Complex Trip Advice

[syntaxfactory]

Okay, if you have any advice, I'd welcome it.

1. From Chicago, to Boston, to Detroit, and to at least one of the following two destinations: NYC, Niagara Falls.

==Any suggestions on Sequence?

==Are there no sleepers on the LSL into Boston?

==Niagara, NY or Niagara, ON?

==Is this the kind of trip that the rail pass is built for, or are there too many small segments?

Help will be appreciated!

 

[p&sr]

Okay, if you have any advice, I'd welcome it.
1. From Chicago, Boston, Detroit, and at least one of the following two destinations: NYC, Niagara Falls.

==Any suggestions on Sequence?

==Are there no sleepers on the LSL into Boston?

==Niagara, NY or Niagara, ON?

==Is this the kind of trip that the rail pass is built for, or are there too many small segments?

Help will be appreciated!

To compare fares with a rail pass, you would have to calculate what the trip would cost WITHOUT the Pass, then see if the pass would save you money (at the cost of flexibility). But my impression is that the Pass can only save money for long, uninterrupted cross-country trips.

The 15-day Pass costs $389 and covers 8 segments, for an average of about $48 per segment. Unless your trip has several segments costing a lot more than $48 (based on Low-Bucket Fares), the Pass is unlikely to be of any benefit.

 

[ralfp]

Okay, if you have any advice, I'd welcome it.
1. From Chicago, Boston, Detroit, and at least one of the following two destinations: NYC, Niagara Falls.

==Any suggestions on Sequence?

Starting in CHI? Detroit is a dead end, reachable only from CHI (excluding VIA and non-rail methods).

If you want Detroit and Niagara Falls, I'd do Chicago -> Detroit -> [insert magic] Windsor, ON. From there take VIA to Niagara Falls, ON. Leaving Windsor at 1:30pm gets you to Niagara Falls, ON at 7:40pm. Then take the Maple Leaf to NYP and regional to BOS. From there take the LSL back to Chicago. This covers everything, but involves lots of daytime train travel (except the return).

Backtracking from Detroit to Chicago means leaving at 11AM or so, then catching the LSL to BOS, NYP. Getting to Niagara Falls means waiting all day in Buffalo (basically two days to travel less than 300 miles). There's a "Thruway" connection to Toledo from Detroit, leaving at about 10pm, arriving at 11pm, connecting to a 4am LSL to BUF. Fun.

Skipping Detroit (is that an option) and Niagara Falls would make this run nice and smoothly.

==Are there no sleepers on the LSL into Boston?

There's a recent thread about this. Regardless, you get sleepers from CHI to ALBany.

==Niagara, NY or Niagara, ON?

For connections, see above. Scenery, I have no idea.

 

[the_traveler]

==Niagara, NY or Niagara, ON?

The plus with Niagara Falls, ON is the station is nearer to the falls than in NY. But you have to go through Customs - which can be SLOW! On the NY side - although it is farther from the falls - there are numerous trains to ALB, not just 1 as in ON.

 

[syntaxfactory]

Thanks so far! This is very helpful!

 

[Rafi]

I'd only add a few things...

-I agree that getting yourself from Detroit to Windsor, ON (only a few miles apart) via bus or cab is probably your best bet on working your way east to Niagara Falls. Page 120 in the current Amtrak timetable gives a sampling of the VIA Rail Schedule for that corridor. If you don't want to get to Niagara Falls that way, heading back to Chicago isn't your only option. Amtrak does operate a thruway bus service from Detroit to Toledo, connecting with the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, but the hours are painful and the schedule much longer. The schedule would work this way:

9:55 PM-Leave Detroit

11:00 PM-Arrive Toledo

3:50 AM-Depart Toledo on the LSL

9:30 AM-Arrive Buffalo-Depew

2:56 PM-Depart Buffalo-Depew on Maple Leaf

4:10 PM-Arrive Niagara Falls (US side)

4:30 PM-Arrive Niagara Falls (Canada Side)

As for sleepers on the Lake Shore's Boston section, the long and short of it is that Amtrak is planning on adding one in the next few months but hasn't announced a date yet.

-Rafi

 

[syntaxfactory]

Thanks!