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Argh - Amtrak just called to inform me that our LSL #48/448 from CHI to WOR will only go as far as ALB and we will have to be bus-ti-tuted from ALB to WOR! What the heck is up with that?!?
Posts: 26 | From: southbridge, MA USA | Registered: Jul 2003
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What's to complain about...your ride will probably be close to two hours less.
Best regards, Rodger...BOS/CHI rider of the LSL both as through train and with cross platform cha, cha, cha in ALB...and NEVER again
Posts: 112 | From: Merrimac, MA | Registered: Nov 2007
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You are funny and correct - I never understood how Amtrak could take what is a 1hr 45min drive by car and turn it into an over 4 hour journey with only two station stops between WOR and ALB.
Question: do the busses stop only at the Amtrak stations because taking the Mass Pike to WOR will go right by our house in Sturbridge and cut yet another 30 mins of the ride. Heck they could even drop us off at the Charlton/Sturbridge rest area on the pike.
Posts: 26 | From: southbridge, MA USA | Registered: Jul 2003
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When I took the LSL shuttle from Boston to Albany last year, I learned a lot about it from folks here and elsewhere. It is one of the oldest Amtrak lines, portions going back before the Civil War, designed by Whistler's FATHER (a famous early railroad engineer who also designed the Trans-Siberian RR in Russia. After crossing the Berkshires, it makes a big lazy loop before joining the line along the Hudson into Albany. It's a pretty ride, esp before the trees leaf in (there's several streams or rivers you ride along in spots), but since I don't live in New England, I'd only do it westbound, when it's reasonably on time and would not bring me into anywhere too late at night.
This April, I Amtrakked to New England and was planning a piggyback trip from there straight to the Midwest, on the LSL out of Boston. But while on vacation I began having a very bad reaction to antibiotics for an infection, so I decided to come back to Albany on the LSL shuttle and get home instead of going further west as planned. When I made the change, I learned that the shuttle that day was going to have bus-ti-tu-tion. Sure, it was 2 1/2 hrs as opposed to 5, but it was a BUS. I take trains because I like trains; I will take a bus only if I must. Besides, given my medical state, I did not want to deal with any bus "facilities." So instead I opted to take a Regional from Boston to NYC and then an Empire Service back up the Hudson, essentially going back whence I came. It cost more and took even more time, but I was happy with the decision.
Eastbound, alas, you do not have this option.
Of course, you can complain to Amtrak about the bustitution, have then switch you to the Capital Ltd to Washington DC from Chicago, probably miss the 4PM ACELA and 4:05 Regional to Boston, spend what's left of the afternoon and evening in DC, and return to Union Station for the 10PM overnight ("redeye") Regional to Boston. It takes 10 hours--2 hours more than a usual Regional from DC to Boston--and means sleeping on a train with no sleepers, but at least it's not a late arrival--it gets in 7:52 AM!!! (I think in this case, I'd do the bus. )
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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