Hi to all,
I am looking at taking the #98 Meteor from Miami to DC on a Wednesday, arriving in Washington on the Thursday morning, then boarding an early afternoon flight to Chicago with the aim of later that same day catching the #48 Amtrak service to New York.
Is this a practical and possible option, or am I risking too much with the chance that either the #98 or WAS-CHI flight may experience delays.
I have given myself enough transfer time in Washington to accommodate the #98 running upto 5 hours late – is this enough?
Has the #98 got itself a good reputation for punctuality?
Regarding an unrelated trip on NYC-Wash DC-Boston regional services what is the procedure in order for one to get a ‘window seat’ on such trains where booking is required? Once booking through Amtrak is there the option of making a seat request, or is it a case of first come first serve to their choice of seat?
Is this the same for services that are unreserved seating? (eg. The Pacific Surfliner )
Thankyou.
Others have chimed in with some good advice, but since I think I'm the only "Local Yokle" to post in this topic so far, I have a few points that haven't been made yet.
-Everyone's spot-on in that you're kind of painting yourself into a corner with pulling off a connecting flight between trains. I'm somewhat more optimistic, however (I'll go so far as to say I think it can be done!), and I'll get into that.
-98's performance into DC is what I'd call acceptable. In looking at
www.AmtrakDelays.com, I see that it's been on-time or early (more often the latter) about 52% of the time over the past 3 weeks. When it's been late, it's averaging about 50 minutes, which puts it in around 8:35 AM or so. The latest it's been the past 3 weeks has been at 11:24 AM, or 3 and a half hours late. When I plan the sort of thing you're planning, I ALWAYS plan on the train being the latest it's ever been in the past 3 weeks, so use 11:30 as your baseline.
-Now, airports. Glad to see you're not thinking of Dulles. That's a common mistake. DCA is good, but for my money, BWI is good, or better in many cases. BWI is the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. It's just about the same distance time-wise, Door-to-Door, by
MARC Penn Line commuter train, and costs $6 (compared to $1.35 on the Metro). The MARC has a few advantages over the metro: the Metro requires a transfer at Gallery Place/Chinatown from the Red to Yellow lines. If you're carrying rolling luggage, —take it from one who knows—this turn-the-corner-and-down-the-escalator-and-on-the-metro-is a pain. The Metro doesn't have luggage racks, and when there are a lot of people, bags get very cumbersome. The MARC has luggage racks and is generally much more spacious. There is one transfer if you go to BWI, and that's from the MARC train to the FREE terminal shuttle. That shuttle also has luggage racks, however, and it's geared towards people who are about to travel.
-Another reason to consider BWI: Airfare and frequency. BWI boasts being one of Southwest Airlines' largest hubs with about 8 nonstop flights a day to Chicago Midway. Southwest fares from BWI to Chicago (one-way) can be had for as little as $79 plus tax. American also has 4 nonstops to O'Hare, and United has 6 nonstops to O'Hare. But frankly, I find Midway MUCH easier, cheaper, and faster to connect to Union Station in Chicago via the Orange line (Subway/Metro) than O'Hare, and Southwest's one-way fares are hard to beat when booked in advance. When you compare it to flights from Reagan National, BWI's 18 nonstop daily flights to Chicago just outweigh the options at Reagan. In looking at the prices, I'm just not seeing a fair comparison at all ($198 to fly from Reagan compared to $89.50 to fly from BWI on Southwest). One reason to consider an airline OTHER than Southwest is the standby factor. Say Train 98 makes it to DC on-time or much earlier than 11:30. Well, you could fly standby on an earlier flight to get to Chicago earlier, but with Southwest, you have to pay a serious upgrade fee to do that. Other airlines generally let you do that for free or for a minimal fee.
-Another reason to consider BWI and Midway: Delays. Both of these are "alternative" airports that don't have the restrictions and traffic that surround Reagan and O'Hare. As a result, delays at these airports are considerably less than their siblings, yet in both cases, they're about the same distance time-wise from both Union Stations.
So, if I were to construct an itinerary for you based on a BWI-oriented flight, here's what I'd come up with, and frankly, I wouldn't hesitate to do this myself:
1). Take 98 into Washington, or better yet, book the reservation to BWI and Amtrak will usually put you on a Regional train for LESS than the MARC train would cost (watch it, though; sometimes they charge the normal $20 surcharge, so you need to be careful). Doing that via Amtrak.com for, say August 20-21 (which is a Wednesday-Thursday), puts you into BWI at 11:30 AM (they pad the layover in WAS for a late train 98). Alternatively, you can catch MARC trains every hour at 7:37, 8:15, 9:30, 10:30, etc).
2). Out of BWI, I'm seeing a $79 nonstop Southwest flight for 3:25 PM Eastern, which gets you to Chicago Midway at 4:25 PM Central (2 hr flight). Honestly, you'd want to be in BWI's front door no later than 2 PM if you're checking bags, or by 2:30 PM if you're carryon-only. That's my personal advice and what I adhere to as a frequent BWI traveller—don't hold me to it. Be there by 1 if you want to really play it safe.
3). Out of Midway, allow 30 mins to collect checked bags, so plan on being out of the door by 5 PM and onto the Orange Line. There's a 5:05 Orange line that departs Midway and arrives at Quincy/Wells at 5:31 PM for $2.00. It's a 3 block walk west to Union Station from there. I'd estimate being in the Union Station front door by 5:45 PM with plenty of time to get ready for the 10 PM departure. I think that allows plenty of time for average, standard delays to wait for storms to pass, to swap equipment out, or for terminal congestion. The latest flight I'd book out of BWI would be the 5:40 departure, which gets to Midway at 6:40. That puts you into Union Station at about 8 PM, and frankly, that's as close as I'd push it to cushion for flight delays.
Now, as always, HAVE A BACKUP PLAN. It's nice to have a free flight reward hanging around that you haven't used that you can cash in as a last-minute ditch-out if something goes horribly wrong, as things tend to do. Case in point: my wife and I were heading from Washington to Phoenix on the Capitol, connecting to the Chief last spring. A freight train derailed ahead of us just east of Pittsburgh and there we sat for 8 hours. Needless to say, we missed the Chief out of Chicago and I was faced with getting to Phoenix a day late. Unfortunately, I had to be there for a conference so I broke out two free Southwest one-way vouchers as I sat in Chicago's Union Station, made the executive decision to torpedo the entire Chief trip, stayed in the hotel Amtrak put us up in, no-showed the Chief the next day, and flew straight to Phoenix. If I didn't have that to fall back on, I would have been faced with being a day late or more than a few dollar's short for the last-minute flight fare.
In your case, since Southwest is so cheap, consider booking an "insurance" flight from BWI to, say, Cleveland, so if train 98 gets tanked and gets to WAS disgustingly late, you can jet over to Cleveland to pick the LSL up before most of the trip is over. I'm showing Southwest as having an 8:10 PM nonstop from BWI to Cleveland, arriving at 9:20, well before the LSL shows up, and the flight leaves BWI allowing for even a 10 hour delayed Meteor. If you don't use the "insurance flight," southwest lets you bank the ticket's funds for future use without a penalty (like Amtrak).
Granted, the LSL isn't due into Cleveland until 7 AM the next morning, so you'd be overnighting it in the airport (I wouldn't overnight it in the train station). Alternatively, I'm also seeing a cheap $131, 7:50 PM flight from BWI to South Bend on Northwest Airlines (allows for a 9-10 hour late Meteor), which arrives into South Bend at 11:25 PM (1 connection in Detroit), a healthy hour before the LSL pulls into town (and it's a quick cab ride from the Airport to Train Station—been there, done that). You're risking the insurance flight being late, but frankly, I'd go for it if the Cleveland flight isn't stomachable There's also a 7:25 departure on United for $142 from BWI that gets to South Bend at 11:00 PM. A second alternative would be to fly into Toledo, but again, the LSL pulls in there at 3 AM, and it's not a great area of town.
I realize that's a lot of stuff to digest, but here's the short of it: I think you can be fairly confident in your itinerary, as long as you consider BWI/Midway as well, because BWI/Midway have fewer delays, the prices can be cheaper, and there may be better-timed flights for you. And as long as you build in a last-ditch contingency plan (like flying to South Bend (optimal, but somewhat expensive) or Cleveland (cheap, but requires a night in the airport), I think you'll be fine.
Rafi
P.S. Regarding seating on all Amtrak services: unless you're in a sleeper, your seats are generally first-come, first-served. On some long distance trains you'll be assigned a seat as you step onto the train itself, and that's the time to ask for a window or aisle, but keep in mind that they may or may not be able to accommodate if you're boarding down the line after the originating station.
