Amtrak for school field trips?

[Oreius]

My father is a 7th grade social studies teacher. Every year in the fall (October) he takes a select group of his students on a field trip to NYC. We've rode the Keystone out of Elizabethtown a couple times now, and he thinks it might be a good way for his students to experience traveling in the real world. Does Amtrak have any special rates for school trips? I can't see why not. These are Saturday trips, and most of the time, there are many empty seats on the train in the morning. I figure he would be doing Amtrak a favor by filling more seats.

 

[SarahZ]

http://www.amtrak.com/group-convention-travelers-discount

That's for groups over 20.

If his group is smaller, kids up to age 15 get 50% off (two per adult). Additional kids pay full fare. So, if he has ten kids and five adult chaperones, the kids would ride for half of the adult fare.

 

[SubwayNut]

Back when I was in eighth grade my New York school booked a car and a half (the full car we had I remember had the better business class or Metro liner car legroom, it was also a long walk from the car to the cafe car at the other end of the train) for our annual eighth grade trip from New York to Washington.

I know in New York City school groups qualify (they might have to be based in New York City, don't know if out-of-town trips count) for free travel on the subway, I remember doing that numerous times on field trips in middle and high school.

From over browsing the websites of specific corridors I've noticed some of the state-supported corridors have even better discounts for school and youth groups:

• Amtrak California has Kids-n-Trains that looks like it makes the trip as cheaply as $6 per person round-trip.
• Amtrak Cascades has a similar program ($13 or $26 round-trip)
• Downeaster – $15 to $18 round-trip
• Hiawatha – $5 per person each way

Of course since the Keystone is the Northeast Corridor I bet the price will be a bit higher.