If you’ve ever booked an Amtrak ticket and noticed the website showing you a “bus” option instead of a train, you might have done a double-take. I did. Yes, Amtrak runs buses too. These scheduled buses are part of the…
Next week, I’m taking Amtrak from New York down to Washington DC for $24. It’s not a sale.
I’ve written a lot about Amtrak on this blog. I’ve reviewed half a dozen routes, written a lot of words arguing that taking the train beats flying on most short to medium routes.
Yet, at the same time, Amtrak can be expensive. Under pressure to make a profit, they’ve adopted dynamic pricing just like the airlines. That means the same seat can cost $24 one day and $150 another.
But there are a few patterns and strategies to get cheap Amtrak tickets.
I consider myself a bit of an expert on East Coast Amtrak routes. I live car-free in New York, I love to travel, I love seeing nature (and let’s be honest, I just love riding trains). I’ve taken the Ethan Allen Express probably half a dozen times, the Vermonter more times than that, and have ridden routes all the way from New York to Chicago in a private roomette.
If you’re going between New York and Harrisburg and looking at taking Amtrak’s Keystone Service to get there, you’re in the right place. I took it to Harrisburg and back, and I’m going to tell you everything you need to…
The Amtrak Hartford Line is one of the most unusual routes in Amtrak’s entire system. That’s not because of where it goes, but because of how it functions. Unlike most Amtrak routes, the Hartford Line operates like a commuter rail…
Amtrak has had issues from the day it formed, decades before I was born. So in some ways, Amtrak isn’t in any more “trouble” than that day, when Congress created it to pick up the pieces of failing private rail…
Long before the Ethan Allen Express extended to Burlington, there was the Vermonter Amtrak route: one of Amtrak’s workhorse routes connecting Washington D.C. through New York, Hartford, Springfield all the way to St. Albans, Vermont. I’ve taken this train dozens…