Weekend in New England
Three-Day Train-Riding Marathon Covers Five States, Almost 1,000 miles on Amtrak, MBTA and LIRR
For a train lover what better way to spend a weekend than riding trains? That’s what I did this past weekend: Amtrak, regional (commuter), and transit lines in five of the six states that comprise New England and close to 1,000 miles of travel over three days.
I wasn’t alone. I was one of seven participants in the Boston Railfest 2023, from as far off as Dallas. The organizer, Kevin Korell, has been planning and running events like this for more than 20 years. This one was supposed to take place in 2020 but was cancelled due to COVID.
Kevin scopes out the routes, schedules, and fares and provides lodging and dining information for out-of-town participants like me to help us make travel arrangements and budget for the trip. To date, he has run 54 of these events. They have ranged from a day of riding transit lines in a single city to cross-country trips on Amtrak.
Our itinerary focused on recent line extensions, but coping with construction became the overriding theme. We ran around work trains, used different routes and stations, and rode a bus for part of our trip on Amtrak’s Downeaster. Flexibility and knowledge of transportation alternatives make the events work.
Friday morning, I rose early to catch the 6:44 (am) from Oceanside to Penn Station. Surprisingly there were few riders. The LIRR conductor told me since the pandemic many commuters work from home on Fridays and Mondays.
I rode in business class, which entitled me to a large, reclining seat with leg rests and foot rests and a complimentary non-alcoholic beverage served at my seat by the café car attendant. It was worth the extra bucks.
My train to Boston, Amtrak Acela #2150, was a different story. It was nearly full. Fortunately, Amtrak now assigns seats to Acela business class passengers. This meant no need to stand on line to jostle for the best seats. I was assigned a window seat in the middle of the fifth car.
Acela, which began running in 2000, is showing its age. The dark blue seats in business class seem out of date. However, the train remains swift and smooth and its large windows offer a better view than the even older Amfleet cars used on other trains.
My train left on time but arrived in Stamford six minutes late, probably due to a local ahead of us. It had no trouble making up the time, however. It reached 149 mph on straightaways in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and skipped the time-consuming stop in New Haven.
I got off at Back Bay station where my roommate, Louis Petrillo, was waiting. We purchased tickets for MBTA regional trains and a Charlie card for the transit lines. Then we took the Orange Line and Green Line to Lechmere station and checked into our hotel, which was a block away.
Afterwards we rode to Medford-Tufts station on the Green Line Extension (GLX), which opened last December. When we reached Medford-Tufts we waited close to 15 minutes for an open track. Apparently another train was tying up one of the station’s two tracks. Next we headed to South Station to meet up with the group for our first event, a ride to Foxboro and back on a recently opened branch off the Franklin line.
The train left on time at 2:40 pm. After stopping at Back Bay, Ruggles, Forest Hills, and Hyde Park, it veered off the Northeast Corridor at Readville. The Franklin line is double track as far as Norwood Center and serves several suburban communities.
At Walpole the train slowed for a sharp curve to access CSX’s Framingham Secondary to reach Foxboro. The Foxboro station consists of a single, low-level platform behind the Gillette Stadium parking lot. It was built for special trains for New England Patriots home games and other events. Regular weekday service started one year ago in May.
A short tunnel connects the station to the parking lot. The stadium and adjacent Patriot Place are a quarter mile away. After a quick look-around the mall we returned to board the inbound train. At South Station the group split up. Louis and I took the Red Line to Kendall Square to have dinner.
Saturday morning, we checked out of our hotel and took the Green Line to Park Station. We walked to South Station because the Red Line was closed for construction. There we met up with the group for the day’s first activity, a round trip to Readville via the Fairmount Line, which runs through the working class neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park.
With eight stops it takes 28 minutes for the nine-mile run. The line is double tracked. All stations except Readville have high-level boarding platforms. Even with its leisurely pace our train couldn’t stay on schedule. Due to construction, it ran on the inbound track almost halfway to Readville. We arrived 11 minutes late. The return trip wasn’t much better: nine minutes late.
Due to the tardiness, we took taxis and Ubers to North Station to catch buses substituting for the Downeaster. The ride to Exeter, NH, where passengers transferred to the train for Brunswick, ME, took just over an hour. The train was only 11 minutes late when it departed.
I rode in business class, which entitled me to a large, reclining seat with leg rests and foot rests and a complimentary non-alcoholic beverage served at my seat by the café car attendant. It was worth the extra bucks.
The Downeaster route runs mostly through forests of spruce, pine, and birch with occasional clearances for homes and small farms. From the window you can also see the tidal flats outside Portland, the Saco River, and the mills it powered in Biddeford and its namesake city and catch glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean as the train passes through Old Orchard Beach.
A meet with a southbound Downeaster east of Wells, ME, added 20 minutes of delay. After stopping in Portland, Maine’s largest city, the train backed out of the station to continue on to Brunswick where we arrived at 3:46 pm, 36 minutes late. We still had plenty of time to grab dinner and walk around before boarding our last train for the day.
To save money, Kevin recommended the group stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport, the first stop after leaving Brunswick. The 13-minute run made this segment my shortest ride on Amtrak. The hotel is within walking distance of the station as well as L.L. Bean and other outlet stores, where I purchased a sweater for my wife and a flannel shirt for me.
Sunday morning, we rose early to catch the 7:23 a.m. train for Boston. When we reached Exeter it was raining heavily. Fortunately, the transfer to buses went smoothly. Despite the deluge the driver got us back to North Station with plenty of time for lunch before our next “event.” Unfortunately, the choices were unappealing, even though the station has a beautiful food court, so I settled for a bagel and coffee at Dunkin.
North Station is one of the most depressing places I have ever waited for a train. The black walls and ceilings are dreary. The LED lights that hang from the columns have the warmth of a prison. The acoustics are poor and train announcements drown out conversations. The ticket windows were tucked away in a side corridor and there is virtually no Amtrak branding even though the Downeaster has used the station since 2001.
Our final journey took us to Wachusett, the historic Fitchburg Line’s terminus since 2016. The Fitchburg line is a Class 4 double tracked route with top passenger train speeds of 79 mph. West of Ayer, it shares the tracks with heavy CSX freight trains. The Wachusett station consists of a single high-level platform with a staircase and ramp that leads to a parking lot. There is nothing else around. Fortunately, it had a canopy that kept us dry in the rain.
When we returned to North Station Louis and I said our good-byes and headed to Back Bay via the Orange Line. Golden Hour light bathed the inlets, wetlands, and distant houses that fronted Long Island Sound as the Acela I was aboard raced across southern Connecticut. I celebrated a successful weekend with a cheese and crackers assortment from the café car washed down with a split of prosecco.
My takeaways:
· Acela and the Downeaster are well run, popular trains, but they are overdue for new equipment.
· Amtrak and Metro North need to devise plans to keep Acela from being delayed as it runs between New Rochelle and New Haven.
· As long as the spread between Amtrak coach and business class fares is reasonable the upgrade is worth the extra money. Same can be said for Brightline premium class.
· MBTA’s Charlie Card is far superior to New York City Transit’s MetroCard.
· MBTA’s regional rail weekend pass, which provides unlimited travel on Saturdays and Sundays for $10, is one of the best deals going. More people should take advantage of it.
· The Fairmount branch would work better as a light-rail line. (Several people in the group said this.)
· If you go on or plan a similar train-riding marathon be prepared for the unanticipated. Have a backup plan in mind and a good sense of humor.
Here are some of the photos I took with my phone. https://www.facebook.com/1094734222/posts/pfbid0m8hT4aQTnXVL3ECcJxTGDZ4otfRt3opUaWn1Z8i4WzjR3pnfWzRJJyn1D72wvqCkl/?mibextid=q5o4bk