When you take a plane, the destination is what the trip is all about, however, when you take a train, the journey is just as important as the destination. I love experiencing the journey. Trains are great!
Even as an avgeek, I agree. Rail is the best for medium distance, and it looks awesome! Although imo there's beauty on ground and above, there's nothing like seeing islands or desert from above, or especially the Arctic.
Rode the Floridian twice '78-'79 then it was gone[ Nashville through Jacksonville- Cocoa ... etc Please don'T intergrate the trains with other things so the fuds at the fed level can shut it ALL DOWN!!
For me, the destination is still the only goal when travelling by train, why speed, punctuality, and travel time are the only things that matter to me. I don’t even care about sleeping, eating, working, and watching or listening to entertainment on the train, cause I can’t relax, cause I have to keep an eye on when I have to get off the train. Cost benefit it is for me, removing bottlenecks, and doing everything as close to instantly as possible. Quality or mininalism doesn’t matter to me.
When you left Boston in the morning you were going opposite the direction of commuter traffic. Most people getting on in Boston at that hour would probably be heading to NYC so they would prefer the Acela. As you got closer to NYC you started to pick up commuters but it was already after rush hour. Once you got to NYC you picked up all the normal daytime traffic who missed the morning Acela and didn’t want to wait an hour, or wanted to go somewhere the Acela doesn’t serve. By the time you got to DC you were again heading opposite of the commuter traffic, which would be leaving the city. So by the nature of going end to end, you missed the most crowded times and segments. If you started in CT or NJ and went towards NYC at 7am, you’d see how crowded those trains can get. I did two years of that commute every day, an hour each way, and I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore!
Spot on. I take this line from Providence to Boston often at 7am. Completely different story (as is the return from Boston at 5pm-ish). Also, the T (MBTA) runs parallel commuter trains to and from Boston to PVD and other close cities. It's a little slower (because Amtrak owns the rails) but is cheaper. So a lot of people take those local trains instead. I know the same is true with the MTA in CT/NY/NJ.
You commuted on Amtrak? I strongly suspect you are conflating Amtrak with NJ Transit or Metro-North. Amtrak doesn't typically serve the daily commuter market. Also not sure why "most people...probably be heading to NYC so they would prefer the Acela". The Acela serves only a premium business traveler market. Most leisure travelers or small business persons take NE Regional.
I'm from London, UK and took the Northeast Regional as part of an itinerary across the USA (from DC to NYC) and was surprisingly impressed by the punctuality, comfort and speed of it considering I paid just $40 for a "coach" fare. was cheaper, more convenient and just about as quick as the plane.
@@lavaregion6968 Northeast regional was something like 3.5 hrs DC Union to NY Penn. DCA to JFK/EWR/LGA is 1hr 15 mins, lets say getting to the airport 2.5 hrs for check in/TSA etc, PLUS the travel time to city centres, i count it just about the same
@@lavaregion6968 I have taken the Northeast Regional many times. What Aeolian said isn't far from the truth. It all depends on how you look at it. I tend to use the "doorstep-to-doorstep" model, where EVERYTHING is taken into account. It may take longer by train, but there is more to do (TSA, luggage, etc) and more lines to stand in (this even includes taxiing to take-off and after landing) using airlines that REALLY eats up time. So using an airline only pays off the further away your destination is. Example: Rhode Island to downtown NYC: Train to Philadelphia: Train or car to Baltimore: Air (if I'm making connections and travelling further on), or train Also there are benefits of the train that weren't mentioned. On all Amtrak coaches, each seat has an electrical outlet which is quite nice.
@@ridesharegold6659 businesss class on the northeast regional is terrible as well, the price is completely unjustified and the seats are terrible. The only good amtrak business class is on their cafe / business class combination cars.
Exactly high-speed rail is effective at connecting communities. I mean China is a pretty big country and look how vast their system is! If they can do it, so can we! But like the rails that connect people, we need to come together, cooperate, and change perspectives in order to make the societal change America needs. Trains connected the country first before highways did, they're just as much of a part of American history as the revolution.
China has aproximately 4 times the population. the USA really needs to focus on its zoning and local public infrastructure before it throws too much money at rail. Probably need to learn from the mess in california too.
China has a much higher population density than the United States and the vast majority of the population lives in the eastern half of the country, where pretty much all of the railroads are. China is a unitary state with an authoritarian government. The quality of the structures and the working conditions are questionable. You either buy it nice or you buy it twice.
@@VieleGuteFahrer “questionable” yet the so called “questionable” high speed rail is much nicer than any US train I’ve seen. And sure they’re authoritarian but that just means they can just straight up build a system that size without opposition. While here, we have conservatives who don’t like change when change is inevitable. Point being, if China can build that massive, we can too. Size doesn’t matter. Stop making excuses for a stale system like the current US rail system
I typically take the northeast regional from Baltimore to NYC but last fall I took it all the way up to Boston. Absolutely incredible with the leaves changing color along that Connecticut/Rhode Island/Massachusetts stretch.
I just read on a travel blog this morning that the Ethan Allen Express (the "least travelled route" you recently traveled on) is being extended to Burlington, Vermont (which hasn't had rail service since 1953).
It looks like you take the Vermonter Train to Essex Junction, then take the bus to Burlington. Ethan Allen should open to Burlington at end of July, but I wonder if it will connect to the Vermonter line for more in-state possibilities.
@@sandal_thong8631 As a European looking at that I see a few other missed opportunities to make that an even better interchange there. Montreal-Boston for one there is a line running down that way which passes through there and they seem like they would both not only be large cities but hubs for further links. Providence, RI; Toronto, ON; Ottowa, ON I'd presume should all be reachable via changes at the Montreal or Boston ends etc. One small extension and one new service and you create a bunch of new routes this is how the network effect compounds on itself and makes a robust network often far more attractive than the sum of it's individual parts for the simple reason people can move from one train to another one.
FUN FACT : 11A is the seat that Via Rail reserves either for people traveling with their cat or who redeem a trip with points on the Québec-Montréal trains, so i've ridden 11A twice this month and will ride it again on July 1st with my cat Merri 💜
The running along the beach in Connecticut is a great part of the route. South Station was gutted in the late 1980s and only the façade remains. For a great station, check out 30th Street, Philadelphia inside and out!
I remember the interior of South Station in the 1970s. It wasn't anything special, as I recall. It had huge rolling track doors out to the train yard which often remained open in the winter because nobody would bother to take the time to shut them. Sitting in the station cold was brutal.
I am on the Northeast Regional almost on a monthly basis. Usually from Philadelphia to DC. I've done Philadelphia to Boston a few times so far. For us living along the Northeast corridor, train travel is the most practical way to travel between all the major cities in the Northeast United States. All 4 cities aren't that crazy far apart but still too far to drive and too short to fly. So train is practical.
Now that's a proper train running at proper speeds! I realize that the US needs more high speed rail for real effectiveness, but this was a decent start, from my European perspective 😁. Looking forward to the series! Very impressed that you'll travel all the way over to Alaska by rail!
There's a couple interesting rail trips inside Alaska. The main one was to Denali Park on the route between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Unfortunately, it was raining the day I went through there. The other one used to be the only way to get to Whittier by land until they opened a tunnel to cars. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much to see in Whittier.
HSR is just not economically sensible in the United States. You'll either need to be in the 1% to ride it or have governments that can't currently manage their budgets subsidize it heavily.
@@TheBaldr Car travel is heavily subsidized: roads, bridges, tunnels, and parking lots! I didn't think about parking lots, but recently learned zoning laws require lots and lots of parking spaces, reducing the property tax base when replacing a large building with a smaller one with its own parking lot. A bad investment. Also, reducing pollution by going from cars and planes to electric trains is a good investment. As someone said, replacing the auto fleet with electric cars won't stop global warming, but getting more people on trains could.
Northeast Regional is a real, proper commuter service. It's way affordable and it's plenty fast enough to feel like you're moving. Acela is cool for sure, and I can't help but feel attached to it, but unfortunately until the NEC is upgraded to allow it to go its full speed, it's more of a novelty than anything. That is not the case with the Northeast Regional.
Yeah when I explain to people that we have trains up here that can go 150 and even the "slower" amtrak trains on the corridor can do 125 it kind of surprises them. The Regional and the Acela are both pretty much longer distanced commuter trains, at least that's the way they're treated up here. Rarely people go Boston to DC, but instead do Boston-New Haven or NYC/ NHV-NYC/Philly, NYC-Philly/DC. Then you can understand why pre-pandemic the NEC had almost 13 million passengers Enjoyed the video, hope you have the chance to ride the Acela at some point
yeah Amtrak needs to seize the rest of the tracks they run on, the NEC shows what passenger rail can be in the USA. I went to a gaming convention a few years pre-COVID in Boston called PAX-East. Took Acela from Philly, Such a nice ride and even on sunday morning coming home the Acela was full all the way down. Kinda shocked me that it was full load on a sunday. I didnt want to drive to Boston(though I have) and have to pay to park, And by the time one goes through security theater at PHL, would a plane have been faster? probably not. Also Amtrak Acela remembers that humans have legs. Unlike an airline seating designer.
@@filanfyretracker Seizing the tracks will do good how? You cannot have NEC-level passengers without NEC density or historical affinity for using trains.
@@mirzaahmed6589 The NEC is the densest region of the US... but also has worse service than... Japan. Stop pointing out to the NEC for your inability for bad passenger trains elsewhere in the US, thank you.
High speed rail should replace all the other non northeast regional trains cause they are utterly useless and some copium wasting fools defend them it’s sad.
If you had stayed on the Northeast Regional in Washington DC, you would have ended your trip in Norfolk Virginia. That station is just a few minutes from our home. That is the train we take when going to Washington DC and New York. Once we took it to Baltimore to catch a cruise shop in that port. Love your channel, and am looking froward to your next adventure.
Hey Downie I just signed the petition for the high speed rail and I noticed they are at 92% so many signatures are still needed. Thank you for suggesting signing the petition and why it’s greatly needed. By the way I just discovered you when I was trying to get information on taking the Amtrak for the first time in my life. My trip is coming up in a few months. Thanks also for giving such detailed scoop of the train experiences and making it very entertaining as well!!!! 😊
The Northeast Regional isn‘t just one specific train line, but rather a network of lines with a common core, that being the NEC. Northeast Regionals also serve several destinations in Virginia, and I think some trains to Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA are also part of the Northeast Regional. That means the ridership numbers don’t apply to specific NE Regional services, but the whole range, making them higher than they might otherwise be.
But that style of service definitely works here. All these lines splintering off in DC, and again in New Haven, but all with that crucial core on the Northeast Corridor from New Haven to DC, just works. The NER may be a collection of lines, but it’s an effective collection that has largely captured the market between cities.
Every single train in the corridor once had a different name (inherited from PRR) until the 1990s when Amtrak unified the names (initially NortheastDirect, then Acela Regional, then just Regional, then its current name)
As someone originally from Delaware, I admit that I did get briefly excited when you mentioned Delaware. Also, I recently took a roomette from Wilmington to Miami and am planning a trip on the California Zephyr due to some inspiration from you and other train youtubers. Keep making the videos and I'll keep watching 😀
As profitable as Accela and NER are, I'm surprised that Amtrak hasn't done more to acquire more track corridors. It makes a big difference when you can set and keep your own schedules.
It’s because freight railroads won’t sell in most cases where it would make sense for Amtrak to buy. For example the Capital Corridor between San Jose and Sacramento in California is their 4th most popular line. It’s also one of the shortest lines at only around 130 miles. But Union Pacific would never sell the tracks at a low cost as they are the main tracks they use to connect the port of Oakland to the rest of the United States. Amtrak would likely have to make a deal with Union Pacific to build new tracks parallel to the existing ones if they wanted their own tracks.
I live in New Rochelle right now, and since I'm the last stop before Penn, sometimes it's tempting to ride, until I remember that if I didn't book ahead of time, it's (about) 4x the price of the Metro-North New Haven Line, which runs through New Rochelle and ends at Grand Central. Sometimes, though, that speed, and the convenience of not having to transfer via subway to Penn from Grand Central, makes it worth it. 🙏
We don't have high-speed rail yet (our southern half does though) but we do hope to be able to reopen the lines going south from Pyongyang to Seoul and beyond. We hoped this would happen with President Moon Jae-in when he was in charge of the south but alas, things got in the way. Northeast Regional trains can go fast because the Northeast Corridor is electrified (hence the wires). That's why people who live along lines that use diesel trains advocate for those lines to be electrified, because it makes a big difference.
Loved your last video about the least used Amtrak train route, so am really excited to watch this one!! Edit: I've taken the northeast regional many times from DC to NYC - an easy trip, and can be very cost effective if you buy early and then you don't have to worry about a car in the city.
Looking forward to the new 10 part series! in 2005 I travelled for 7 weeks on Amtrak, as a visitor, the rail pass was such a cheap way to get around, and adding Roomettes to the ticket made for excellent value... I travelled New York - Chicago - Seattle - San Francisco - LA - Chicago - New York - Washington DC - New York... One hell of a trip, but amazing!
America needs more light rail and subway. Love taking the train. Makes no sense to pay $5 a gas, pay for car insurance, pay a car payment when you can have a monthly rail pass.
South Station looks like its having construction done. Its a shame you didn't get to see the beautiful wood seating it used to have and the giant gorgeous clock. I used to go out of my way to go to South Station instead of a different one to get home from work each day. Love watching your videos!
I live in Norfolk, Va. We have at least 8 trains each day. Our trains only go North to or South from either New York or Boston. I've ridden that section of track many times. My next trip is DC in August/ September. Kind of wish we had a train that went West or South, but Amtrak has other priorities.
As a Boston-ite, I LOVE this route! Makes it so easy (and beautiful) to pop over to nearby towns in the area. Recently went to and from New Haven in a single day to visit a friend and didn't even have to take off work thanks to being able to work with the WiFi on the train.
As someone who has taken the commuter rail into and out of Boston's South Station for two decades now, I can assure you that the station has looked better and will look better again -- you visited right in the middle of a massive multi-year construction project that has definitely impacted the look and feel of the station itself. Hopefully you can try again in a few years to see the finished results!
I think you'll have a great time, Mike. So many things to see as you travel. If you do it like the Canada trip, you'll visit offbeat things in each city. We your fans will enjoy that.
Part of it's popularity has to be that it's only an hour longer to go by train than to drive. But if you think of an Amtrak route like NOLA to Chicago the time difference between driving and taking the train is huge even if it is bang on time.
@@FTrainProductions not to mention parking, having to stop for gas/to charge a long the way(its almost 450 miles,most cars have tanks for between 300 and 400 miles )
It's popular because (1) it's reasonably fast, compared with road traffic, (2) It runs through the most populated parts of the USA, running to exceedingly busy cities, and (3) the fares make it reasonable compared to the cost of driving and parking charges for those journeys.
Amtrak ridership is still heavily down in the post-Covid world, so on top of going the "wrong way" with your train goes a long way to explaining why it's relatively quiet for you. Enjoyed the vid!
The Northeasst Regional actually continues on down to Norfolk VA. And BTW I sat in seat 11A from NYC to Norfolk about three weeks ago. Love your series. Also, in DC the train changes from electric to diesel.
I can't wait for this series ... I used to live in Boston and AuBonPain pumpkin muffins are the best... I used the subway, commuter rail and train systems to the fullest... Washington DC station - beautiful.... Again - Thank you for all this !!!
Hey mike! I’m born and raised from Victoria, BC, now live in Boston for work. Just want to say I love your channel, fellow train enthusiast and love vicariously living through your journeys. Keep up the great work dude!! If back in Boston, try out the Downeaster (going up to Maine), Portland is a fun detour :)
Yes and in the summer you can take the train to Old Orchard beach Maine which I think is the unofficial Vacation capitol for Canada. I swear everyone there is from Canada! Great beach, great waves, giant boardwalk. Good times
For an interesting experience, go from Washington DC to Boston's South Station, take the MBTA from South Station to North Station, and then take the Downeaster to Maine....
Just rode the Northeast Regional end to end both ways last week. It gets pretty packed on the weekend, and the mac and cheese from the cafe car is solid
Tip for not sloshing your coffee while opening the automatic doors: there’s a “kick plate” button near the floor that acts the same as the one at hand level.
I used to travel between Boston and Old Saybrook, CT on this line in the 80s while attending college and my grandfather traveled the same route from New York to Boston during WWII when he served in the Navy...of course, his train would have been pulled by a steam locomotive but still kind of neat to ride the same rails as your grandpa!
Looking forward to your US travel series! I learned a lot from your Canadian one. I've not been on the same train but I took the same route, Charlotte NC to Washington DC to NYC and a different train on the same route on the return.
So excited for the ten day trip!!! As a Canadian that has never seen much of Canada, you inspired me to travel across the country to experience more of the culture and beauty that we have here. Not only that, but you’ve inspired me to vlog those experiences so that I could show other exactly what you’ve shown me! I can’t wait to see your next adventures Michael!
Unfortunate that Amtrak doesn't tell you about reduced window visibility, here Deutsche Bahn always tells you if you have reduced window access with your seat.
I used to live in New Carrolton and used it to visit my aunt in Wilmington DE. I loved taking the Amtrak with my mom. We also used it to travel to Baltimore for a part time job she used to have.
Just looked it up and did some research, the southernmost station in the US is dadeland south, but the most southern “actual train” station is bright-line Miami central
Take this route all the time. However when the Amtrak is passing through CT especially the Metro North commuter corridor, the tracks are owned partially by the CT DOT and the MTA.
Actually the last stop in Rhode Island is West Kingston, Rhode Island. When my wife and I visit family in Rhode Island. We take Amtrak to New York but like in my last post, from Boston to Providence.
Downie, not only do you make top tier entertaining content for me and others to watch for free but you've also educated me and others about Canada (my favorite series) and another great way of travel that personally I'd forgot about since I've only been on two trains as a kid.
I grew up along the Northeast Corridor. Dad commuted by train every day from New Jersey to Penn Station. Riding the Northeast Corridor trains is definitely a way to see a lot of states quickly, but it also has a very different feel than the longer-haul parts of the network. More people riding for business/school rather than for adventure. The NE Corridor tracks are the best. Smooth, and fairly straight for the purposes of running the Acela (which I must admit I could never justify paying extra for, because it's just not THAT much faster than the regular service). And as you point out, no need to play second fiddle to freight trains as in most of the US. Glad to hear you got to do coast-to-coast on VIA Rail after this. In 1995, I took the Cardinal then the Empire Builder across the top of the US in late summer, and then a couple weeks later, took an early Talgo Train (still in testing?) from Seattle to Vancouver and then traveled back east on VIA Rail. Great stuff. I remember how enthusiastic one of the station staff in Richmond, Virginia, was when I told him I was going by train to Seattle, then up to Vancouver, and then across Canada to get home. Alfred asked, "Oooh! Are you going to take the Talgo train? I'm jealous! I want to ride the Talgo." How did you take a Cascades service and not take a Talgo train? :-( Are they not in service any longer? (If you haven't taken a Talgo train, please try to do so before they all disappear. They feel different, because the axis of rotation of the cars on curves IS NOT at ground level... it's above that. It's cool. Very Pacific Northwest in terms of being a quirky thing that as far as I know, the rest of the country doesn't have.
Mike, It's nice to see you departing from my old stomping grounds. Before retiring from my job as a firefighter in Shrewsbury, which is my home town, for a few years I had a part time job driving a motorcoach for an interstate bus company based in Springfield, Ma. At the time, the company had an operating division just outside Worcester, so I was in and out of South Station a lot. When does "Travels By Train USA" start? I watched the first season of the show, and didn't miss an episode. I'm looking forward to the second season.
I like that the highspeed rail aliance have a picture of a swedish commuter train. It is called a pågatåg and operates in the most souhern part of sweden
Amtrak's first order of coaches and buffets cars, called Amfleet and Amfleet II cars, is based on the PRR Metroliner architecture, designed in the early 1960s. I rode the Metroliner from Penn Station to Washington Union Station in 1970. The top speed of that service was 125 mph. So that may be why your coach is riding so well at 110 mph.
I take this train a couple of times a year. I live in DC and have friends in Boston. I love it. If I book in advance, it's cheaper than flying; TSA doesn't create delays. In practice, if I include the difference in time between downtown and the airport, it's only an hour faster to fly.
Oh yes, Downie is back with Amtrak! Something I should say about Acela is that its fast but it doesn’t let you get a big adventure unlike the Northeast Regional
I actually have pretty severe anxiety for traveling by train, yet strangely your videos are so relaxing to me and make me feel like I can also do this one day. I guess what I want to say is thank you for making these videos, and for taking us along on your adventures. You're making me want to challenge myself and go ride a train again, and that's huge!
One of the best things about traveling by train are the people you meet. When flying, you get people who are anxious, rude, eager to get where they're going and miserable from being packed in like sardines. On trains, you have room at your seat (or in your cabin if you get one), you can move around (just be careful if the train is moving), and you can eat a meal sitting down with people who are not in a hurry and rude. I've traveled all over the US by train myself, and met maybe a handful of unhappy people in a dozen years of doing it. I've enjoyed a lot of good company, made friends, and relaxed watching beautiful scenery go by. Yes, you get some bouncing around from the rails, but you get used to it and it's not as bad as turbulence in the air.
Haha I was on the NE Regional from Boston to NYC just last month!! Very good value when booked in advance and so much less hassle going city centre to city centre cf flying 👍 Your new series crossing America sounds great, looking forward to it.
One of the reasons for the high counts on the NE Regional is that it is multiple trains leaving at different times. Between NYC and Philly we hit the highest speed that we traveled in the oldest Budd Stainless car that met Amtrak's specs. We hit 115 MPH although the limit for the car was supposed to be 110MPH. We had left Boston's South Station like you did with the engineer being told that by the conductor as the engineer wondered if he was going to be limited to 90MPH as some older private passenger cars are.
Amtrak owns the whole line Northeast Corridor b/c it was built by the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, was merged with the New York Central into the Penn Central Railroad in the late 1960s, then when that conglomerate came to its untimely wreck, Amtrak was established to pick up the pieces that carried passengers. Interesting detail: the only reason that Amtrak can run medium speed rail- on an international scale, Acela is hardly high speed- on the NEC is that the Pennsy did a systemwide upgrade... in the 1930s. That tells you two things: the Pennsy was bloody INCREDIBLE- it's not for nothing that they called themselves the "Standard of the World"- and that the US DESPERATELY needs to upgrade its passenger rail network.
Boston to Washington DC is an area known as a megalopolis, essentially a continuous city. If you look at it on a world at night type map you’ll see the solid lights up the east coast. I’m super excited for the Florida to Alaska!!
LOL, I liked your comment at the end about not calling it the most popular after understanding that it is the most used because of its commuter need. I am also looking forward the 10 episode across America.
30th St. Station in Philly is perpetually damp. Something to do with being directly next to the river, with the station base being just above the waterline by a few feet... :D
Parts of the ride from Boston to New York are fun, along the water in the fog. The Northeast Regionals change to diesel and continue south into Virginia (there is a station a mile from where I live.) Can't wait for the ride from corner to corner.
In business class of Northeast regional, you have the choice of selecting your seat. So, next time you can choose a seat with full window view if the car is not sold out.
i definitely do not giv a fuck abt building highspeed rail when states will tax their citizens into poverty to do it, and then charge 100/ticket to ride it. Its extremely near sighted and childish for you to excitedly promote building of new rail like its asking disney to build a new star wars ride. There are so many issues at the state and city level that lead to unwalkability in our cities, which then makes building HSR nonpriority. Just signing you email to some vague list saying "pwetty pwease i wike twains" does nothing but give the state to have a reason to destroy our lives with those said taxes.
It’s the most popular for a very good reason! It connects Boston, NYC, Philly & DC which are USs top business, financial and political centers! It’s also cheaper and usually faster than flying or driving between them I work in NYC for a company that frequently meets with politicians and embassies and I’m constantly booking my boses trips on either Acela or NE. Regional! They leave in the morning, get their meetings down in DC, and are back in NYC for dinner!
I travel this train often because I-95 sucks so bad, especially in the summer. The seats are nice and cushy, and the interior is dimly lit compared to a commuter train, which makes the ride relaxing.
was waiting specifically for Philly!!!! a philadelphia station being mysteriously wet while covered is the most on-brand Philadelphia thing I've ever heard!
We are so looking forward to your next train adventures in the U.S A. Let us know when you come to Northern Ca. We would Love to meet you!!! We hope that you and your family stay safe and well!
You're definitely the long distance version of Distant Signal...Very entertaining and informative.You focus on things most wouldn't even notice and draw their interest.Its all in how you tell your story ❤💯❤💯
South Station is under construction. It used to have more seating than what you saw. The whole part that is blocked off, used to be doors going out to the tracks. Whenever they get done building the tower above, it should look very nice.
When you take a plane, the destination is what the trip is all about, however, when you take a train, the journey is just as important as the destination. I love experiencing the journey. Trains are great!
Facts. Trains give you a way more valuable experience
Even as an avgeek, I agree. Rail is the best for medium distance, and it looks awesome! Although imo there's beauty on ground and above, there's nothing like seeing islands or desert from above, or especially the Arctic.
Rode the Floridian twice '78-'79 then it was gone[ Nashville through Jacksonville- Cocoa ... etc Please don'T intergrate the trains with other things so the fuds at the fed level can shut it ALL DOWN!!
Newark to Singapore.
For me, the destination is still the only goal when travelling by train, why speed, punctuality, and travel time are the only things that matter to me. I don’t even care about sleeping, eating, working, and watching or listening to entertainment on the train, cause I can’t relax, cause I have to keep an eye on when I have to get off the train. Cost benefit it is for me, removing bottlenecks, and doing everything as close to instantly as possible. Quality or mininalism doesn’t matter to me.
When you left Boston in the morning you were going opposite the direction of commuter traffic. Most people getting on in Boston at that hour would probably be heading to NYC so they would prefer the Acela.
As you got closer to NYC you started to pick up commuters but it was already after rush hour. Once you got to NYC you picked up all the normal daytime traffic who missed the morning Acela and didn’t want to wait an hour, or wanted to go somewhere the Acela doesn’t serve.
By the time you got to DC you were again heading opposite of the commuter traffic, which would be leaving the city.
So by the nature of going end to end, you missed the most crowded times and segments. If you started in CT or NJ and went towards NYC at 7am, you’d see how crowded those trains can get. I did two years of that commute every day, an hour each way, and I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore!
Great explanation, I was so confused why it wasn’t that full
how much did that cost, hope it was a job covered expense
Spot on. I take this line from Providence to Boston often at 7am. Completely different story (as is the return from Boston at 5pm-ish). Also, the T (MBTA) runs parallel commuter trains to and from Boston to PVD and other close cities. It's a little slower (because Amtrak owns the rails) but is cheaper. So a lot of people take those local trains instead. I know the same is true with the MTA in CT/NY/NJ.
Another reason is that they had more riders in 2019 then 2022.
You commuted on Amtrak? I strongly suspect you are conflating Amtrak with NJ Transit or Metro-North. Amtrak doesn't typically serve the daily commuter market. Also not sure why "most people...probably be heading to NYC so they would prefer the Acela". The Acela serves only a premium business traveler market. Most leisure travelers or small business persons take NE Regional.
I'm from London, UK and took the Northeast Regional as part of an itinerary across the USA (from DC to NYC) and was surprisingly impressed by the punctuality, comfort and speed of it considering I paid just $40 for a "coach" fare. was cheaper, more convenient and just about as quick as the plane.
what do you mean "just as quick as a plane"? Planes can do this trip in a quarter of the time
@@lavaregion6968 Northeast regional was something like 3.5 hrs DC Union to NY Penn. DCA to JFK/EWR/LGA is 1hr 15 mins, lets say getting to the airport 2.5 hrs for check in/TSA etc, PLUS the travel time to city centres, i count it just about the same
@@lavaregion6968 the plane ride itself, but not all of the collateral activities associated with air travel.
@@lavaregion6968 I have taken the Northeast Regional many times. What Aeolian said isn't far from the truth. It all depends on how you look at it.
I tend to use the "doorstep-to-doorstep" model, where EVERYTHING is taken into account. It may take longer by train, but there is more to do (TSA, luggage, etc) and more lines to stand in (this even includes taxiing to take-off and after landing) using airlines that REALLY eats up time. So using an airline only pays off the further away your destination is.
Example:
Rhode Island to downtown NYC: Train
to Philadelphia: Train or car
to Baltimore: Air (if I'm making connections and travelling further on), or train
Also there are benefits of the train that weren't mentioned. On all Amtrak coaches, each seat has an electrical outlet which is quite nice.
@@AAeolian yea that’s fair. The hassle of going to and from the airport can be painful
6:46 from my experiences, coach class on the northeast regional is much more packed than business class.
Absolutely true. The only reason you pay business class fare on Northeast regional is because Acela doesn't stop at your station..
@@ridesharegold6659 businesss class on the northeast regional is terrible as well, the price is completely unjustified and the seats are terrible. The only good amtrak business class is on their cafe / business class combination cars.
@@ridesharegold6659 And to get away from noisy kids. Otherwise, coach is a great value with super comfortable seats.
Exactly high-speed rail is effective at connecting communities. I mean China is a pretty big country and look how vast their system is! If they can do it, so can we! But like the rails that connect people, we need to come together, cooperate, and change perspectives in order to make the societal change America needs. Trains connected the country first before highways did, they're just as much of a part of American history as the revolution.
China has aproximately 4 times the population. the USA really needs to focus on its zoning and local public infrastructure before it throws too much money at rail. Probably need to learn from the mess in california too.
As Americans, we clearly don't care that much about trains.
China has a much higher population density than the United States and the vast majority of the population lives in the eastern half of the country, where pretty much all of the railroads are.
China is a unitary state with an authoritarian government. The quality of the structures and the working conditions are questionable. You either buy it nice or you buy it twice.
@@VieleGuteFahrer “questionable” yet the so called “questionable” high speed rail is much nicer than any US train I’ve seen. And sure they’re authoritarian but that just means they can just straight up build a system that size without opposition. While here, we have conservatives who don’t like change when change is inevitable. Point being, if China can build that massive, we can too. Size doesn’t matter. Stop making excuses for a stale system like the current US rail system
@@AverytheCubanAmerican Then please. Move to China and don’t come back. It’s concerning how you just ignore all the points I've mentioned.
Absolutely can't wait for the 10 episode train journey. Looking forward to it!
I typically take the northeast regional from Baltimore to NYC but last fall I took it all the way up to Boston. Absolutely incredible with the leaves changing color along that Connecticut/Rhode Island/Massachusetts stretch.
These videos are awesome, the editing and commentary is super engaging
Wow! Fancy meeting you here…
I just read on a travel blog this morning that the Ethan Allen Express (the "least travelled route" you recently traveled on) is being extended to Burlington, Vermont (which hasn't had rail service since 1953).
If you saw his previous video he mentions that. 🚅
It looks like you take the Vermonter Train to Essex Junction, then take the bus to Burlington. Ethan Allen should open to Burlington at end of July, but I wonder if it will connect to the Vermonter line for more in-state possibilities.
@@sandal_thong8631 As a European looking at that I see a few other missed opportunities to make that an even better interchange there. Montreal-Boston for one there is a line running down that way which passes through there and they seem like they would both not only be large cities but hubs for further links. Providence, RI; Toronto, ON; Ottowa, ON I'd presume should all be reachable via changes at the Montreal or Boston ends etc. One small extension and one new service and you create a bunch of new routes this is how the network effect compounds on itself and makes a robust network often far more attractive than the sum of it's individual parts for the simple reason people can move from one train to another one.
FUN FACT : 11A is the seat that Via Rail reserves either for people traveling with their cat or who redeem a trip with points on the Québec-Montréal trains, so i've ridden 11A twice this month and will ride it again on July 1st with my cat Merri 💜
I love cats but I hope you have your cat in a carrier.
The running along the beach in Connecticut is a great part of the route. South Station was gutted in the late 1980s and only the façade remains. For a great station, check out 30th Street, Philadelphia inside and out!
👍👍👍 yes it is. I think it’s up there with Chicago Union And Los Angeles union
@@williamerazo3921 lol keep up the cope
I remember the interior of South Station in the 1970s. It wasn't anything special, as I recall. It had huge rolling track doors out to the train yard which often remained open in the winter because nobody would bother to take the time to shut them. Sitting in the station cold was brutal.
@@JohnnyAngel8 Pretty much an open shed with wind-tunnel effects! There's are some good internal shots about the web.
@@pmichael73 Exactly. One time I was stuck there for 10 hours waiting for a train home after the Blizzard of '78.
I am on the Northeast Regional almost on a monthly basis. Usually from Philadelphia to DC. I've done Philadelphia to Boston a few times so far. For us living along the Northeast corridor, train travel is the most practical way to travel between all the major cities in the Northeast United States. All 4 cities aren't that crazy far apart but still too far to drive and too short to fly. So train is practical.
Well, our highways are often very congested, so rail is the only sane option for many trips, especially when traveling solo.
Now that's a proper train running at proper speeds! I realize that the US needs more high speed rail for real effectiveness, but this was a decent start, from my European perspective 😁. Looking forward to the series! Very impressed that you'll travel all the way over to Alaska by rail!
There's a couple interesting rail trips inside Alaska. The main one was to Denali Park on the route between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Unfortunately, it was raining the day I went through there. The other one used to be the only way to get to Whittier by land until they opened a tunnel to cars. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much to see in Whittier.
HSR is just not economically sensible in the United States. You'll either need to be in the 1% to ride it or have governments that can't currently manage their budgets subsidize it heavily.
@@TheBaldr Car travel is heavily subsidized: roads, bridges, tunnels, and parking lots! I didn't think about parking lots, but recently learned zoning laws require lots and lots of parking spaces, reducing the property tax base when replacing a large building with a smaller one with its own parking lot. A bad investment.
Also, reducing pollution by going from cars and planes to electric trains is a good investment. As someone said, replacing the auto fleet with electric cars won't stop global warming, but getting more people on trains could.
Northeast Regional is a real, proper commuter service. It's way affordable and it's plenty fast enough to feel like you're moving. Acela is cool for sure, and I can't help but feel attached to it, but unfortunately until the NEC is upgraded to allow it to go its full speed, it's more of a novelty than anything. That is not the case with the Northeast Regional.
At one time the NEC was the fastest passenger train in the world.
Yeah when I explain to people that we have trains up here that can go 150 and even the "slower" amtrak trains on the corridor can do 125 it kind of surprises them. The Regional and the Acela are both pretty much longer distanced commuter trains, at least that's the way they're treated up here. Rarely people go Boston to DC, but instead do Boston-New Haven or NYC/ NHV-NYC/Philly, NYC-Philly/DC. Then you can understand why pre-pandemic the NEC had almost 13 million passengers
Enjoyed the video, hope you have the chance to ride the Acela at some point
yeah Amtrak needs to seize the rest of the tracks they run on, the NEC shows what passenger rail can be in the USA.
I went to a gaming convention a few years pre-COVID in Boston called PAX-East. Took Acela from Philly, Such a nice ride and even on sunday morning coming home the Acela was full all the way down. Kinda shocked me that it was full load on a sunday.
I didnt want to drive to Boston(though I have) and have to pay to park, And by the time one goes through security theater at PHL, would a plane have been faster? probably not. Also Amtrak Acela remembers that humans have legs. Unlike an airline seating designer.
@@filanfyretracker Seizing the tracks will do good how? You cannot have NEC-level passengers without NEC density or historical affinity for using trains.
@@mirzaahmed6589 The NEC is the densest region of the US... but also has worse service than... Japan. Stop pointing out to the NEC for your inability for bad passenger trains elsewhere in the US, thank you.
Love the series! USA needs more high speed rail!
High speed rail should replace all the other non northeast regional trains cause they are utterly useless and some copium wasting fools defend them it’s sad.
@@qjtvaddict, the only fool here is _you_ .
@@qjtvaddict Lol
@@qjtvaddict Huh? That makes zero sense. What are you even saying?
If you had stayed on the Northeast Regional in Washington DC, you would have ended your trip in Norfolk Virginia. That station is just a few minutes from our home. That is the train we take when going to Washington DC and New York. Once we took it to Baltimore to catch a cruise shop in that port. Love your channel, and am looking froward to your next adventure.
Hey Downie I just signed the petition for the high speed rail and I noticed they are at 92% so many signatures are still needed. Thank you for suggesting signing the petition and why it’s greatly needed. By the way I just discovered you when I was trying to get information on taking the Amtrak for the first time in my life. My trip is coming up in a few months. Thanks also for giving such detailed scoop of the train experiences and making it very entertaining as well!!!! 😊
The Northeast Regional isn‘t just one specific train line, but rather a network of lines with a common core, that being the NEC. Northeast Regionals also serve several destinations in Virginia, and I think some trains to Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA are also part of the Northeast Regional. That means the ridership numbers don’t apply to specific NE Regional services, but the whole range, making them higher than they might otherwise be.
But that style of service definitely works here. All these lines splintering off in DC, and again in New Haven, but all with that crucial core on the Northeast Corridor from New Haven to DC, just works. The NER may be a collection of lines, but it’s an effective collection that has largely captured the market between cities.
Every single train in the corridor once had a different name (inherited from PRR) until the 1990s when Amtrak unified the names (initially NortheastDirect, then Acela Regional, then just Regional, then its current name)
@@RAdaltonracer Not denying that, but I just wanted to clarify that “Northeast Regional” is not a pure A-to-B operation.
As someone originally from Delaware, I admit that I did get briefly excited when you mentioned Delaware. Also, I recently took a roomette from Wilmington to Miami and am planning a trip on the California Zephyr due to some inspiration from you and other train youtubers. Keep making the videos and I'll keep watching 😀
Can’t wait for the 10 part US train series! Loved the Canada series!!
As profitable as Accela and NER are, I'm surprised that Amtrak hasn't done more to acquire more track corridors. It makes a big difference when you can set and keep your own schedules.
It’s because freight railroads won’t sell in most cases where it would make sense for Amtrak to buy. For example the Capital Corridor between San Jose and Sacramento in California is their 4th most popular line. It’s also one of the shortest lines at only around 130 miles. But Union Pacific would never sell the tracks at a low cost as they are the main tracks they use to connect the port of Oakland to the rest of the United States. Amtrak would likely have to make a deal with Union Pacific to build new tracks parallel to the existing ones if they wanted their own tracks.
Because unfortunately Amtrak doesn’t have the money for that
I live in New Rochelle right now, and since I'm the last stop before Penn, sometimes it's tempting to ride, until I remember that if I didn't book ahead of time, it's (about) 4x the price of the Metro-North New Haven Line, which runs through New Rochelle and ends at Grand Central.
Sometimes, though, that speed, and the convenience of not having to transfer via subway to Penn from Grand Central, makes it worth it. 🙏
We don't have high-speed rail yet (our southern half does though) but we do hope to be able to reopen the lines going south from Pyongyang to Seoul and beyond. We hoped this would happen with President Moon Jae-in when he was in charge of the south but alas, things got in the way.
Northeast Regional trains can go fast because the Northeast Corridor is electrified (hence the wires). That's why people who live along lines that use diesel trains advocate for those lines to be electrified, because it makes a big difference.
You learned a lot from Switzerland haven’t you
@@peskypigeonx 😅🤣 i expected him to suggest nuclear trains !
Sorry, i meant ' dictate'
@@peskypigeonx rail electrification is pretty intense in Switzerland. So yep
Gouda cheese and porn is no way to go through life, Kim Jong-Un.
Loved your last video about the least used Amtrak train route, so am really excited to watch this one!!
Edit: I've taken the northeast regional many times from DC to NYC - an easy trip, and can be very cost effective if you buy early and then you don't have to worry about a car in the city.
It's funny, because it's just a spur off the Albany route and it leaves NYC after 2PM. Someone said it's for ski service.
Looking forward to the new 10 part series! in 2005 I travelled for 7 weeks on Amtrak, as a visitor, the rail pass was such a cheap way to get around, and adding Roomettes to the ticket made for excellent value... I travelled New York - Chicago - Seattle - San Francisco - LA - Chicago - New York - Washington DC - New York... One hell of a trip, but amazing!
America needs more light rail and subway. Love taking the train. Makes no sense to pay $5 a gas, pay for car insurance, pay a car payment when you can have a monthly rail pass.
South Station looks like its having construction done. Its a shame you didn't get to see the beautiful wood seating it used to have and the giant gorgeous clock. I used to go out of my way to go to South Station instead of a different one to get home from work each day. Love watching your videos!
I live in Norfolk, Va. We have at least 8 trains each day. Our trains only go North to or South from either New York or Boston. I've ridden that section of track many times. My next trip is DC in August/ September. Kind of wish we had a train that went West or South, but Amtrak has other priorities.
As a Boston-ite, I LOVE this route! Makes it so easy (and beautiful) to pop over to nearby towns in the area. Recently went to and from New Haven in a single day to visit a friend and didn't even have to take off work thanks to being able to work with the WiFi on the train.
Also, Providence is worth a longer stop for sure!
My wife and I rode Acela Amtrak. I looked at the mobile speed app showing 151 MPH last Sept 2019. Thumbs up! Cheers!
As a train geek myself, I truely love your train related videos! Please keep them coming! Thanks for sharing, and amazing work likes always, Mike.
As someone who has taken the commuter rail into and out of Boston's South Station for two decades now, I can assure you that the station has looked better and will look better again -- you visited right in the middle of a massive multi-year construction project that has definitely impacted the look and feel of the station itself. Hopefully you can try again in a few years to see the finished results!
I think you'll have a great time, Mike. So many things to see as you travel. If you do it like the Canada trip, you'll visit offbeat things in each city. We your fans will enjoy that.
You just made my week with that announcement! 10 great train adventures episodes from the best Canadian UA-camr!!
Part of it's popularity has to be that it's only an hour longer to go by train than to drive.
But if you think of an Amtrak route like NOLA to Chicago the time difference between driving and taking the train is huge even if it is bang on time.
And then if you factor in I-95 traffic, it can potentially be a time saver to take the train, especially between New York and Washington.
@@FTrainProductions not to mention parking, having to stop for gas/to charge a long the way(its almost 450 miles,most cars have tanks for between 300 and 400 miles )
LOVE the NER!! Great value and still pretty fast (for North America at least, lol). I've gotten some insane deals
I took this train about 3 years ago to NYC from CT, it was my first time on a train and I was very impressed.
It's popular because (1) it's reasonably fast, compared with road traffic, (2) It runs through the most populated parts of the USA, running to exceedingly busy cities, and (3) the fares make it reasonable compared to the cost of driving and parking charges for those journeys.
Amtrak ridership is still heavily down in the post-Covid world, so on top of going the "wrong way" with your train goes a long way to explaining why it's relatively quiet for you. Enjoyed the vid!
10:19 "Smoked 'em" was perfect comedic pitch and timing.😂
Yet another reason we love that you let us travel with you!
The Northeasst Regional actually continues on down to Norfolk VA. And BTW I sat in seat 11A from NYC to Norfolk about three weeks ago. Love your series. Also, in DC the train changes from electric to diesel.
I can't wait for this series ... I used to live in Boston and AuBonPain pumpkin muffins are the best... I used the subway, commuter rail and train systems to the fullest... Washington DC station - beautiful.... Again - Thank you for all this !!!
Hey mike! I’m born and raised from Victoria, BC, now live in Boston for work. Just want to say I love your channel, fellow train enthusiast and love vicariously living through your journeys. Keep up the great work dude!! If back in Boston, try out the Downeaster (going up to Maine), Portland is a fun detour :)
Yes and in the summer you can take the train to Old Orchard beach Maine which I think is the unofficial Vacation capitol for Canada. I swear everyone there is from Canada! Great beach, great waves, giant boardwalk. Good times
For an interesting experience, go from Washington DC to Boston's South Station, take the MBTA from South Station to North Station, and then take the Downeaster to Maine....
Just rode the Northeast Regional end to end both ways last week. It gets pretty packed on the weekend, and the mac and cheese from the cafe car is solid
Nice video! I just took the Acela from Washington to Boston for spring break. The Regionals we saw along the way were absolutely packed.
Tip for not sloshing your coffee while opening the automatic doors: there’s a “kick plate” button near the floor that acts the same as the one at hand level.
Great video Mike! Can't wait for the 10 day train ride from Florida to Alaska!
I used to travel between Boston and Old Saybrook, CT on this line in the 80s while attending college and my grandfather traveled the same route from New York to Boston during WWII when he served in the Navy...of course, his train would have been pulled by a steam locomotive but still kind of neat to ride the same rails as your grandpa!
Looking forward to your US travel series! I learned a lot from your Canadian one. I've not been on the same train but I took the same route, Charlotte NC to Washington DC to NYC and a different train on the same route on the return.
3rd state of the day and you hadn’t even finished your coffee🤣
And the way you managed opening the door with your coffee was priceless!
😁
So excited for the ten day trip!!! As a Canadian that has never seen much of Canada, you inspired me to travel across the country to experience more of the culture and beauty that we have here. Not only that, but you’ve inspired me to vlog those experiences so that I could show other exactly what you’ve shown me! I can’t wait to see your next adventures Michael!
It's a 10 episode trip. It will take me a lot longer than 10 days to film it.
@@DownieLive Whoops, ten episode is what I meant lol
Unfortunate that Amtrak doesn't tell you about reduced window visibility, here Deutsche Bahn always tells you if you have reduced window access with your seat.
Look forward to the new series on all of Amtrak's trains in America. 😀
I used to live in New Carrolton and used it to visit my aunt in Wilmington DE. I loved taking the Amtrak with my mom. We also used it to travel to Baltimore for a part time job she used to have.
Just looked it up and did some research, the southernmost station in the US is dadeland south, but the most southern “actual train” station is bright-line Miami central
Take this route all the time. However when the Amtrak is passing through CT especially the Metro North commuter corridor, the tracks are owned partially by the CT DOT and the MTA.
Actually the last stop in Rhode Island is West Kingston, Rhode Island. When my wife and I visit family in Rhode Island. We take Amtrak to New York but like in my last post, from Boston to Providence.
Downie, not only do you make top tier entertaining content for me and others to watch for free but you've also educated me and others about Canada (my favorite series) and another great way of travel that personally I'd forgot about since I've only been on two trains as a kid.
Hey Mike! Another excellent video. So looking forward to series 2 of Downie Live travels by train (USA) Excited to see Will in the clip too lol! xxx
I grew up along the Northeast Corridor. Dad commuted by train every day from New Jersey to Penn Station.
Riding the Northeast Corridor trains is definitely a way to see a lot of states quickly, but it also has a very different feel than the longer-haul parts of the network. More people riding for business/school rather than for adventure.
The NE Corridor tracks are the best. Smooth, and fairly straight for the purposes of running the Acela (which I must admit I could never justify paying extra for, because it's just not THAT much faster than the regular service). And as you point out, no need to play second fiddle to freight trains as in most of the US.
Glad to hear you got to do coast-to-coast on VIA Rail after this. In 1995, I took the Cardinal then the Empire Builder across the top of the US in late summer, and then a couple weeks later, took an early Talgo Train (still in testing?) from Seattle to Vancouver and then traveled back east on VIA Rail. Great stuff. I remember how enthusiastic one of the station staff in Richmond, Virginia, was when I told him I was going by train to Seattle, then up to Vancouver, and then across Canada to get home. Alfred asked, "Oooh! Are you going to take the Talgo train? I'm jealous! I want to ride the Talgo."
How did you take a Cascades service and not take a Talgo train? :-( Are they not in service any longer? (If you haven't taken a Talgo train, please try to do so before they all disappear. They feel different, because the axis of rotation of the cars on curves IS NOT at ground level... it's above that. It's cool. Very Pacific Northwest in terms of being a quirky thing that as far as I know, the rest of the country doesn't have.
Mike, It's nice to see you departing from my old stomping grounds. Before retiring from my job as a firefighter in Shrewsbury, which is my home town, for a few years I had a part time job driving a motorcoach for an interstate bus company based in Springfield, Ma. At the time, the company had an operating division just outside Worcester, so I was in and out of South Station a lot.
When does "Travels By Train USA" start? I watched the first season of the show, and didn't miss an episode. I'm looking forward to the second season.
I like that the highspeed rail aliance have a picture of a swedish commuter train. It is called a pågatåg and operates in the most souhern part of sweden
This 10 episode train adventure you are talking about has me excited. Can’t wait 😀
Amtrak's first order of coaches and buffets cars, called Amfleet and Amfleet II cars, is based on the PRR Metroliner architecture, designed in the early 1960s. I rode the Metroliner from Penn Station to Washington Union Station in 1970. The top speed of that service was 125 mph. So that may be why your coach is riding so well at 110 mph.
Can’t wait for more of the Mike and Will show! That’s gonna be a great trip!
I take this train a couple of times a year. I live in DC and have friends in Boston. I love it. If I book in advance, it's cheaper than flying; TSA doesn't create delays. In practice, if I include the difference in time between downtown and the airport, it's only an hour faster to fly.
Sure wish we had high speed rail here in Canada!
Oh yes, Downie is back with Amtrak! Something I should say about Acela is that its fast but it doesn’t let you get a big adventure unlike the Northeast Regional
I actually have pretty severe anxiety for traveling by train, yet strangely your videos are so relaxing to me and make me feel like I can also do this one day. I guess what I want to say is thank you for making these videos, and for taking us along on your adventures. You're making me want to challenge myself and go ride a train again, and that's huge!
One of the best things about traveling by train are the people you meet. When flying, you get people who are anxious, rude, eager to get where they're going and miserable from being packed in like sardines. On trains, you have room at your seat (or in your cabin if you get one), you can move around (just be careful if the train is moving), and you can eat a meal sitting down with people who are not in a hurry and rude. I've traveled all over the US by train myself, and met maybe a handful of unhappy people in a dozen years of doing it. I've enjoyed a lot of good company, made friends, and relaxed watching beautiful scenery go by. Yes, you get some bouncing around from the rails, but you get used to it and it's not as bad as turbulence in the air.
why are you anxious to ride trains may I ask?
I take this train from MA to visit a friend in New London CT frequently and as inglorious as is it I don’t have to drive! So I adore it
Haha I was on the NE Regional from Boston to NYC just last month!! Very good value when booked in advance and so much less hassle going city centre to city centre cf flying 👍 Your new series crossing America sounds great, looking forward to it.
One of the reasons for the high counts on the NE Regional is that it is multiple trains leaving at different times. Between NYC and Philly we hit the highest speed that we traveled in the oldest Budd Stainless car that met Amtrak's specs. We hit 115 MPH although the limit for the car was supposed to be 110MPH. We had left Boston's South Station like you did with the engineer being told that by the conductor as the engineer wondered if he was going to be limited to 90MPH as some older private passenger cars are.
As always Mike, your videos are inspiring and positive. Thank you for continuing to do incredible adventurous work.
Amtrak owns the whole line Northeast Corridor b/c it was built by the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, was merged with the New York Central into the Penn Central Railroad in the late 1960s, then when that conglomerate came to its untimely wreck, Amtrak was established to pick up the pieces that carried passengers. Interesting detail: the only reason that Amtrak can run medium speed rail- on an international scale, Acela is hardly high speed- on the NEC is that the Pennsy did a systemwide upgrade... in the 1930s. That tells you two things: the Pennsy was bloody INCREDIBLE- it's not for nothing that they called themselves the "Standard of the World"- and that the US DESPERATELY needs to upgrade its passenger rail network.
Boston to Washington DC is an area known as a megalopolis, essentially a continuous city.
If you look at it on a world at night type map you’ll see the solid lights up the east coast.
I’m super excited for the Florida to Alaska!!
I once heard it called BOSNYWASH - yes, it overlooks Philly.
LOL, I liked your comment at the end about not calling it the most popular after understanding that it is the most used because of its commuter need.
I am also looking forward the 10 episode across America.
Hey Mike, super excited for the new series. The US has some beautiful landscapes. Downie live rides Europe by train?
That will definitely happen!
Will be taking my first Amtrak adventure on the Northeast Regional from Newport News VA to Baltimore MD. Can't wait.
I’m looking forward to the series Mike. Hope Will makes an appearance.
Not only popular but falling in love with every time I was with Amtrak...💖
Can we all appreciate the fact that Mike never disappointed us with his travel content. 😊😊😊
30th St. Station in Philly is perpetually damp. Something to do with being directly next to the river, with the station base being just above the waterline by a few feet... :D
Parts of the ride from Boston to New York are fun, along the water in the fog. The Northeast Regionals change to diesel and continue south into Virginia (there is a station a mile from where I live.) Can't wait for the ride from corner to corner.
In business class of Northeast regional, you have the choice of selecting your seat. So, next time you can choose a seat with full window view if the car is not sold out.
i definitely do not giv a fuck abt building highspeed rail when states will tax their citizens into poverty to do it, and then charge 100/ticket to ride it. Its extremely near sighted and childish for you to excitedly promote building of new rail like its asking disney to build a new star wars ride. There are so many issues at the state and city level that lead to unwalkability in our cities, which then makes building HSR nonpriority. Just signing you email to some vague list saying "pwetty pwease i wike twains" does nothing but give the state to have a reason to destroy our lives with those said taxes.
I’m an northeast corridor resident 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾 and taken this train quite a few times and loved it.
It’s the most popular for a very good reason! It connects Boston, NYC, Philly & DC which are USs top business, financial and political centers! It’s also cheaper and usually faster than flying or driving between them
I work in NYC for a company that frequently meets with politicians and embassies and I’m constantly booking my boses trips on either Acela or NE. Regional! They leave in the morning, get their meetings down in DC, and are back in NYC for dinner!
I travel this train often because I-95 sucks so bad, especially in the summer. The seats are nice and cushy, and the interior is dimly lit compared to a commuter train, which makes the ride relaxing.
The timing of this video was everything. I’m on the Northeast regional now. NYC to DC.
was waiting specifically for Philly!!!! a philadelphia station being mysteriously wet while covered is the most on-brand Philadelphia thing I've ever heard!
The journey is the highlight, not the destination. You proved this in a great video.
CAN'T WAIT for the upcoming series! Safe travels Mike!
We are so looking forward to your next train adventures in the U.S A.
Let us know when you come to Northern Ca.
We would Love to meet you!!!
We hope that you and your family stay safe and well!
The LEVEL of detail you put in these videos is amazing!!! Keep up the good work Downie!!!
I take this train so often it’s eerie to watch it in a video because i don’t notice so many smaller details 😂
Loved that the first thing you captured coming in to Delaware was the prison!! But the Wilmington Riverfront train station is the best! Love my
Congratulations, you are comment number 1k
You're definitely the long distance version of Distant Signal...Very entertaining and informative.You focus on things most wouldn't even notice and draw their interest.Its all in how you tell your story ❤💯❤💯
Danny Harmon(Distant Signal) is an excellent story teller such as yourself.Hats off to you! 😉😉
South Station is under construction. It used to have more seating than what you saw. The whole part that is blocked off, used to be doors going out to the tracks. Whenever they get done building the tower above, it should look very nice.
I really appreciate your views on this. I've thought about traveling by train but never have. Your videos are helping my delicious making. Thank you
Looking forward to more videos and the new series! No matter what kind of day I'm having, your videos always put me in a good mood. Thank you!
Glad to hear it!