Syracuse or Buffalo Depew station for Car rental

[jannie]

Going from Chicago -- We can either chose Buffalo-depew or Syracuse. We will be renting a car Then traveling to Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Wolfe Island. It looks like either way would work. The downside of Buffalo was we would be leaving from there at nearly midnight --- don't know anything about the train station there or location. The other option is Syracuse which leaves a little earlier 9:40 p.m. Here again don't know about train station.

1. Rental Car availability same either place or one better?

2. Having to wait several hours -- which best? Buffalo-Depew or Syracuse?

Thanks

 

[Blackwolf]

I can only speak of Buffalo, mainly because I've never been off the train through Syracuse.

I just did the car rental thing in Buffalo exactly one month ago today; I can say that it was extremely easy. I highly reccomend Enterprise Rent A Car at 3700 Genesee Street, which is a 5 minute car ride away from Buffalo/Depew Amtrak station. They came and picked us up from the station for no cost, the agents were very personable and rich with local information and suggestions, and the rental for one day was only $40 for an economy class car (we got a Chevy Cobalt.) You can get triple points for AGR (if you're a member) by renting through Enterprise right now too! Niagara Falls is extremely easy to get to, once you figure out the route through the City of Niagara Falls itself (its not very straightforward, if you can believe that!)

The office closes at 6 PM, but they have a night drop. We parked the car at 10:30 after having a fantastic meal at Duff's Hot Wings just down the street, dropped the keys into the drop box, and an $8 taxi ride took us back to the station for the westbound LSL. The station is not bad, if a touch dated (It's a 1970's era "AmShack" style.) The station is staffed, well lit, and easy to get to. The only thing that really sucked was the super late arrival of the train, and about 95% of the time, the LSL is running 30 minutes or more late through Buffalo. Just as a heads-up.

 

[jannie]

Thanks, looks like we'll need a map to get from station to Niagara Falls I saw about the triple points sounds like a great deal. Not sure if that's something I had to sign up for or not. we're in the Amtrak Rewards program, but often forget to take advantage of the partner deals. Thanks for the heads up on the late train.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

You could also probably take a bus from BUF to Niagara Falls. Rental cars are overpriced IMO.

 

[jannie]

Thanks, the bus might be a hassle to catch getting back that late in the evening to catch the train going back to Chicago. Otherwise the bus wouldn't be a bad way to go.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Yes and even in the middle of the day taking the city bus between the Amtrak station in Depew and getting to Niagara Falls, NY downtown wouldn't be the easiest thing on the planet. The closest bus stop is certanily in walking distance of the border, but it would be quite a hassle to walk across the border with luggage well actually now that I think about it would be pretty much impossible with a large suitecase since you walk through a revolving security gate at the base of the bridge as you begin your walk to Canada.

EDIT: That got a little off topic. I would say Buffalo Depew would be the best situation for rental cars. The train station and airport are pretty close to each other, so you could look into renting a car from there.

 

[savoirfaire]

For the rental car, I would choose Buffalo. It is literally down the street (~3 miles) from the Buffalo–Niagara Falls airport where you should be able to rent a car and get a relatively inexpensive cab to and fro at any hour. Syracuse really doesn't have the convenient infrastructure to make it easy to get a rental car, unless you take a cab to and from the Syracuse Airport (~7 mi). There is also an enterprise pretty close to the station that will pick you up, IIRC.

Waiting at the station? My bet would be Syracuse, if only because Carousel Center mall is pretty much across the street and it is a newish multimodal station with a Dunkin' Donuts and Subway. I have never waited for a train at Depew, so I can't speak to its status.

Have you considered doing a one-way car rental from Buffalo, returning to Syracuse (airport to airport? You can always check the major (Avis, Hertz) car rental agencies for these rates, which sometimes are the same or not much more than the normal rates renting and returning from the same place. You then get the benefit of seeing 2 different stations and basically doing a nice "loop" route during your travels.

 

[jannie]

Thanks, decided on Buffalo for convenience of rental car... will suffer through the near midnight wait at the station