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New York to Toronto
- Thread starter LPB64
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RailUK Forums
Hi LPB
Here's a link to the trip advisor website;
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...to_Toronto_Amtrak_or_fly-Toronto_Ontario.html
I am not sure what your level of familiarity with Amtrak is but with the exception of the Northeast (Boston to Washington DC) where Amtrak owns the line, and perhaps a few other places in the country its service is rather awful. Even where it is good you often find that it is not cost competitive. My only experience with your rail system was my trip from Kings Cross to York which was fantastic. I wouldn't expect the same from Amtrak.
As I understand it they say that you guys in England have excellent passenger rail at the expense of freight while in the USA we have excellent freight rail at the expense of passenger. Basically the US lines are built for freight where 70mph is a fast route service, and since the majority of the non northeast corridor routes are owned by the freight companies who allow Amtrak to travel it the result is that Amtrak really doesn't get the priority it needs for passenger.
I did a quick search for you and found that a round trip flight will run you about $260 (it looks like 1:20mins in the air) depending on when you book. Round trip on Amtrak was $121 and 1 way was also $121 for the dates I entered and it appeared to be over a 12hr trip. Bus tickets seem to cost about the same and are sometimes cheaper depending on when traveling but they also seem to sell 1 way tickets too. Each trip looks to take about the same amount of time traveling.
I have only traveled Amtrak on two round trips while in college. Once on Acela which had a nice European type feel, the other time on regional service, which uses some really old yet boring equipment. Of the 4 total trips I took all on the Northeast Corridor returning home from school on one trip, a kid decided to take a shortcut and run across the station tracks to get to his mother when he spotted our train. He panicked and thought he could outrun it rather than diving for safety. This was a stretch where Acela goes at around 120+mph. We went into emergency and you could still feel it at the rear of the train when we hit him. That left me stranded for about 4hours on the stopped train on the way back to school. The next time I didn't fair much better. Again the ride home was uneventful, but on the ride back to school a guy was in a fight with his wife on the phone and decided he didn't want to be amongst us, jumped out and was hit by the train ahead of us and again we were delayed for another 4 hours on the train. I am pretty sure I just got unlucky but for 50% of my rides to go bad on Amtrak I didn't think I was doing too well. All trips on Amtrak stopped when I realized that the Greyhound bus had a stop 10mins from my parents and cost about $60 less round trip than Amtrak.
So I am not sure if this helps but I think you will find some interesting comments over on trip adviser.
Here's a link to the trip advisor website;
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...to_Toronto_Amtrak_or_fly-Toronto_Ontario.html
I am not sure what your level of familiarity with Amtrak is but with the exception of the Northeast (Boston to Washington DC) where Amtrak owns the line, and perhaps a few other places in the country its service is rather awful. Even where it is good you often find that it is not cost competitive. My only experience with your rail system was my trip from Kings Cross to York which was fantastic. I wouldn't expect the same from Amtrak.
As I understand it they say that you guys in England have excellent passenger rail at the expense of freight while in the USA we have excellent freight rail at the expense of passenger. Basically the US lines are built for freight where 70mph is a fast route service, and since the majority of the non northeast corridor routes are owned by the freight companies who allow Amtrak to travel it the result is that Amtrak really doesn't get the priority it needs for passenger.
I did a quick search for you and found that a round trip flight will run you about $260 (it looks like 1:20mins in the air) depending on when you book. Round trip on Amtrak was $121 and 1 way was also $121 for the dates I entered and it appeared to be over a 12hr trip. Bus tickets seem to cost about the same and are sometimes cheaper depending on when traveling but they also seem to sell 1 way tickets too. Each trip looks to take about the same amount of time traveling.
I have only traveled Amtrak on two round trips while in college. Once on Acela which had a nice European type feel, the other time on regional service, which uses some really old yet boring equipment. Of the 4 total trips I took all on the Northeast Corridor returning home from school on one trip, a kid decided to take a shortcut and run across the station tracks to get to his mother when he spotted our train. He panicked and thought he could outrun it rather than diving for safety. This was a stretch where Acela goes at around 120+mph. We went into emergency and you could still feel it at the rear of the train when we hit him. That left me stranded for about 4hours on the stopped train on the way back to school. The next time I didn't fair much better. Again the ride home was uneventful, but on the ride back to school a guy was in a fight with his wife on the phone and decided he didn't want to be amongst us, jumped out and was hit by the train ahead of us and again we were delayed for another 4 hours on the train. I am pretty sure I just got unlucky but for 50% of my rides to go bad on Amtrak I didn't think I was doing too well. All trips on Amtrak stopped when I realized that the Greyhound bus had a stop 10mins from my parents and cost about $60 less round trip than Amtrak.
So I am not sure if this helps but I think you will find some interesting comments over on trip adviser.
Mutant Lemming
Established Member
I haven't been on it since 1988 but I do recall there were mice scurrying round the bar car. When I mentioned it to the bar tender he just shrugged and said 'this train has come from New York' as if to say that explains it.
306024
Established Member
Few years ago now, the thing I remember most was the time taken to do the customs formalities at the border. Can't imagine that has speeded up. Still any trip on Amtrak is an adventure, usually due to the quirky passengers you meet, many of which won't fly. Just sit back and enjoy it, however long it takes.
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