Thank you! I have to say, I wrote those lyrics, like, six months ago when I figured there was no chance you'd actually see it...! Genuinely, though, you and Jeb are the best trip report channels out there.
Jackson has such an infinite reserve of positive energy, he's my favorite guest on your channel for your videos that I've caught up with so far. These are fun!
Slowly working my way through the Boston Diner marathon. Incredible seeing all those old neighborhoods from the street and transit level. @@MilesinTransit
Well, well, well - Paul and Jeb face some serious competition now. I look forward to them frantically reviewing local buses and counting Wawas to get my attention back.
The Mohawk River Valley actually has a crazy colonial history as it was the only navigable waterway that allowed easy travel west of the Appalachian range.
At 10:19 the train was the Adirondack railroad which departs from Utica. They offer both tourist trains as well as actual service to Utica, Old Forge, and (as of last month) Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks.
Ah yes, Auntie Anne's...no mall experience is complete without getting a whiff of fresh Auntie Anne's. I loved "That was it?!" reaction to the NY welcome sign. Yeah, for a state called the Empire State...we deserve a better sign. We used to have a sign that showed the Statue of Liberty with fireworks to the right, Niagara Falls to the left, and the I
@@quayzar1 That sign got complaints at some point because it was erected by the New York State Thruway Authority and used to say "Welcome to the New York State Thruway" and thus centered around the Thruway's highlights. It wasn't the "Welcome to New York" that is seen on other interstate border crossings.
If you guys ever get the chance, come to Universal Orlando! I'm one of their bus drivers I'll almost ALWAYS announce my stops in the fashion Frank Oglesby Jr. (The MBTA voice Announcements) so when I arrive at the hotels from City Walk I always go "Entering: [Cabana Bay] no smoking please! Doors will open on the right" and on my last stop knowing everyone is getting off I pick fun by saying "The Destination of this train is:" And name a random T destination in Boston and see how many tourists from Massachusetts actually pick up on it. I always hoped I'd catch you guys on my bus one day! I miss Boston!
@@MilesinTransit Not really. There were camcorders but most people didn't have one, and they weren't digital, so even if the internet and computer infrastructure to distribute video had existed it would have been inaccessible. early 2000s is the earliest you saw video circulating online like casey neistat's "ipod's dirty secret" vid, but it didn't really take off until youtube existed, video files were (and sorta still are) big and expensive to host
@@MilesinTransit I mean I was born in 91 so I guess I should say the 2000's but whatever. Keep up the insanity I love it for how real and gritty it is, even if it is cringe sometimes 🤣👍.
@@MilesinTransit it would have been an extension of OnTrack, a commuter train that ran from Syracuse University to the DestinyUSA mall via Armory Square station downtown. The train was run from 1994 to 2007, operated by the NYSW. It was supposed to be extended to a station near the CNY Market via the Amtrak station, in an effort to boost ridership, but state funding was dropped after misuse of funds by the freight railroad came to light.
WOW, I need to look into that! There's a surprising amount of forgotten commuter rail systems in America's history...the PATrain and the one in Burlington, VT come to mind too.
Ohio had the chance to get federal funding for train service 3 times a day between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati about 15 years ago with the American Recovery but turned the money down so they kind of deserve what they get. I now benefit as we got some of the money in MA to improve train service between Springfield and Greenfield. More frequent service between Springfield (and possibly Pittsfield) is in the works. Another reason why I am glad I left Ohio for MA
This really shows that we need a east to west Massachusetts train, I know I've said this before, but I would love a train from Boston to Springfield for six flags, need round trips for that though. Would also love a bus to Canobie lake, but that's not Amtrak's problem. Come on Amtrak make a Boston to Pittsfield train, I'd take a Worcester to Pittsfield train at least.
Took the Lake Shore Limited for the first time last month, from Chicago back to New York - it was quite the experience!! But a good night’s rest is not an option LOL
I’m glad you appreciated the Albany to Schenectady 110mph section! Unlike the New York section, Bostonians only get that brief glimpse of over 79mph speeds. I’ve also noticed it tends to usually only top out at like 103 going west, but late trains going east regularly hit 110.
My wife and I have taken the LSL at least twice but have never ridden on the Boston section. The first time we went from Chicago to New york, the second time from New York to Chicago. Which is going the other way.
I recently moved to northeast Ohio and have looked into this route to visit my family in Boston, but like you mentioned in the video the train comes arrives/departs in the very early morning and is only once a day. Easier for me just to do flights sadly
11:01 Heyy it's my home station! When I was growing up it used to be an awful station but they re-did it a few years ago and now it's really nice. I don't usually see the city from that angle so it's fun that it came up in this video.
I was on the Lake Shore 48 from Toledo to New York and it has the baggage car so you can take your bicycle along. The 447 & 448 splits or connects at Albany so no bicycles to or from Boston. I can’t speak of the food, I brought all my own from the local Kroger grocery store before boarding.
Bro, dude, my guy. My brother in transit. Just shell out for a roomette. It's sooooo worth it on the Late Shore Limited. I took it just between Buffalo and Springfield for the Springfield Train Show and it was the best experience. Also, that bridge you pointed out just after Schenectady was not a bridge, it was a dam on the Mohawk River / Erie Canal.
I took the LSL from Boston to Rochester NY last month and the Boston to Albany portion was roughhh. If I were to do a similar trip again, especially going all the way to Chicago, I would drive to Albany and board there rather than slogging through the Massachusetts portion. Slow (the average speed can't be more than 35 or 40 mph), bumpy and sometimes delay-prone, once was enough for me.
I've taken the Lake Shore Limited between Boston and Chicago three times. The scenery changes a fair bit depending on the time of year. The Berkshires in Western Mass are scenic AF in the Fall, and I'm a sucker for traveling along the old Erie Canal in New York State.
When i took the LSL from Boston it left at 11:55AM. The engines that pulled #449 from Boston are a different type of power so those are the ones that will pull the entire train. #49 from NY gets pulled by a P40DC
Other way around, the LSL's P42's bring the train from Boston to Chicago (hence why there are two engines on such a short train) while the NY-Albany section uses P32AC-DM's for the 3rd rail power in Penn Station.
I can't think of one being better than the other off the top of my head, but the Mohawk River runs on the left side of the train and that's pretty incredible!
There's usually at least one person in the car who snores! One time I sat next to someone who had the most phlegmy throat I've ever witnessed, and it was an incredibly uncomfortable ride...
Great video! Those “Welcome to New York signs are a lot less disappointing when you reach them by bike (especially because they mean the pascack valley line is not far away).
6:07 Miles what type of Canon camera do you use? I can't quite make out the model. I'm shopping for a new small digital camera that can shoot good video (and has a long battery life).
Old Albany bus terminal / beautiful city = sketchy bus terminal, the SUNY campus is alright though I'm a student at another one so that was a treat. Also surprised you guys didn't get delayed by freight trains.
These Amtrak trip reports are a daily reminder for me to actually take a trip on Amtrak sometime... I'm probably the only person I know that's never stepped foot on an Amtrak train
It’s absolutely amazing within the Northeast Corridor and to some extent the surrounding areas as well (places like Roanoke and the Maine). But I personally wouldn’t recommend taking anything that goes longer distances without a roomette.
I went to Albany on a New England Railway Enthusiasts trip one month after 9/11/2001. It wasn't a bad trip - between Boston and Springfield was quick, but between Springfield and Pittsfield was slower. Albany-Rensslaer station was not bad, but it was before it was rebuilt. Albany itself was not much to write home about (think Boston with a less buses and more buildings).
ETA: I think this was a "farewell to the old Albany-Rensselaer station" trip before it was torn down and the new one was built in its place in the mid 2000's. We got the option of either (a) touring the train yards, (b) going on a lunch cruise on the Hudson, or (c) touring downtown Albany. I took option (c) and I ended up going to the Museum of Science and Industry near downtown. They used school buses to shuttle us everywhere, but the CDTA ran new Orion VI low floors. I wasn't very impressed with Albany, but the scenery on the train back and forth to Boston was phenomenal, especially near the Berkshires. I was also on NERE's Downeaster trip to Portland in 2007. Again, the options were (a) lunch at DeMilos on the Portland waterfront, or (b) Portland on your own. I took option (b) and I took the 5 bus to downtown, walked around Congress St, took the 5 bus to the Maine Mall, and then back to the train station. I liked the Portland trip much better.
You and all your friends have great senses of humor. I also really enjoy how much you seem (or pretend) to be interested in things along the journey. One thing I'd be interested in is costs of trips. Keep up the great work!
So this trip (and many of the future Amtrak journeys you'll see with me and Jackson) was paid for with an Amtrak USA Rail Pass that we spent $500 on to travel around the country with! If you book in advance, the trip from Boston to Chicago will run you about $95 in coach or a little under $500 for a room.
When I took this train we were 4 hours late due to big storms but it was all good as they still had traditional dining. Next month I have have a trip on The Cardinal from New York to Chicago, South West Chief to LA, Coast Starlight to Portland then Cascades to Vancouver which is part bus. All this is in coach 😳
I’ve slept pretty well on Amfleet II’s when I’ve ridden them overnight…looks like you guys might have missed out on the leg rests (not the footrest on the seat in front of you, but the leg rest that comes up from your own seat. The arcade joystick looking thing on the armrest releases it). My most recent ride on one was just about a month ago though, and over only a 2.5 hour trip, the extra space/recline vs the Amfleet I wasn’t worth rearranging my schedule to make it happen. Plus I forgot the conductor has to manually open each exterior door, which is just weird when you’re at a high platform and annoyed me more than it probably should have.
There's also the Capitol Limited, between Washington DC and Chicago. I'm fairly sure the "Limited" bit is from the 1920s or 1930s, meaning "limited stop", i.e. an express train. Back then, all the routes would have also had local trains stopping at all stations.
I’ve taken this route from Chicago to Rochester several times, both coach and sleeper. Nice route only issue I’ve had was the you seem to have a 30% chance to get stuck in the same car as a group of rowdy Mennonite’s who don’t sleep
As someone who traveled the lakeshore limited several times between rochester and waterloo, im calling bullshit. Theres no way you werent AT LEAST 2 hours late at all times, if not upwards of 10+. Leaking cars scans though
More tangentially Albany content! (Even if I've now been subjected to the steamed hams joke, is nowhere safe?) I am also very familiar with the Albany to Western NY trip since I went to grad school at RIT. It is never on time and perpetually full of college students in the morning, and in my experience usually full of families at night, at least during the winter. Another unsolicited Albany transit fun fact - despite being owned and operated by CDTA, the Capital District Transit Authority, there is only two regular service busses that connect to it, neither of which connect to BRT. We've been promised an Albany Gondola to connect downtown to the rail station for probably going on 6 years, but no progress has been made on that front.
Wow, that would actually be a useful gondola! I'm generally a fan of CDTA, but why do they charge a PREMIUM FARE for their BRT service that isn't all that much better than regular bus service??
@@MilesinTransit I think it's a hold-over from when we had zones and transfers and our fare system was convoluted as all get out. It still doesn't make sense, but it's probably them trying to push people to use a "fare product" (e.g. Navigator card or Navigator mobile), since with those you pay $1.30 a ride, no matter if it's BRT, express, commuter, trunk or neighborhood. Now CDTA's _trying_ with BRT at least - we're getting the last proposed line finally next fall, connecting downtown to uptown (read: UAlbany), there's a study being done on BRT only lanes and TSP with the Albany Parking Authority, and CDTA, APA and NYS OGS are planning on redeveloping the Greyhound station to be a downtown transit center, starting in spring of '24 (hopefully). CDTA's said on their capital projects page that "Bus Rapid Transit service can be a building block to a dedicated right of way system, or eventually to a trolley line or light rail system." And back in 2020 there was a local development group that paid for a light rail benefits case, so there's at least a starting block out there. We'll see where it goes from here, I guess. Maybe all the projects will go the way of the gondola.
So glad Miles called out Cleveland deserves better Amtrak service. There's been discussions for years, but to no fruition. Every Amtrak train in Cleveland comes between like 2am and 6am.
I definitely wouldn’t have risked getting out at Albany, I’d have expected it to be off in three minutes. Especially given the ubiquity of automatic couplers in the USA.
@@MilesinTransit I think it can be that quick (maybe five minutes at most) in the UK? Admittedly this is splittinyg a train of two multiple units with mutlifunctional couplers (these carry brake pipes and communications with the basic coupler).
Thanks for bringing us along on another fun Amtrak trip. As vintage Cunard advertising would say, “Getting there is half the fun!” Also I absolutely love the trip report jingle.
That Bryan Water tower is now painted with 8 Dum Dum suckers with the legs as the white sticks. Spangler Candy company is right by the tracks. I work at the Hospital Less than a half mile south of the water Tower, Bryan Ohio is the home of Dum Dums and Etch-A-sketch.
I kinda want Fort Wayne to Pittsburgh daily, but Chicago-Fort Wayne more likely. Sandusky could easily do 20-30 service on their bus routes (only Blue line has 30min service most of the day and Yellow is 45mins all day except Sunday). There is a bus that serves the train station/bus depot when there is no service there during the day unless Greyhound has daytime service as well as for meeting the outbound Capital Limited-which was an hour late when I took it so I was sitting there for four hours ultimately leaving with an Amish family and a random woman. You can get to the park via transit even if its not the causway unless you work there and sleep in the doors. Seriously, being a coaster enthusiast got me into transit-even though both had always been there with SEPTA and Sesame Place
@@MilesinTransit only the employee shuttle uses the causeway, but the Sandusky fairy terminal is walkable from Washington & Wayne, which is the hub of the bus system. I think the train station is on the Purple line so it is hypocritically doable is Amtrak and the STS serve the station during the same times of day, even if it’s still hourly
Hey! I’m a 67 year old “lady” who is taking the train from Boston to Seattle in May. In Coach. By myself. Will you be on my train? My last trip was from New Orleans. I made it to Maine, but you guys have more fun.
You should do reviews on Amtrak Thruway Coach services, they can be...varied. The Fort Hood/Temple route is just a guy in a early 2000's conversion van
This is something I've considered before - they really run the gamut! Sometimes they'll just throw you onto a city bus system and charge more than straight-up paying in cash, such as the Foxwoods connection via SEAT.
I've done it a couple times from Philly to Pittsburgh, but I'm waiting to film it for when I get New York in there too! Having Aleena in there would indeed be very fun.
The Albany Rensselaer station is definitely better than the Pittsfield one…probably since the Pittsfield one is more of a bus station that happens to have some benches to wait for the train.
At some point ya gotta review california's capitol corridor, it'll either be the best amtrak ever, or it'll get in 3 hours late for a 3 hour route (I wish I was joking). Also if ya find yourself in the SFBA MUNI trollybusses my beloved, caltrain my beloved, it'd be cool to see the new electrified caltrain.
There is, in the distant future, a video coming where Jackson and I ride every trolleybus route in the country! We filmed it last summer and it's just been hard to find time to edit it all!
