Posted April 9, 20187 yr Over the past week, I made a trip on Amtrak with my wife and son from Cleveland to Boston to Washington DC to Cleveland. It was a fun trip and all of the trains were on time or very close to it. The train crews were no worse than robotic and some were actually friendly. We rode coach throughout although the "cheap" seats on Acela Express are called Business Class. We rode transit in Boston and Washington and I got to show my Ukrainian wife and son some American history and teach them geography about the Eastern USA. My wife and son got to walk the narrow streets of Beacon Hill, see and put their hands in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, gaze up on the US Capitol, White House, court buildings, monuments, etc. PART ONE -- But it all started at 5:50 a.m. in Cleveland with the on-time departure of the Lake Shore Limited for Boston.... Buffalo-Depew station Rochester has a brand-new multi-modal station replacing its 1970s Amshack.... Syracuse got a new multi-modal station about 20 years ago. The conductor announced that, after this station, every seat/first-class compartment had a butt in it on our 14-car train.... Utica station.... Little Falls, NY.... Mohawk River near Schenectady.... New station under construction for Schenectady.... NY State DOT has upgraded the 100-mile-long Hoffmans-Poughkeepsie portion to 110 mph, a portion that Amtrak now leases from CSX as the predominant user of this line.... Albany-Rensselaer, divided by the Hudson River.... Berkshires.... Springfield, MA.... Worcester, MA (aka Woosta).... Arrival in Boston. Our hotel was less than a block from Back Bay station.... Next around around Boston.... Sorry Boston, but West Side Market is better.... Late-19th century City Hall.... Night-time stroll in the rain to dinner at Stephi's on Tremont in Back Bay.... The second day, we're back at Back Bay station to ride the Orange Line and Blue Line subways out to Wonderland...home of the famous Wonderland Ballroom, the historic "Dance Hall of New England." But I took my wife and son there as the closest, most accessible Atlantic Ocean beach to central Boston -- Revere Beach. My wife and son had never seen the Atlantic Ocean except from an airplane. Now they have.... We rode the Blue Line back into Boston, to the end of the line at Bowdoin and got lunch at the Red Hat, a 100-plus-year-old basement tavern then walked the Thoreau Path through 1970s-era urban renewal to the science museum.... We rode the Green Line Heath branch to the end to kill time and then doubled back to the Prudential stop for dinner at Top Of The Hub on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Building.... Then we headed from Prudential on the Green Line to walk the streets of Beacon Hill and then returned to our hotel on the Red and Orange lines.... PART TWO -- Acela Express to Washington DC and visiting DC tourist sites and neighborhoods -- as well as catching the cherry blossoms at their peak..... https://www.urbanohio.com/forum/index.php/topic,31910.0.html "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 9, 20187 yr Nice job. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
April 9, 20187 yr Author Thanks. Yes, the Worcester Line trains have the low-level platforms at Back Bay (as photographed in this Part 1). Not sure why since all of the trains (MBTA, Amtrak) that runs through there can use high-level platforms, and the Worcestor Line is MBTA's second-busiest commuter rail line with 15,000 weekday riders (Providence Line is the busiest with 21,000 weekday riders). The high-level platforms would dramatically speed up loading/unloading of passengers. Perhaps the low-level platforms are left over from when Conrail/CSX ran freight trains through Back Bay (freight trains need more lateral clearance without gantlet tracks)? The Northeast Corridor/Providence Line side has high-level platforms, which makes sense considering it's the busiest MBTA commuter rail line and was the focus of Boston trading in its federal money for building I-95 into central Boston to instead put this rail line and the parallel Orange Line elevated tracks in a subway. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 9, 20187 yr When we went to Boston, we stayed in the Back Bay and explored multiple areas of town...but somehow we missed Beacon Hill. Your pictures make me want to go back to Boston just to see that!
April 10, 20187 yr nice -- but hmm will we ever have spring?? When we went to Boston, we stayed in the Back Bay and explored multiple areas of town...but somehow we missed Beacon Hill. Your pictures make me want to go back to Boston just to see that! when we go to boston we always stay in beacon hill --- highly recommended to visit and stroll around there! my spouse has some of her staff up in wakefield --- i ain't staying there lol! https://beaconhillhotel.com/
Create an account or sign in to comment