By Amtrak to the Big Apple…

Due to a technical complication with our flight home, our journey takes us not to Boston, but to New York, and so the question of how to get from Dover to New York arose. The typical answer is to look at flights, and that was an alternative, but luckily, Dover has that rare joy - its own Amtrak station. And I do enjoy a train ride…

For some rather absurd reason, Amtrak recommends that you arrive thirty minutes before your train is due to depart. Not because it will leave early, but simply because. So, Dover, with its limited hours waiting room, complete absence of places to sit and total lack of shelter, tends to encourage you to disregard that advice. Nobody ever said that Amtrak was entirely customer friendly…

I’d shelled out for business class seats for the first leg to Boston’s North Station, which gets you a reserved (and slightly more comfortable) seat plus free non-alcoholic beverages. It’s not particularly expensive, and does make the journey a little less stressful. And the wooded scenery of New Hampshire and Massachusetts passed smoothly enough, albeit slowly - it’s barely competitive with buses, let alone cars, but it is mostly predictable at least.

At Boston, we switched from North Station to South Station for the rather more swish Acela Express service. A first class ticket buys you access to the Metropolitan Lounge, with free drinks and snacks in a rather unexpectedly stylish setting - a significant upgrade on the main train hall which is undergoing major refurbishment. There are even free gummy bears, a particular attraction for the travelling bureaucrat.

You also get complimentary red cap service, which enables you to board the train early, with someone to carry your luggage and load it onto your carriage - a plus if you’re a bit older or your luggage is unusually heavy.

Aboard the train, you’re offered a welcome (alcoholic, if you’re so inclined) drink and a menu, including real food. It’s a bit like what National Express East Anglia was like before Richard Bowker got his hands on the restaurant car service (I have a long memory for a slight…). There’s a steward, in our case, Cheryl, who looked after us efficiently and with good humour, and you can feel taken care of in a way that you don’t often get even in Europe.

And, because Amtrak have rather more control over traffic, the train actually travels at a speed familiar to Europeans, using proper trains rather than curiously underpowered locomotives. And that means that, even with a number of stops, Boston to New York takes three hours and forty-five minutes. Not spectacular, but competitive with the airlines, particularly given the centre city location of the Amtrak stations at each end.

All in all, I’d describe the Amtrak experience, on the East Coast at least, as worth a look. I’d certainly do it again, perhaps in daylight for preference so as to benefit from the views out of the left-hand side as you head south and west from Boston.

And now for New York…