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hdhcnsnd t1_jacyp8v wrote

Yup, you just have to book ahead. I usually have no problem finding ~$40 round trip between NYC/Philly a week or two out. The price gets better if you can plan further out.

It’s cheap, fast, comfortable, low stress and has some nice views along the way.

If you are traveling to somewhere along the NEC from Philly and aren’t taking Amtrak, you should be! We live along the best train corridor in the US.

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DonQOnIce t1_jad1qnw wrote

I planned a trip to NYC recently and kept checking Amtrak regularly from about 5 weeks before the trip. Never saw anything below $70 one way. Finally just said fuck it and bought Megabus about a week out for $30 roundtrip.

I think I got a $20 one way Philly to NYC fare once. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong but it doesn’t seem that easy to me at all.

Amtrak fares are a complete joke, in general, too.

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courageous_liquid t1_jad9hkk wrote

The base one-way fare between NYC and Philly is $19. If you're booking early enough you'll see those on the northeast regional.

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RoughRhinos OP t1_jadkj38 wrote

And for some reason available for $10 at certain times

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courageous_liquid t1_jadktbw wrote

They run promos during lulls. I remember seeing something similar last year in february.

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hdhcnsnd t1_jad3zaj wrote

That seems off. Looking between the next 1-3 weeks I see several options <$80 round right now. If you leave later or earlier in the day there’s even a few options for $20-30 round. If you expand the timeline it should be even cheaper.

The Acela and NE regional will always be the more expensive trains, the Keystone Service is usually the cheapest in my experience. I usually travel in Friday evening and leave Sunday and haven’t ever paid more than $40 one-way.

But yeah it should definitely be cheaper. It would be nice if I could wake up in the morning and just spontaneously go to 30th street and not have to spend $100+. There is always the SEPTA-NJTransit route for that, though it’s about an hour slower.

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DonQOnIce t1_jad5cy1 wrote

I was looking to be in NYC before 3 pm on a Saturday and leave around 11am to 2 pm on the following Monday and there was nothing reasonable. Maybe a Saturday-Monday is harder to find than Friday to Sunday?

It’s definitely worth looking to see if you can get a deal, especially if you’re very flexible, but I find them kind of frustrating if you’re on any sort of schedule. The pricing structure is totally ridiculous to me. Most other countries would have either set or a much smaller window of movement in price for a 90 minute to 2 hour train ride but here it can be between $19 and like $150. Bonkers.

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RoughRhinos OP t1_jad6o94 wrote

PA Amtrak rides I believe are set prices. Maybe California as well. No matter what it will be $21 one way to Lancaster from Philly which honestly is a little annoying because it feels too pricey but it is nice to book 20 minutes before the train ride. Really wish Amtrak would get rid of dynamic pricing for the whole system though. And add more sleeper options for way way cheaper.

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_jeremybearimy_ t1_jaecnb0 wrote

I used to ride Amtrak in California and yeah it was always the same price. Except the years they raised the price of course

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tkdnw t1_jad8dn3 wrote

It would need a lot more capacity to be able to get rid of dynamic pricing without every train being sold out well in advance. I don't know if there are any tunnel limitations but hopefully they can get double deckers on the NER at some point.

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NotCandied t1_jadbsgq wrote

I go to NY once a month at similar times. That is the busiest time, so you have to book further ahead to get the lower fares. Once those $19 fares are sold out, they don’t come back because they are nonrefundable. I try to book at least 2 months ahead for the winter and 3 months ahead for summer to ensure I get the cheapest tickets. If there’s a holiday, you need to book even further ahead.

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porkchameleon t1_jad6mmy wrote

> I was looking to be in NYC before 3 pm on a Saturday and leave around 11am to 2 pm on the following Monday and there was nothing reasonable. Maybe a Saturday-Monday is harder to find than Friday to Sunday?

I checked second weekend in April for those days/times (since we are talking about ordering in advance), to-from are about $38 on average each.

Closer to the date could be $50+, and you might not be that flexible on time.

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Shadow1787 t1_jae3xo4 wrote

If you can get to Trenton or Hamilton. You can take nj transit for 32$ round trip. I take it all the time.

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Gizz718 t1_jadi47i wrote

i go to brooklyn every few weeks to see family and have always bought my ticket no earlier 2 days ahead of the trip (chronic procrastinator who doesn’t decide to make the trip until days before). i’ve always found mid day tickets for under $70.

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miguelsmith80 t1_jadeoya wrote

My experience is like yours (unreasonably expensive). I can't ever make Amtrak make sense financially, even though I love a train ride. For kicks I just looked up Wilmington DE to Baltimore on a random Friday a few weeks from now. Every ticket is more than $100 per person, one way. Especially when traveling with multiple people there is no way to justify train over driving.

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DonQOnIce t1_jadfhq7 wrote

I don’t know about the routes down around Baltimore but I don’t see any reason to drive Philly to NYC even if Amtrak doesn’t make sense. There are so many cheap buses daily I couldn’t even count. And the Septa to NJT connection. The tolls over the bridges or through the tunnel alone are about as much as a one-way bus ticket. Then you’ve got gas and parking.

I actually choose Megabus over the Septa/NJT connection because it’s more comfortable and I can just fall asleep and not have to change trains.

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miguelsmith80 t1_jadgpev wrote

Easy explanation - we're a family of four. Multiply all transit expenses by 4, while toll gas and parking is fixed price. I've been actively looking for an excuse to take a train trip and I cannot make it a reasonable decision. Currently I'm thinking about Newark for Union @ Redbulls, and could at least take the PATH into the city from there.

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DonQOnIce t1_jadh1pl wrote

Good point, I often forget that since I never really buy for more than two and if I’m going with a group, it’s friends who take care of themselves financially.

My main priority is not driving personally and zoning out or falling asleep so if I’m in a group of 3 or more where someone else wanted to drive, that would not be a bad option.

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miguelsmith80 t1_jadhwh0 wrote

Lol I want to take the kids on an Amtrak trip so bad. I'm like, hmm well if we leave at 10 PM it's "only" $66 per person. One way. Sure it's 8x more expensive than driving, and sure we arrive at midnight, but the 5 y/o will prob be fine ...

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RoughRhinos OP t1_jaefbt5 wrote

There should really be a amtrak cheap kid price to help families out! If planning a trip anytime soon check out around the 7pm slot - there's a lot of $10 tickets at that time and for a family of four that's really not bad for a weekend getaway.

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DonQOnIce t1_jadife2 wrote

Right? I seriously love taking trains. I’m willing to pay a bit of a markup over other options to support rail service and because it’s fun. But it’s essentially never worth it when I do the math for the times I want to travel, the difference is way too extreme.

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yogaballcactus t1_jae979v wrote

> If you are traveling to somewhere along the NEC from Philly and aren’t taking Amtrak, you should be!

I know we are pretty far away from a point where we focus on this kind of problem and that a lot of kinks would need to be worked out, but I would use Amtrak a LOT more if there was a way to bring a medium to large dog on it. If I could bring my dog then I could use Amtrak to go see my family for the holidays or go back and forth between my place in Philly and my girlfriends place in jersey city. As it stands right now, I have to own a car, which is incredibly annoying.

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hdhcnsnd t1_jaeca5q wrote

Yes, the pet policy on Amtrak sucks!

Looks like the max weight is 20 pounds for pet + carrier which is really restrictive.

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yogaballcactus t1_jaeg4ed wrote

Yeah. I think we have to get to a point where a critical mass of people are using public transportation as their primary or only form of transportation before there’s enough demand to solve these kinds of problems. We have to solve problems around cleanliness, safety and convenience system wide (so on all public transit, not just Amtrak) before we are going to get enough people using public transportation as their primary or only method of transportation. But once we get there, we’ll need to find ways for trains to transport everything cars do, from the family dog to the kids’ hockey equipment to a weeks’ worth of groceries.

And we’ll also have to be careful about how we solve these problems. I don’t want to sit next to an untrained or aggressive dog. I also don’t want someone else’s smelly hockey equipment piled up next to me. So there will have to be rules and ways of getting people to follow them.

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abrandnewhope t1_jaf2er6 wrote

And even then, it costs $39/way. In looking up fares to DC, I can find round trip fares for weekends in April for $40 per person, but the dog fare costs $78.

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