New York to Boston on the Lake Shore Limited

We left Niagara, New York early in the morning and arrived shortly after at the Buffalo-Depew station where we caught the Lake Shore Limited for Boston. I was really looking forward to this trip because it was a full day of views across two states, New York and Massachusetts. As I mentioned once before, the northeast trains do not appear to assign seats or try to keep traveling parties together. You’re kind of on your own. I thought that it wouldn’t be a problem because we were leaving so early, but it was actually pretty full once it arrived in Buffalo. The Lake Shore Limited actually originates in Chicago, so a lot of the travelers were already on board. We were also traveling on a Sunday when winter break from several colleges was ending, so there were lots of students traveling back to college. We did manage to grab seats together, so that was a great thing. The downside was that the seat we got did not have a full window but as we lost passengers along the route, we were able to move up on seat for a full window. l will say that the views were beautiful, even in winter, but I was disappointed in the condition of the windows. They appeared to be so dirty on the outside that it affected the view and didn’t allow me to take good pictures.

We were able to enjoy the views as we passed through the New York countryside which had beautiful farms. Again, we were traveling in February, and we saw lots of ice on the sides of the rails which was really pretty. I can’t help but imagine what this route would be like in the fall. I do think that we will see this route again someday. All in all, it was a nice day of train travel, and we enjoyed the views, the time spent together, and our fellow travelers were pleasant with the exception of one seat hog. I have seen other Amtrak travelers’ comment that some employees refuse to ask travelers to comply with the rules and this was one of those situations. A young lady spread out over two seats and even when other travelers boarded and walked up and down the car looking for an open seat, she refused to move her belongings so that they could sit. We even saw some that were settling for standing in the back of the car and she still refused to move her stuff. That was definitely a downside to this leg of our trip. It didn’t really affect us, but I hated seeing people struggling to find a seats.

Now for the pros and cons

PROS:

• Day trip allowing you to see beautiful countryside. Although we traveled in winter and it was still beautiful, I look forward to this same trip in a season with more color.
• Comfortable seats
• Clean restrooms
• Polite attendants

CONS:

• Dirty windows hindered ability to take pictures
• Attendants didn’t seem to help travelers find seats in a crowded train

As I stated earlier, I know that I will take this trip again. I just know that it would be a spectacular trip in the fall. My hope would be that the dirty windows were due to winter weather and that they would be much clearer in other seasons. I look forward to traveling on the Lake Shore Limited again.