Worcester MA

[Jody]

Hi ,

When keying in Worcester, MA as a stop on Amtrak.com, a message about the station shows up. What's the issue with this as a stop? (I rode it years ago and on the last part of the route one could outwalk the train.)

Thanks for your help.

 

[Trogdor]

Answering your question would be easier if you stated what the message was that shows up, and where you're entering the stop. Are you booking a reservation, or checking train status, or just looking up station info (address, hours, etc.)?

 

[amamba]

Hi ,

When keying in Worcester, MA as a stop on Amtrak.com, a message about the station shows up. What's the issue with this as a stop? (I rode it years ago and on the last part of the route one could outwalk the train.)

Thanks for your help.

What sort of error are you getting? Worcester, MA is only served by the Lake Shore Limited, I believe. That means that there is one train a day in each direction (the 449/448) providing service east to Boston, MA and west to Chicago, IL.

There are no quik trak machines, there, though.

 

[the_traveler]

Worcester is only served by the Lake Shore Limited and is only "D" eastbound. Meaning you can not ride it to Boston. (You must use MBTA.)

 

[Jody]

Hi ,

When keying in Worcester, MA as a stop on Amtrak.com, a message about the station shows up. What's the issue with this as a stop? (I rode it years ago and on the last part of the route one could outwalk the train.)

Thanks for your help.

What sort of error are you getting? Worcester, MA is only served by the Lake Shore Limited, I believe. That means that there is one train a day in each direction (the 449/448) providing service east to Boston, MA and west to Chicago, IL.

There are no quik trak machines, there, though.

Trip: Starts on the Crescent with Worcester as the destination.

The error message:

Problem Finding Service: Sorry, we cannot find train service matching your request. Please try alternate stations/cities. To learn more about trains available at a particular station, please click on the 'Stations' tab above.

[Error ID: 108A]

 

[amamba]

So there is no way to make a same day connection from the northbound Crescent to the LSL in BOS.

What you need to do is make an amtrak reservation from wherever you want to start your journey to BOS. It looks like amtrak will default to putting you on the NE regional 176, which arrives in Boston at 7:55 pm.

Then you will need to transfer to the MBTA commuter rail in order to get to Worcester. You can find the timetables at www.mbta.com.

Luckily the worcster line also departs from South Station. There is a weekday outbound that departs at 8:20 in BOS that you could probably connect to. It arrives in worcester at 9:56 pm. If you missed that one because of a delay, the next and last outbound train to Worcester on weekdays leaves at 10:20 pm.

 

[Jody]

Probably because you would have to do it as multicity - but I don't believe that it would be possible to make the connection in BOS between a regional and the 449 - it leaves at 11:55 AM.

My recommendation is to book your travel starting on the Crescent with BOS as your destination. Then you can take MBTA out to worcester. www.mbta.com for timetables.

Arriving in time to get a rental car might be an issue. I'm also thinking of New Haven to Springfield or Hartford. I've done the Boston thing before (but probably before there was an MBTA). Do you have any thoughts on the convenience of Springfield versus Worcester?

Thanks. This has always been an amazing way to get answers.

 

[amamba]

Jody, I just edited my last post with some more info. Where is your ultimate destination? There is no rental car counter at South Station in Boston. I am not sure about Worcester. If you take the Crescent, you will need to change trains in NYP. If you go to Springfield it will be much faster because you can connect to the NE regional 176 in NYP after you get off the Crescent, but you would detrain in New Haven and switch to the stub train 476 which arrives in Springfield at 6:45 pm. That puts you in central mass three hours before the choice listed above. I am not sure about rental cars in Springfield.

 

[Jody]

Amamba, the ultimate destination is Winchendon, MA (up near the New Hampshire border). On the last trip in the 1980's there wasn't an easy way to get there. Very possibly, we might go roaming around, but Winchendon is the highlight.

 

[amamba]

I would suggest taking the train to Springfield, MA instead of Worcester, then. Good luck and have a great trip!