Aug. 16, 2019: Washington to New York by commuter rail (and a bus)
As it happens, I'm actually writing about this nearly two years after the fact, but so be it. I thought keeping a blog about my passion for trains and other forms of public transportation might be a fun activity, particularly during a pandemic.
Anyway, a couple years ago I decided it would be fun to travel from Washington Union Station to New York Penn Station, but instead of the normal speedy journey on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, I thought It'd be fun to see how realistic it would be to go from point A to point B using all public transit systems. Doing this, I found, is very possible although not the simplest. There are commuter trains connecting all points of the route except for a 20+ mile stretch between Perryville, Md. and Newark, Del., which is accessible by bus.
Leg 1-MARC to Perryville, Md.
I probably broke the spirit of my own adventure by Ubering to Union Station, but I only did so because I was catching a 6 a.m. train and Metro only starts running at 5 a.m. on weekdays, so I didn't want to cut it too close.
Perryville is the farthest MARC travels on this particular line (another branch runs to West Virginia), and only a few trains each day go there, so it made sense to take the first one out since this is the only train that goes that far until much later in the day. The ride cost $12 and was pretty smooth overall. It's slower than Amtrak because of the stops, but at some points reached a top speed of 90 miles per hour. We had to slow down at one point to allow Amtrak trains to pass (Amtrak has the right-of-way in the Northeast Corridor). The approach over the Chesapeake and the Susquehanna was beautiful. We were right on time arriving into Perryville.
Leg 2-Cecil County Transit bus to Newark, Del.
Cecil County's transit system operates a bus that serves the Perryville station with a fare of $2. This particular route covers the commuter rail desert between Perryville and Newark by stopping at both stations, with a stop in between at Cecil College. Currently, this route is suspended due to the pandemic.
The bus stop in Perryville is located at the edge of the parking lot of the MARC station and is adjacent to town hall. The bus was scheduled to pull up at 8:10, and was thankfully just a couple minutes late. On this day I was the only passenger, and was greeted by a friendly driver who spoke with an audible Eastern Shore dialect. She said they typically transport just two passengers a day, and were considering doing away with this particular bus time due to a lack of demand.
Traffic was light on I-95, and after we stopped at the college we proceeded on to Newark. When we pulled into the station parking lot, I had about five minutes to spare to get to my next train, a 9 a.m. SEPTA to Philadelphia. I nearly ran to the platform, not realizing the proper walkway that was set up for people to use, and ended up ducking under a construction barrier in order to save time.
Making this connection was essential to my trip, because the next train from Newark didn't leave until for at least another hour. Alternatively I could have taken a different bus to Wilmington, where SEPTA trains are more frequent, but it would have taken longer.
I boarded the 9 a.m. SEPTA as other passengers were boarding, and the train ended up departing 11 minutes late anyhow.
Leg 3-SEPTA train to Philadelphia
This trip was probably the slowest of all the trains I rode, and the rolling stock seemed more dated than MARC's. At Darby, Pa., our train lost power for some reason, but regained it after about 10 minutes. The train crawled along the route, making at least a dozen stops. Finally we pulled into the upper level of 30th St. Station in Philadelphia a little after 10:30 a.m. Time for a break.
Leg 4-SEPTA to Trenton, N.J.
This particular train seemed somewhat newer and slightly faster than the first SEPTA I had ridden on from Delaware. Like the first, it also made many stops. I particularly liked the Levittown station. We arrived in Trenton around 1:15 p.m.
Leg 5-NJ Transit to New York
After a little confusion at the ticket window, I purchased multiple individual NJ Transit tickets in preparation for my three days commuting in and out of the city, as I was staying with my sister's friends who live in New Jersey. I was hoping to purchase a three-day pass, but they only offered a weeklong option. I caught the 1:44 p.m. departure.
The Trenton-New York route is $16.75 one way, which seems steep. But the quality is top notch. The trains on this line are double decker, glide smoothly along the rails and reached speeds of up to 95 miles per hour (Amtrak's Northeast Regionals generally can go up to 125). When we arrived at the downtown Newark station, a large crowd boarded and the train became standing room only.
Under the Hudson we went, and when we emerged from the tunnel, I was surprised to not be greeted by the light of the Manhattan sky, as I had been so many times before just before pulling into Penn Station. I later learned that this area was built over as part of a large mixed-use development project.
Penn Station was undergoing extensive maintenance during the summers of 2017 and 2018 to fix problems with the station's track infrastructure. Some Amtrak trains even stopped at Grand Central instead -- the first time Amtrak service ran out of that station on a consistent basis since Amtrak ceased operations there in the spring of '91.
Penn Station is a bustling place at all hours of the day, although the underground space is decrepit and depressing. Since this trip, however, the beautiful new Moynihan Train Hall has opened, welcoming visitors to the Big Apple in grand style. More on that in my next post.
To get back to my commuter train adventure, we pulled into the station at 3:15 p.m. -- more than 9 hours after I had boarded my first train in D.C. The total cost of the trip was $48, which isn't bad when you consider that a one-way fare on Amtrak might end up being more depending on when you book. However, if train travel isn't your thing or your goal is to get to your destination quickly, I would not recommend this method of transportation.
I felt victorious at having reached my destination. I had one more train to take for the day, which was a ride on NJ Transit's Gladstone Branch to Summit. Taking so many trains in one day was cool, and I enjoyed the challenge. But even for a train nerd like me, I probably won't repeat this journey. Admittedly, this trip falls into the category of YOLO (you only live once). My trip back to D.C. on Amtrak was smooth, comfortable and did not feature the stress of having to make a 5-minute train-bus connection in Delaware.
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