Day 1(and 2) Of Our Northeast Adventure

As mentioned in a previous post our trips on the Silver Meteor are night trips and since we were trying to use up our rail pass segments, we traveled in coach. This meant we had to be prepared to sleep in a seat. We were so excited to start our adventure that we thought we could handle the overnight to New York and then catch the train to Niagara Falls. Well, we thought we could handle more than we could. The trip to New York began around 9pm on a Thursday and we arrived in New York around 11am on Friday. The New York station was beautiful, but very busy. We decided to grab lunch at the station while we had our short layover. This proved to be challenging because of the crowd. We ended up taking half of our meal with us on the train to Niagara.

Because we had never been to the Moynihan Train Hall in New York we weren’t sure how things worked their. We tried to ask for help concerning the Empire Service to Niagara, but no one seemed to want to offer any real assistance. Our concern was that we would not be able to sit together on the trip from New York to Niagara. We had eaten half of our lunch when we realized that people were already lining up for Niagara. I think it had been announced, but not posted on the monitor. It was so loud in the station that we were focusing on the monitor and didn’t hear it. We grabbed our food and headed for the very long line that had already formed. Luckily, we got the last two seats together on the train. The downside was that we were on the right side of the train and the beautiful views were on the left as we traveled along the Hudson River. It’s always frustrating when travelers are on the most scenic side of the train and keep their focus on their phone or tablet the entire way, but we managed to see some of the views. All in all we felt lucky that we were able to sit together. We have learned that your Amtrak ticket doesn’t allow you to choose an assigned seat, most conductors will seat traveling parties together. In the northeast, this is not the case. It is truly a first come first serve situation. Occasionally, you will find travelers that will move to allow families to stay together, but more often you have to wait until the train begins to empty at the various stops to be able to sit together. I would like to take that train again someday and try to be at the front of the line so that I can sit on the left side of the train. What we did see was absolutely gorgeous.

We pulled into Niagara Falls, NY around 11pm. We had spent over 24 hours traveling by train with only an hour and a half at the train station in New York. To say we were tired of sitting was an understatement. As we arrived at the Niagara Station, we were two of four passengers in our train car. I quickly used my Uber app and in less than ten minutes we were on our way to our hotel. Again, Uber rocks.

The Pros and Cons

Pros:

• We saved money by eliminating one night in a hotel by traveling straight thru to Niagara.
• We traveled by daylight on the Silver Meteor and were able to see Washington, D.C., Baltimore (before the bridge disaster), and New York.
• The trip from New York to Niagara had many hours of daylight travels before nightfall.
• The crew on the Silver Meteor for this trip were very nice and helpful on this trip and the bathrooms were kept clean.
• The crew on the Empire Service were also very professional and helpful. The bathrooms were the cleanest we have seen on a train and everyone adhered to the earbud usage rule.

Cons:

• The crew members of the Silver Meteor; however, they did not enforce the earbud usage rule. We listened to loud phone conversations, movies (that we didn’t care to hear), and music most of the night. We didn’t get much sleep which made the next day a little challenging.
• The Amtrak employees at Moyniham Train Hall were not helpful. We were lucky to be able to sit together on the Empire Service, but we did get the last double seat. Just a little nudge in the right direction or a heads up on how things work would have been great.
• If you don’t have more than a two hour layover at Moyniham Train Hall, eat on the train. It’s too crowded to wait for food and then eat before lining up for your train.
• Sit on the left side of the Empire Service if you are interested in the view.
• This is the biggest con – Don’t travel for over 24 hours in one day if you can help it. If I had it to do over again, I would get a room in New York before traveling on to Niagara. It was way too long for us.

At the end of the day, we were completely exhausted from being on the train that long, but we were excited to be in Niagara. Since we didn’t have a set schedule, we slept in and then enjoyed Niagara the next day.