weighing the benefits of a round trip

I am going to Providence from Philly PA for a day-trip the week before Christmas. I will prolly stay over one night, but might drive back the same day.

I figure I have so many modes of transportation to choose from:
car, Acela, regional Amtrak train, Greyhound, and even plane.

I'm working on a spreadsheet right now including fields such as earliest departure time available, total travel time required, comfort, round trip option, and price.

I hope Acela wins. I've always wanted to ride it once. For that length of trip (4 to 6 hours) is the upgrade worthwhile? I've been on regionals quite often.

What might prevent me from flying is that the return trip needs to be between 10pm and 2 am, where I'm more likely to be able to find an acela running than a plane, I think. Plus, as I said, I really am hoping I can make the Acela work for my itinerary.

It seems that greyhound and most airlines offer a break for round-trips, whereas Amtrak just costs twice as much. Not really sure why that is, but it is only a slight deterrent to me.

>>What might prevent me from flying is that the return trip needs to be between 10pm and 2 am, where I'm more likely to be able to find an acela running than a plane, I think. Plus, as I said, I really am hoping I can make the Acela work for my itinerary.
<<

Going South the last Acela is 7.20 pm from Providence

There is the overnight train 10.24 pm. But this is not Acela.

Bear im mind there will be a timetable change ( Oct 5 ? ) between now and christmas , probably unlikely to be major changes to the corridor sevices though .

The Acela is a terrific service and if the departures do fit your schedule, it is probably the fastest way to get from downtown Providence to downtown Philadelphia. If the downtowns are not your destination or orgin points for your eventual trip, flying may be slightly faster.

As far as value, I have seen many recent advertisements for Southwest's new service from the Green airport in Providence to Philadelphia -- since it is a new service, the rates were extremely low to build business. May be worth investigating.

Talk about low fares wow!

$27+taxes for swa one way from PHL-PVD
Of course the govt adds another $12

Still almost half the cost of Amtrak.

disclamer:
Of course these fares are just examples and are in no way official.

But will this fare be available the week before Christmas? Farthest out you can book on Southwest today is October 29.

mattfels wrote:But will this fare be available the week before Christmas? Farthest out you can book on Southwest today is October 29.

Who cares how ar out you can book. SWA will release there schedule for the EOY soon enough. And whatever prices they are offering then, I will guarantee you that the discounted ticket will be A LOT less than $90 or so. Even their full fare ticket is under the cost of an Amtrak peak ticket.

dinky wrote:Who cares how [f]ar out you can book.

The traveler, of course, The itinerary in question is for the week before Christmas. And when I priced a Regional coach same-day r/t on Dec. 20, it was less than $90 each way.

I will guarantee you

Let's stop right there. When the post is made under alias, a guarantee means nothing.

Looks like we've found crazy_nip a running mate.

mattfels wrote:The itinerary in question is for the week before Christmas. And when I priced a Regional coach r/t itinerary there and back on Dec. 20, it was less than $90 each way.

Let's stop right there. When the post is made under alias, a guarantee means nothing.

Looks like we've found crazy_nip a running mate.

Great....$90 each way sounds like less than $180 round trip to me. Get a discounted ticket on SWA or even USA and it will be a lot less. USA which offers 330 day booking is now less than $100 for your for your 12/20 date. For this particular case, Amtrak is not the cheapest available. Granted before SWA entered the market Amtrak was the leader between the two modes.

I appreciate your demeaning remarks regarding my use of an alias, my alleged character, and .....well I could go on.....but then again....nothing else is new for Mr. Fels.

dinky wrote:I appreciate your demeaning remarks regarding my use of an alias, my alleged character, and

Where? I don't see anything wrong with posting under alias--never have--but by posting under alias one does forfeit the ability to issue personal vouchers. And who says it's "demeaning" to be compared to crazy_nip?

.....well I could go on.

Perhaps we'd better.

mattfels wrote:

.....well I could go on.

Perhaps we'd better.

Well if we are.....you're the one to do it with.

mattfels wrote:

.....well I could go on.

Perhaps we'd better.

At Mrs. Fels' request.....


So instead of going too far off the beaten path (yeah right) I think failure to address the issue directly is Mr. Fels' tacit admission that the airlines in this case are currently the most economical choice.

Economical choice? So far, the airlines (coach, correct?) have been compared with the Acela Express, which is not the "economy" version of Amtrak rail travel on the NEC.

Please, let us bring things more in line and compare/contrast the Regional service instead of the originally-mentioned Acela Express.

dinky wrote:Even their full fare ticket is under the cost of an Amtrak peak ticket.

No. Southwest's full-fare ticket is $79 one way. Amtrak's is $73 for Regional service.

... and we're done here. Trains, remember, trains??

-otto-