk of getting caught with a late eastbound train for obvious reasons. I'm in no rush to get back and thought I'd treat myself to a trip I've wanted to do before as a birthday present.

I was going to take the Pennsylvanian to Philadelphia and then grab either a Northeast Regional to Alexandria or Acela to DC. Interestingly, its cheaper in total to take a Northeast Regional from Philadelphia to Alexandria than Philadelphia to DC and then taking the Metro to Alexandria (by $2.50). Here's where my questions come from:

1) Amtrak seems to want to make me take an hour and a half layover at Philly. There's a train departing for DC within half an hour of the scheduled arrival at Philadelphia. How is the Pennsylvanian for holding to the schedule if I wanted to book the closer time than what the Amtrak site wants me to?

2) Assuming its best to plan for the 90 minute-ish layover, how is the station there for hanging around that long? I've never got on or off a train there before. Just passed through.

 

[Shanghai]

I was in the Philadelphia station yesterday returning from Atlantic City. It is one of the best

Amtrak station I have visited. It is beautiful, clean, well organized and has several eating outlets,

a book store and some other shops. The is a very nice Acela lounge.

 

[Acela150]

I was in the Philadelphia station yesterday returning from Atlantic City. It is one of the best

Amtrak station I have visited. It is beautiful, clean, well organized and has several eating outlets,

a book store and some other shops. The is a very nice Acela lounge.

Did you win big Dick? :giggle:

As for the OP PHL is home away from home for me. 42 is often early into PHL. 93/83 will arrive about 40 minutes later on Track 5 if everything is correct. You could also hop on 19 or 97. Down to ALX buy a room and get access to ClubAcela in PHL and get dinner on 97 possibly.. 19 you can rule out as it arrives into WAS at the beginning of the dinner hours. 97 you have a chance as it leaves PHL pretty much at 5pm and departs WAS at I believe 730. But everyday is different on the railroad. You never know what could happen. 42 could be 5 minutes early into PAO then lose 2 hours into PHL which is only about 20 Miles IIRC. They make PHL from PAO quick but you never know!

 

[sttsxm]

Love 30th street station...and the CA is great, though for some stupid reason they no longer have bottled water up there...at least not a couple weeks ago. I did write to CS and they responded basically saying HUH? No Bottled water? Perhaps they addressed that issue. I was in the station a couple days ago but didn't have time to hit the lounge..(since i am S+ i like to at least pop in for a soda and 'rest' lol)

you can eat, shop, chill....the station also has WiFi..so you can post here on AU!!

have fun....

 

[afigg]

2) Assuming its best to plan for the 90 minute-ish layover, how is the station there for hanging around that long? I've never got on or off a train there before. Just passed through.

30th street is one of the most impressive stations in the Amtrak system. You can check out the station, check out the SEPTA boarding area on the upper tracks, plenty of places to get food. If you had more time, you could walk to the SEPTA Market-Frankford subway station and take the subway to see something of downtown Philly, but a 90 minute layover is way too short to attempt that. If you have never seen 30th Street, take the 90 minute plus layover and at least see the station.

 

[Acela150]

Love 30th street station...and the CA is great, though for some stupid reason they no longer have bottled water up there...at least not a couple weeks ago. I did write to CS and they responded basically saying HUH? No Bottled water? Perhaps they addressed that issue. I was in the station a couple days ago but didn't have time to hit the lounge..(since i am S+ i like to at least pop in for a soda and 'rest' lol)

you can eat, shop, chill....the station also has WiFi..so you can post here on AU!!

have fun....

No bottled water in CA??? The lead guy up keeps up with that stuff. Maybe they ran out of the bottles. But they wouldn't have a good excuse not to have any water.

 

[SubwayNut]

How bought tap water there?

 

[NS]

30th Street Station, main waiting room: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Amtrak30thStreetStationInterior2007.jpg

 

[benjibear]

To agree with everyone else, 30th street station is probably my favorite "big" station. The main concourse is very large, high ceilings, and alot of open space. There are long wooden benches for waiting which I actually find quite comfortable. It is better than narrow chairs that you find at some stations. The station is great for people watching. There is a good variety of food. I don't think there are any large sit down type restaurants but there is a good variety of food court type food. There is a place that I got an Italian Hogie that was awesome. The bread was so fresh and soft.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Later this spring, I'm taking a four day weekend to go back and visit family in Pittsburgh. I was planning on taking the Capitol Limited westbound. For the way back, I don't want to run the risk of getting caught with a late eastbound train for obvious reasons. I'm in no rush to get back and thought I'd treat myself to a trip I've wanted to do before as a birthday present.

I was going to take the Pennsylvanian to Philadelphia and then grab either a Northeast Regional to Alexandria or Acela to DC. Interestingly, its cheaper in total to take a Northeast Regional from Philadelphia to Alexandria than Philadelphia to DC and then taking the Metro to Alexandria (by $2.50). Here's where my questions come from:

1) Amtrak seems to want to make me take an hour and a half layover at Philly. There's a train departing for DC within half an hour of the scheduled arrival at Philadelphia. How is the Pennsylvanian for holding to the schedule if I wanted to book the closer time than what the Amtrak site wants me to?

2) Assuming its best to plan for the 90 minute-ish layover, how is the station there for hanging around that long? I've never got on or off a train there before. Just passed through.

While not as homey as our home station of ALX is, homey :hi: , PHL is one of the nicest stations in the Amtrak system.

For what its worth, TRAINS Magazine named PHL the best station in the system last year, though I don't know if I'd go quite that far - I prefer LAX - the train station NOT the airport. PHL has plenty to do for whiling away 90 minutes. IMHO, since you are not in a rush, take the 90 minute layover. I don't think Amtrak will guaruntee the shorter connection, so if you miss it and don't notify Amtrak before the connection leaves PHL, you'd be buying new tickets, and even if you did notify them, you'd be having to pay a higher fare. If you take the guarunteed connection, Amtrak's got you covered. So relax, don't don't worry about the connection, and enjoy PHL, neighbor!

 

[the_traveler]

I don't think there are any large sit down type restaurants

There is/was at least one. The AU Gang had lunch there on NTD 2 years ago!

 

[Texan Eagle]

As others have said, Philadelphia 30th Street is a beautiful impressive station and my favorite among what I have seen on the Amtrak network. If you are not in a hurry, I would suggest taking the 90 minute layover even if your connecting train comes in on-time and you have sufficient time to board the train departing in 30 minutes. Whenever I have been there, I have always felt like wanting to stay back in the huge concourse and the food court area for longer

 

[Acela150]

I don't think there are any large sit down type restaurants

There is/was at least one. The AU Gang had lunch there on NTD 2 years ago!

The bar in the corner of the food court??

 

[Alexandria Nick]

You guys (I assume guys) have been fairly helpful. I'm going to take the layover at Philadelphia.

From my recollections of passing through at dusk or night, I got the impression that its difficult or impossible to watch trains coming and going from the station itself. Is that accurate? More akin to NYP or WAS than Alexandria, Altoona, or even Pittsburgh.

 

[benjibear]

Yes, at Philadelphia you won't be able to watch trains coming and going. But the station is so beautiful you can just spin hours looking at all the detail, watch people moving about, and trying to imagine what the station was like in days past.

 

[FrankStar]

Bridgewater's Pub is, in my opinion, the best bar/restaurant inside a train station. They have a very impressive beer selection and the food is quite good. I go there even when I don't have a train to catch.

 

[Ryan]

I don't think there are any large sit down type restaurants

There is/was at least one. The AU Gang had lunch there on NTD 2 years ago!

The bar in the corner of the food court??

I'm pretty sure we were on the corner of the food court. We were sitting "outside" the main restaurant, in the hallway of the station in a little roped off area. Good grub.

 

[dlagrua]

I will also go with the option of the 90 minute layover at PHL as recommended in the many of the above posts. Philadelphia's 30th street station is one of the last remaining grand railroad stations in the Eastern USA, the other being WAS. It has many creature comforts to please the most discriminating traveler, fast food (and a food court), restaurant,coffee/espresso/donuts, a bar, newsstand, and many shops. With only 90 minutes to spare, I would not venture on the subway to center city. You just would not have enough time to do much and get back. If you get bored waiting at the station, its on the edge of the University City district. A few short blocks to the West you will find a whole bunch of college kids,a Starbucks, and a variety of restaurants serving all cuisines. You might find this website helpful. http://universitycity.org/ Walk down Market street about 6 blocks West and it takes you right into the heart of University City. Enjoy!

 

[FrankStar]

I don't think there are any large sit down type restaurants

There is/was at least one. The AU Gang had lunch there on NTD 2 years ago!

The bar in the corner of the food court??

I'm pretty sure we were on the corner of the food court. We were sitting "outside" the main restaurant, in the hallway of the station in a little roped off area. Good grub.

Yes, that was Bridgewater's.

 

[AlanB]

Love 30th street station...and the CA is great, though for some stupid reason they no longer have bottled water up there...at least not a couple weeks ago. I did write to CS and they responded basically saying HUH? No Bottled water? Perhaps they addressed that issue. I was in the station a couple days ago but didn't have time to hit the lounge..(since i am S+ i like to at least pop in for a soda and 'rest' lol)

you can eat, shop, chill....the station also has WiFi..so you can post here on AU!!

have fun....

No bottled water in CA??? The lead guy up keeps up with that stuff. Maybe they ran out of the bottles. But they wouldn't have a good excuse not to have any water.

I haven't seen bottled water in the Philly CA for over a year now, maybe even longer. They also got rid of it down in DC too. NY never had bottled water for as long as I've been riding and getting in there. Only Boston still seems to provide bottled water. Here's hoping that they keep doing so.

Now the Portland Metro Lounge has bottled water, but I've never seen any in Chicago & St. Louis, or the Magnolia room in New Orleans. I think that there was some in Miami's Metro Lounge, but I'm not positive.

 

[AlanB]

2) Assuming its best to plan for the 90 minute-ish layover, how is the station there for hanging around that long? I've never got on or off a train there before. Just passed through.

30th street is one of the most impressive stations in the Amtrak system. You can check out the station, check out the SEPTA boarding area on the upper tracks, plenty of places to get food. If you had more time, you could walk to the SEPTA Market-Frankford subway station and take the subway to see something of downtown Philly, but a 90 minute layover is way too short to attempt that. If you have never seen 30th Street, take the 90 minute plus layover and at least see the station.

You can't see much of downtown Philly from the underground subway. :lol:

However, if the idea is to get over to Center City and walk around to see the sites, then the correct answer is to avoid the subway where you have to pay. Instead, head upstairs at 30th Street to the SEPTA commuter rail and ride that 1 stop to Suburban Station and then walk around. It's free and its faster. Odds are that no conductor will ask for a ticket, but if they do you show your Amtrak ticket and that is considered as valid fare between 30th Street Station and the Market East Station. Suburban Station is in between the two.