Last year I took my first Amtrak trip. A year later, I’m embarking upon my third. Essentially it was curiosity that took me for my first trip. Having used Germany’s ICE trains from Frankfurt to Berlin, Finland’s Bendalino and England’s commuter trains to and from Brighton, I wanted to see how Amtrak compared.
Despite the slower speed, 80 mph versus 155 mph of the ICE trains, the creature comforts are equal to if not nicer than the European counterparts. The seating is spacious and the Amtrak staff far more pleasant than that of their European colleagues. In fact, I’d have to say that a coach-class seat on Amtrak is a nice as Delta Air Lines Business Class to Europe!
Following my first Amtrak trip I decided to join the Amtrak Guest Rewards program which allows me to earn points towards future travel. I tend to be very attuned to these types of programs – my past two trips to Europe were accomplished using points from my Sky Miles account. I don’t necessarily go out of my way to earn points, but I’ve learned how to leverage my existing habits in order to do so.
One of the reasons I initially joined even though I hadn’t expected to be a regular Amtrak passenger, was to send a message to Amtrak that someone [else?] in Columbus is ready to embark upon enjoying reliable rail service – even if it means having to catch a train in Cincinnati or Cleveland.
There is a high probability that Amtrak will be serving Columbus very soon. ODOT and Amtrak studies demonstrate the the 3C corridor will serve hundreds of thousands of passengers annually, most of whom will be Ohioans. In preparation for the return of Amtrak service to Columbus why not sign up now and begin earning points towards your future travel. By doing so, you too can send a message to Amtrak that more and more people in Columbus are ready to travel by train.
There are numerous ways to earn points prior to stepping foot onto a train. Via the Amtrak Guest Rewards site, one can earn points by simply shopping for the things that one normally uses – a click-through service from the AGR site takes one to the merchants’ sites and there are over 150 every-day merchants to choose from.
Acela passengers (on North-East routes) receive extra points. I’m also pleased to know that passengers flying on Continental can earn Amtrak points and with Cleveland as a Continental hub, this will be yet another attractive tie-in for Columbus residents. I have to wonder why airlines in the North-East are still trying to compete with rail, when they could partner with Amtrak instead.
This coming weekend I return to Amtrak and this time I’ve booked accommodations to and from Chicago. It was considerably more expensive than simply booking a coach seat though cheaper than flying at such late notice. I’ll admit though, that I’m looking forward to being fully horizontal during my night rides – as well as being able to arrive back in Cleveland fully rested so as to drive into work following my arrival. I’ll be earning double points while I sleep!
I’ll rejoin you with an update following this trip and tell you more about the accommodations aboard Amtrak. In the mean time, have a look at Amtrak’s Capitol Limited photo pool on Flickr.
OK… so, I’m pretty opinionated on Amtrak since I take it quite a bit so here’s a few tidbits:
Amtrak service is great and I prefer it about 100x over air travel if available. If I’m going from Baltimore to Philadelphia or New York it’s incredible — it’s fast, it’s efficient and most importantly, it’s extremely comfortable. Also notable: the cafe is pretty cheap, especially compared with airport food/drinks. Also… no security lines and liquid restraints.
HOWEVER:
1. Amtrak service is slow when you’re not riding on a high-speed line. From DC all the way up to Boston you’re flying on a high-speed setup, so I can get from Baltimore to NYC (for example) in about 2 and a half hours, where if I were driving, it’d be double that. That’s great. But if I go from Baltimore to Richmond VA, for example, it’s a 4 hour train ride — arguably longer than if I drove.
2. Amtrak is not cheap. Although Amtrak is subsidized by the government, they still somehow have issues making a sizable profit. The fares are not competitive, especially compared to air travel in most cases, and I’m not sure the excessive cost justifies the comforts. If I’m taking a train from DC to Cincinnati and it’s 15 hours, I don’t want to pay more than it would cost to fly Delta from Baltimore to CVG. However, Amtrak is getting better about this… they now have advance purchase fares up the NE Corridor. I went to/from NYC recently for $100 round trip.
3. I’m going to disagree with the service, unless the people on the European trains beat you physically. I’ve been on a lot of Amtrak trains and the conductors are almost always (literally almost every example I’ve seen) extremely unpleasant. I’ve even seen a few conductors be shockingly rude to a customer on the train before — to the point where I was actually upset. I’m pretty surprised by your comment about their service.
OK, so things I like:
The cars are roomy. I am tall and need leg room and Amtrak definitely offers this.
There are plugs next to every seat… amazing.
Cafe is cheap and affordable… and they take credit cards.
Easy on, easy off and up/down the Northeast Corridor travel is quick and efficient, especially on Acela.
I really enjoy waiting in the old train stations — Baltimore Penn, Philly and NYC Penn are really cool.
I also prefer my fellow passengers on the trains. They tend to be in better moods and are more “hip”.
No checked bags. No weird no-liquid requirement.
OK I’m done. Honestly, I love Amtrak. I really do. If I could get one thing changed about them though, it would have to be the cost — I think it’s just crazy expensive to travel anywhere. If I wasn’t expensing most of my train trips, I doubt I’d have as many opportunities to take Amtrak.
If you’re taking Amtrak to Chicago, why not leave from Toledo instead of Cleveland? It’s about the same drive time from Columbus, but will save you some travel time on the train.
Amtrak and Continental do code share in and out of EWR.
Great post, Jeff. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Looking forward to the return of service to Columbus.
Personally, I don’t mind if the travel time via train is a bit longer than driving. I don’t really enjoy driving long distances, and I’ve driven enough times between Columbus & Cleveland for that route to be pretty boring anymore. I’d rather just ride and do something else while on the train.
Look at the seating in the first commercial. How nice would that be when traveling long distances with a family. You can sit and face each other and actually interact. Plus you are not confined to your seat.
I drive from Columbus to Rochester NY a few times a year, and with 2 kids it takes about 7 hours. Now I would be willing to sit in the train for 8 if it means I will not have kids melting and we can freely get up to use the restroom and get snacks. Oh, not to mention the fact that you don’t have to deal with the traffic.
I prefer to catch the train in Cleveland over Toledo because ‘staying up late’ to catch the train in Cleveland still offers a reasonable hour at which to go to sleep – versus staying up really late (or getting up really early) to catch it in Toledo. I view sleep time as a valued activity!
Additionally, I find the drive to Cleveland easier in that its interstate driving versus highway driving. But John, you’re right, it’s about the same distance.
Not a bad idea at all, Jeff. I am told that there are already well over 10,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards card holders in Ohio. It would be interesting to see how Amtrak and their bosses at USDOT would react to a surge of membership requests from the Buckeye State.
To alex b : Some of your criticisms are right on about service outside of the Northeast, but a lot of Amtrak’s slow trains, etc are both a function of railroad bottlenecks around places like Chicago…and the fact that Amtrak has been horribly and historically underfunded since it was created in 1971. The new federal transportation bill will fund Amtrak for the first time on a multi-year basis and that should at least begin to address a lot of equipment and service issues.
You should post your blog post on the 3C Is Me Facebook page and on Urbanohio.com.