what i learned about visiting the northeast corridor by train when you live south of the northeast corridor
my partner and i recently visited philly and dc. we live in north carolina. typically for this trip i would drive to the northeast, then park the car and train around the northeast. however we wanted to test out the experience of taking the train for as much of the trip as possible. we did that and we learned some things
some important amtrak meta: amtrak north and south of washington DC in the US is two very different experiences. north of DC, the train is fantastic, electrified, fast, frequent, cheap-ish, and everyone takes it all the time between boston and DC. south of DC, the trains are not electrified (they use diesel or something), are way less frequent, and their right-of-way over freight trains is not as protected and respected as it is in the northeast. delays are way more common, sometimes extreme (multiple hours), and it's just not very common to train down here. one exception is the train between charlotte and the triangle (raleigh-durham-chapel hill) — that stretch of train is pretty good and many people who live in central NC, especially people who went to college in central NC, have taken that train
the train doesn't come to asheville where we live, so we drove to charlotte where my parents' house is, where the train does come. we parked my car at my parents house and took a lyft to the train station to start our journey
learning 1: though it's theoretically possible to take the bus to the amtrak station in charlotte, it's not a real option if you're taking the train all the way to the northeast because the trains that go that far only leave twice a day, very early in the morning (5:30am-ish and 6:45am-ish). taking the bus to the train then would require “waking up” at like 3am, getting a ride from my parent's house to the nearest bus stop (not walkable with luggage unless you recently thru-hiked the appalachian trail), taking the bus to the bus depot, transferring to the bus that goes to the amtrak station, and then waiting at the amtrak station for anywhere between 15 minutes and three hours depending on delays
our train left on time (6:45am). there are two northeast trains from charlotte — “the carolinian” and “the crescent”. the carolinian makes more stops between charlotte and the northeast and so is a longer ride to the northeast corridor, but it originates in charlotte so it's usually on time leaving from charlotte. the crescent makes fewer stops between charlotte and the northeast so is technically a shorter ride, but it originates 700 miles southwest of charlotte in new orleans, so it's much more likely to be delayed arriving to and leaving from charlotte
learning 2: the carolinian is most likely the best option for anyone getting from NC to the northeast (unless you want a sleeper car which is only on the crescent), because of where it originates and the likelihood of delays as a result. the map/schedule for the carolinian is here
the first few hours of our train ride were great. really most of the ride was great. but as we plodded across north carolina the delays started to slowly pile up. we overheard from other passengers that this is common even in the well-trod stretch of the carolinian between charlotte and the triangle. one of the delays was apparently because someone was on the tracks outside greensboro and the train had to activate their emergency breaks and then talk to the police when they came to the situation. the conductor told us all this over the loudspeaker.
past raleigh, the train goes through a part of north carolina i've been to a few times but don't regularly travel to. once it continues on to virginia the stops are less frequent (it is the carolinian after all), before arriving in DC and then basically becoming a different train
learning 3: north carolina is so beautiful and seeing it by train is very special. in particular the stretch of the country between rocky mount NC and petersburg VA is incredible — it's mostly swamp that the train traverses on a sort of raised berm. just hundreds of miles of swamp
when the train arrived in DC, we sat. we sat and sat and sat. the train lost power for about 30 minutes while getting a new electrified engine, got the new engine, an entirely different crew, and then we set off towards new york where the train terminates. my partner and i got off in philly, about 1.5 hours delayed
learning 4: it takes much longer to get from charlotte to philly on train than by car. the drive is 8 hours and 45 minutes. the train ride was about 13 hours. 13 hours is too long to be on a train
also
learning 5: the business class / coach dynamics on amtrak are really different south of DC than they are north of DC. the train felt heavily racially and class segregated between business and coach south of DC, and this was not nearly so much the case when i took amtrak a lot while living in the northeast
now we'd arrived in philly, and without a car! so i'll say some things about that. first off philly was great and neither of us had ever been. we obviously took every trolley line including the really old trolley in fishtown. trolleys randomly become subways, busses arrive everywhere every five minutes. philly seems pretty bus-pilled and i'm here for it, if it works it works. asheville should get bus-pilled. anyway, doing philly without a car was effortless. we stayed near the amtrak station and it was a great location for getting around the city. we visited iffy and wooden shoe and they were both so fantastic. we visited a friend in south philly and wandered around clark park in west philly.
learning 6: asheville needs to get bus-pilled. also in philly you just tap your regular debit/credit card or phone to use transit and it's incredibly convenient. obviously everywhere should accept cash forever, and i think philly does this by taking cash at machines that dispense transit-only tap cards, but tapping with debit card is beautiful, seamless
eventually we left philly for DC. we sprung for an acela (the fanciest and fastest amtrak) between philly and DC. leaves a million times a day so we picked our perfectly preferred time and left. everything was right on time. philly amtrak station has piles of seating (glares hatefully at moynihan)
we arrived in DC and our friend we were visiting met us at union station, easy peasy, however...
learning 7: life is hard in DC if you don't live on the metro, busses seem to be spotty, at least in northwest
our friend doesn't live close to a metro station, the closest is about a 35 minute walk. a 35 minute walk is doable sometimes, but we were expending energy moving around a lot and also we're not used to walking (particularly me). there's busses near her, but they are pretty inconsistent and don't run much past 10pm. we went to multiple shows and so were getting back late often. also all our phones are weird because we have zealotous opinions about computers, so it was hard to take busses even with a local. all this meant that we took lyfts a lot in DC, and that felt stupid and bad. we maybe could have done better with planning, but i'm not so sure
on our way out, we just took a lyft all the way to union station. we definitely could have done better with that, but we were up late the night before
returning to charlotte, we took the carolinian again. the train arrived home about 1.5 hours delayed, and this trip really highlighted the difference between driving and training south of DC: the train trip from DC to charlotte was about 11 hours. driving would have been 6 hours and 20 minutes
yikes
apparently on the train back, the wifi didn't work consistently, or maybe even most of the way. we didn't know, because we have an unlimited hotspot from calyx (highly recommend) and we used that the whole way. i then proceeded to leave the hotspot on the train when we got off, which was a $400 mistake
yikes
learning 8: bringing your own hotspot on the amtrak is necessary to guarantee internet access, though there's nothing you can do to get internet around quantico because it is a black hole of hopes, dreams, and cell service. but don't forget your hotspot on the train
ah i need to say something about food here also. there is food on the train but the lines can be very long and the dining car closes often and sometimes runs out of food. if you have any dietary restrictions whatsoever you need to plan all your own food
learning 9: you have to pack food like you're going on a long dayhike. we did fresh fruit, carb-y snacks like crackers, fruit leather, and trail mix. bring your own paper bowls to divvy up food between you and your travel companion, disposable utentils, and your own napkins and hand sanitizer, because food tools are difficult/inconvenient to acquire on the train. your hands will feel disgusting because the bathrooms are...not good. so having sanitizer and utensils and plates and napkins is an amazing comfort. also earplugs/noise-cancelling headphones/whatever are completely, utterly, essential. kids scream, people snore, the train takes half a day, my nerves were very frayed and blocking out sound was essential.
we arrived in charlotte about 1.5 hours late, maybe two hours i'm not sure, and had the scariest lyft ride of my life back to my parents' house
learning 10: lyft rides can be terrifying in cities like charlotte, where there's sometimes no traffic and very wide roads, so it's very possible to speed. both our rides in charlotte were too fast, but our last ride was the first time i've ever thought i might die in a car accident in a rideshare. i'm talking 65mph in a 35mph zone, tailgating like crazy, and fussing with two phones the entire time. for the first time in my life i reported a driver to lyft
the main takeaway
taking a train to the northeast was overall a great experience. however, my partner and i concluded that in the future we will drive to the northeast corridor, park the car long term somewhere calm but on the DC metro (probably silver spring maryland), and just train around the northeast. the travel time to DC is just too long compared to car, and the comfort level of the train for that long is just too low. flying is not an option for us for personal and environmental reasons. sleeper cars are about five times more expensive than coach, so that's a hard sell too
another main takeaway we had was that the northeast is just really quite far from us! going there regularly is probably not something we really want to do. instead, we're hoping we can make less frequent but longer trips up there, so we see everyone we love in the northeast over a multi-week period
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