Recently we have been taking the train more and have been pleasantly surprised with the overall experience. We used to be diehard drivers mainly to keep the travel time down and flexibility at the destination, but with the price of fuel skyrocketing, parking fees rising, and traffic as congested as ever, we started looking for alternatives. Continue reading for our experience and why you may want to relook at Trains as a travel option.

My wife routinely needs to go to NYC for business purposes and for her, it's stressful navigating the NY roads and traffic, and hard on the car due to the lovely potholes! On the return trip, any NYC commuter will tell you that if you don't get into Connecticut before 2PM you won't be home before 7PM due to the gridlock on 95 and the Merritt Parkway. If there's an accident, it'll take even longer. Add tolls, parking fees, and the loss of 5 hours of productive working time and it is a costly day that you need to make up. Instead, she now takes the train from New Haven to NYC because it's actually faster and cheaper than driving, saves wear and tear on the car, and gives her time to do some work on the way in and out.

We also take regular trips to the Washington DC area for family visits or to see our daughter who attends George Washington (GW) University. Getting to that area can be challenging depending on when you leave and our go-to "DC by car" plan was to leave VERY early in the morning (think 5AM). This may seem extreme, but it gets you around NYC, Philly and Baltimore rush hours so you can be in DC a little after 11AM. If you miss the early window and leave after 8AM, you get stuck in traffic and won't arrive in DC until the late afternoon. The return trip is worse due to heavy gridlock coming into Connecticut. Either way, it’s $275 round trip for gas and tolls and parking at destination except for Thanksgiving week, where the travel time is doubled due to the holiday traffic, so the costs go up. By train, the normal trip only takes 7.3 hours one way at an average roundtrip cost of $256, although off peak fares can go down to $162 roundtrip. So, it’s slightly longer, but it’s cheaper and when we arrive, we are relaxed and ready to start our visit.

For a convention I recently went to in Boston, it would have taken me about 3 hours to get there by car and cost me $151 for gas, tolls and parking. Instead, I took a train from Berlin to Boston South Station and then a nice 20-minute city walk to my hotel. Total travel time from door to door was about 4.5 hours at a roundtrip cost of $145, though off-peak fares can run as low as $126. I was able to read the whole time and actually enjoyed the ride and scenery and would definitely do this again in the future.

             I should point out that while train fares vary based on time, day and ride class (coach versus business class), the ones I’ve cited here will give you a good idea of the actual costs, which are better than many may realize. For those costs you get a café car with drinks, meals, and snacks and you can also bring your bikes or your dog. Most importantly, the train isn't as affected by weather as flying or driving is. On a recent return from DC during the last snowstorm of the season, I enjoyed seeing the snowfall and empty streets from my speeding train as opposed to being stuck in DC scrambling to find a hotel for the night, which has happened many times. I was very glad I took the train that night! Lastly, for you worker bees out there I have one word for you: Wi-Fi.

Overall, if you’re flexible timewise, the cost savings are there, and it’ll make the act of traveling so much more enjoyable than driving. In fact, I've enjoyed traveling by train so much lately that I've started to look at where else I can go via train. In my next articles I’ll share some interesting options as well as frustrating limitations in the CT rail system but until then, I would encourage you to rethink your travel plans using rail for a cost-neutral but interesting and restful experience!

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