Best Station to Board the Crescent at is?

[dlagrua]

We are already planning next years trip. It will take us to New Orleans on the Crescent. Keeping with our policy of picking up trins along the route for convenience, we are looking for recommendations.

First off we live in Central NJ so we could board the Crescent in Newark or Trenton but both locations are in high crime areas and not very nice. We could also drive an hour to Philadelpha and board at 30th street station but parking around there is hard to find and quite expensive. Its like $25 a day to park in the Amtrak lot. Wilmington, Baltimore and Washington DC have expensive and hard to find parking. Moving further Sounth we have Alexandria VA and Manassas.

We are favoring Manassas at this point as there is lots of parking available in the downtown area but the station is not manned and offers no services. The second choice is Philadelpha and we are also reluctant looking at Trenton.

At this point we are still undecided where we could get on the Crescent to secure the best station services and find affordable and safe parking. Anyone care to make any recommendations

 

[battalion51]

I would probably suggest that if you time things out right (and go on a weekday) you could park at BWI Airport station and take MARC to either Baltimore or Washington and then make a connection there. The parking at BWI Airport as I recall is $9/day. Similarly you could potentially do the same thing at Newark Airport station, but I've never used the facilities at that location. Alan or another of the members could potentially provide more information for that location.

 

[AlanB]

Consider driving to Metro Park or Hamilton. You'll have to take either an NJT train or Amtrak from Metropark to Newark and then transfer or ride NJT from Hamilton to Trenton and then board the Crescent.

If you want free parking drive a bit further to Cherry Hill on NJT's Atlantic City line and then take that train into Philly. One advantage of Philly would be that you'd get to use the Club Acela Lounge.

 

[GaSteve]

Isn't there parking in Wilmington at the deck across the street?

 

[daveyb99]

We are already planning next years trip. It will take us to New Orleans on the Crescent. Keeping with our policy of picking up trins along the route for convenience, we are looking for recommendations.

First off we live in Central NJ so we could board the Crescent in Newark or Trenton but both locations are in high crime areas and not very nice.

Isnt. the Newark station located at the Hilton?

Stop doing the worry thing, just go there and have some fun... you won't be at the station for days, just 15 minutes. please.

 

[Shanghai]

I leave my car at home and take NJT to NYP.

 

[TVRM610]

We are already planning next years trip. It will take us to New Orleans on the Crescent. Keeping with our policy of picking up trins along the route for convenience, we are looking for recommendations.

First off we live in Central NJ so we could board the Crescent in Newark or Trenton but both locations are in high crime areas and not very nice.

Isnt. the Newark station located at the Hilton?

Stop doing the worry thing, just go there and have some fun... you won't be at the station for days, just 15 minutes. please.

Yes there is a Hilton attatched to the Newark Station. How does that relate? Newark Penn is located in one of the worst crime areas in the country. Personally? I've changed trains there late at night and while there are questionable characters, I've never felt unsafe, there is plenty of security there, at least in my experiences. However, many people would not feel comfortable there (shame, since it's a beatiful station to see), and I certainly would not want to park my car there.

Now Newark Airport would be great, or Seacaucas Junction, both have very nice secure parking lots (not sure on overnight rates at either). Of course you would have to take NJ transit to either Newark or NYP, but that would beat the extra drive in my book.

 

[PRR 60]

I'll add my endorsement for Hamilton. I use Hamilton all the time for heading to New York. The parking garage is $8 a day. The NJT fare to Trenton is a couple of dollars, with frequent service. For stashing a car for a while, Hamilton seems like a pretty good deal.

 

[Stellar1]

You can park at Philadelphia Airport. They have overnight long term parking in the Economy Parking Lot for $11/day and a 24 hour shuttle bus runs from the parking to the terminal. SEPTA has a train that runs from the airport terminals to 30th Street Station. (It's a 20 minute ride, and the train runs every 30 minutes.)

I'm taking the Carolinian next week from PHL to CLT, and I plan on parking at the airport and taking the SEPTA train to 30th Street Station.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

We are already planning next years trip. It will take us to New Orleans on the Crescent. Keeping with our policy of picking up trins along the route for convenience, we are looking for recommendations.

First off we live in Central NJ so we could board the Crescent in Newark or Trenton but both locations are in high crime areas and not very nice.

Isnt. the Newark station located at the Hilton?

Stop doing the worry thing, just go there and have some fun... you won't be at the station for days, just 15 minutes. please.

Yes there is a Hilton attatched to the Newark Station. How does that relate? Newark Penn is located in one of the worst crime areas in the country. Personally? I've changed trains there late at night and while there are questionable characters, I've never felt unsafe, there is plenty of security there, at least in my experiences. However, many people would not feel comfortable there (shame, since it's a beatiful station to see), and I certainly would not want to park my car there.

Now Newark Airport would be great, or Seacaucas Junction, both have very nice secure parking lots (not sure on overnight rates at either). Of course you would have to take NJ transit to either Newark or NYP, but that would beat the extra drive in my book.

Newark Airport station its self doesn't have any parking you need to take the monorail in from a regular airport lot.

 

[daveyb99]

Isnt. the Newark station located at the Hilton?

Yes there is a Hilton attatched to the Newark Station. How does that relate? Newark Penn is located in one of the worst crime areas in the country.

Because at 2:37pm, when the Crescent is scheduled to stop there, it is very likely a busy and popular place to be.

And "safe" for the few minutes you might be there.

 

[TVRM610]

Isnt. the Newark station located at the Hilton?

Yes there is a Hilton attatched to the Newark Station. How does that relate? Newark Penn is located in one of the worst crime areas in the country.

Because at 2:37pm, when the Crescent is scheduled to stop there, it is very likely a busy and popular place to be.

And "safe" for the few minutes you might be there.

"busy" - yes. "Popular" - never. haha. joking.

part of the issue is also parking a car and leaving it. to me, it would be foolish to use Newark Penn when there are several better options close by.

 

[TVRM610]

We are already planning next years trip. It will take us to New Orleans on the Crescent. Keeping with our policy of picking up trins along the route for convenience, we are looking for recommendations.

First off we live in Central NJ so we could board the Crescent in Newark or Trenton but both locations are in high crime areas and not very nice.

Isnt. the Newark station located at the Hilton?

Stop doing the worry thing, just go there and have some fun... you won't be at the station for days, just 15 minutes. please.

Yes there is a Hilton attatched to the Newark Station. How does that relate? Newark Penn is located in one of the worst crime areas in the country. Personally? I've changed trains there late at night and while there are questionable characters, I've never felt unsafe, there is plenty of security there, at least in my experiences. However, many people would not feel comfortable there (shame, since it's a beatiful station to see), and I certainly would not want to park my car there.

Now Newark Airport would be great, or Seacaucas Junction, both have very nice secure parking lots (not sure on overnight rates at either). Of course you would have to take NJ transit to either Newark or NYP, but that would beat the extra drive in my book.

Newark Airport station its self doesn't have any parking you need to take the monorail in from a regular airport lot.

Oh yea.. I forgot about that. I always think of that as a plus cause I think that little monorail is so fun! (Yes.. I have parked at Newark Airport.. in the farthest lot, just so I could ride the monorail for the full length ) However... when your hauling luggage... that is an extra step that many would prefer not to take! ha.

 

[rail_rider]

I have to agree with those picking Hamilton. It's safe & just a short hop to Trenton. Trenton is a nice station if you don't have to worry about the parking. Since they've remodled there's a restaurant at the back end that's open 24 hrs plus a Dunkin Donuts if you just want a cup of coffee. Too bad there's no checked baggage out of Trenton.

 

[Meat Puppet]

We are already planning next years trip. It will take us to New Orleans on the Crescent. Keeping with our policy of picking up trins along the route for convenience, we are looking for recommendations.

First off we live in Central NJ so we could board the Crescent in Newark or Trenton but both locations are in high crime areas and not very nice. We could also drive an hour to Philadelpha and board at 30th street station but parking around there is hard to find and quite expensive. Its like $25 a day to park in the Amtrak lot. Wilmington, Baltimore and Washington DC have expensive and hard to find parking. Moving further Sounth we have Alexandria VA and Manassas.

We are favoring Manassas at this point as there is lots of parking available in the downtown area but the station is not manned and offers no services. The second choice is Philadelpha and we are also reluctant looking at Trenton.

At this point we are still undecided where we could get on the Crescent to secure the best station services and find affordable and safe parking. Anyone care to make any recommendations

You could drive to North Jersey, Park at Denville NJT station for the low price of $2 per 24 hours,and a very safe area.... and take the New Jersey Transit train to New York Penn station and board the crescent there.

 

[dlagrua]

Thanks for all the ideas and some of these certainly have merit. Right now I have my feelers out on boarding at Manassas VA. Got a friend who lives 25 miles from there who is finding out about the long term parking situation.

I also like the idea of parking at Hamilton NJ and taking the NJT one stop to Trenton but that still places you at an undesireable location while you wait for the Cresecent. It should also be noted that many NJ parking lots are often are filled to capacity by 9AM most weekedays. After checking we find that the same is true of the lots in Wilmington DE, and Baltimore. The other options are like $25 per day and the costs add up quick with a week stay.

The ideal situation would be to find a station with a LT parking lot across the street (as we did in Pittsburgh last month) but in the alternative, taking a short train trip to meet the Crescent might be OK.

This is a situation that apparently faces all LD Amtrak travelers and I would like to see it discussed more often. Perhaps a pinned reference post on "where to park when you travel" might be a good idea to add. The only train where you do not have this problem is the AutoTrain as you park onboard the train.

 

[amamba]

My parents live in NJ, and when I go to visit them and take the train I almost always use Trenton, NJ as my stop (if I am not taking Acela). I have never had any problems parking in the short term parking lot there, but I agree that I would probably not want to leave my car there overnight. But I think the suggestion of parking in Hamilton and then taking NJT to Trenton is a fabulous one. I have not really seen any people, other than travelers, lurking around the station and I have had trains leaving and arriving at all hours of the day, from 7 am through 8 pm, and its been fine, even when its dark out. I also always observed at least two uniformed police officers in the station making sure that everyone and everything was safe.

I would definitely recommend taking the train from a farther north location than Manassas, VA. Seems like a long drive from NJ when you could be enjoying the scenery from your sleeper car on the Crescent!

If there is a Hilton at the Newark station, I would assume that would mean that there is a secure garage for hotel guests? Have you looked into parking there? It would probably be safe, my only concern is that it might be just as much as some of these other locations you have been mentioning that cost $25/day (which you have indicated is cost-prohibitive for you).

My last suggestion would be to consider an airport shuttle/limo or taxi. When I used to live North of Boston we used to get a town car service for $50 each way to either Boston Logan or Boston South Station. At $100/round trip it was cheaper than parking for a week long trip. Maybe you could use something like this and then board in Trenton.

 

[the_traveler]

This is a situation that apparently faces all LD Amtrak travelers and I would like to see it discussed more often. Perhaps a pinned reference post on "where to park when you travel" might be a good idea to add. The only train where you do not have this problem is the AutoTrain as you park onboard the train.

That's why I like parking at KIN! (Not that it helps the OP!) Besides being close to Chez Traveler East, it I don't get a ride to KIN, the large lot has FREE parking!