NYC or Boston to Phoenix: Can’t get there from here?

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You could take the Sunset Limited to Maricopa. It only runs three days a week. Not sure if there is transportation to Phoenix.
 
My sister lives in Chandler, on the edge of Phoenix. Maricopa on the Sunset Limited is fairly close, she would pick me up, and as far as I know shuttle service to certain points in Phoenix is available. That being said, last time I visited, I went into Flagstaff, overnighted, and took Arizona Shuttle (it has a different name now) from the station to PHX Airport, my brother in law was leaving on a business trip, so I met him and took his car. Greyhound was also an option, the bus station is down the road, getting there is on you, but the shuttle schedule worked better for me. Going back, I got a one way rental, drove up t Flagstaff, there are some wonderful National Monuments on the way, visited the Lowell Observatory, and was able to drop the car across the street from the station. Car rental might be expensive now, when I did it it was pretty cheap.
 
I think the most direct route would be Lake Shore to Chicago, Texas Eagle from Chicago to Maricopa and then you would have to see about getting from Maricopa to Phoenix.

That is two poor food trains - Boston or NYC to Chicago and Chicago to San Antonio, followed by one decent food train - San Antonio to Maricopa.

The truth is that Phoenix is too small of a village to warrant first-rate Amtrak service or obviously it would be provided by Amtrak.
 
Rasputin said:
I think the most direct route would be Lake Shore to Chicago, Texas Eagle from Chicago to Maricopa and then you would have to see about getting from Maricopa to Phoenix.

That is two poor food trains - Boston or NYC to Chicago and Chicago to San Antonio, followed by one decent food train - San Antonio to Maricopa.

The truth is that Phoenix is too small of a village to warrant first-rate Amtrak service or obviously it would be provided by Amtrak.
Click to expand...
Love the sarcasm. Actually Phoenix is the largest city in the US without Amtrak service. I m surprised there isn't a direct shuttle to Phoenix or is there?
 
IIRC, the shuttle from Maricopa to Phx stopped running a while back. The 3-day-a-week schedule, plus poor timekeeping, must make this a very difficult route for any for-profit business to run.

If you're planning to rent a car in AZ, you might consider taking the TX Eagle to Tucson, an easy two hour drive from Phoenix. Better arrival times, although the westbound arrival last time I did this required a taxi to the airport for car rental.
 
FYI, PHX(the city) is the 6th largest city in America. That was news down here a few years back as it surpassed Philly. But what does the media know.

There was a bus from MCR to Sky Harbor, may need to check if it is still running.
 
I believe there is a pretty reliable shuttle from Flagstaff to Phoenix. While it's definitely a longer ride it is pretty scenic one as you drop down from a high elevation to the valley where Phoenix is located. Maybe for variety, go one way via the Sunset and Maricopa and the other way via SWC and Flagstaff.
 
You can get there via the Sunset Limited, but because that train only runs 3 times a week, you have to pick the "correct" starting day from NY to PHA (Phoenix) and select the Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix. I did a test booking starting in NY on Tuesday, but that did not give me the Sunset Limited option, only the SWC option with bus from Flagstaff to Phx. Then I tried a booking leaving NYC on Monday and was shown the Sunset Limited option in addition to the SWC option. It indicated that there is a van shuttle from Maricopa to the Phoenix airport (Sky Harbor). This routing did call for a more than eleven-hour layover in New Orleans which is an overnight layover, so that's pretty uncomfortable if you don't want to book a hotel. A lot of people coming that way plan for an extra day in New Orleans since it's a fun town anyway, they tell me. (It's still on my bucket list...one of these days, I 'll get there, I hope.)

As others have indicated, Maricopa is very close to Phoenix, only about 30 miles, but somehow Amtrak indicates that the van will take 1 hour to travel that 30 miles which I could understand if it was during busy traffic hours, but it's between 10:15 and 11:15 pm, so I don't get it.

And finally, the county that Phoenix is in is Maricopa county, not to be confused with the town of Maricopa where the Amtrak station is. However, the town of Maricopa is NOT in Maricopa county. Sort of like a situation here in NM where the town of Bernalillo is in Sandoval county, not Bernalillo county which is where Albuquerque is.
 
Weird, it doesn't. You can book a multisegment NYP-MRC via CHI then MRC-PHA. Although the connection technically isn't guaranteed, the van will wait for the train because of the people with guaranteed connections.
 
The LSL/TE route seems a lot more iffy than the Crescent/SL way, albeit, it is only 3 days a week. With the convenient overnight in NOL, the Superliner Lounge, the real food on the SL, and, I believe, better pricing, there is no worry about connections.
 

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