Urban Safari: Boston to New London – by train
A little more expensive, but an hour faster
We’ve always driven to New London when we wanted to visit our friend.
But with high gas prices and pre-COVID-level traffic on I-95, we opted for an intermodal round-trip journey from Boston (walking, bus, subway, Amtrak) for our last visit.
Widespread Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) cannot come soon enough!!!
Easy to get to, easy to leave from
Amtrak
We got to the Back Bay Amtrak station at using a combination of walking, bus, and subway, which makes it sound like a lot/a hassle, but when you live in a public-transport-minded city, it really is quite smooth and efficient.
We were on the subway for just a few stops before we were at Back Bay station, where we would board Amtrak. We could have taken the T all the way to South Station if we thought getting seats would be a problem, but we knew it wouldn’t be, so we didn’t.
Yes, you can take the train all the from Boston to Washington D.C. if you want! (One of us did already.)
The train arrived and left exactly on time, and as predicted, we had no problem getting two seats together facing the forward direction of travel. Some of us cared, but some of us didn’t even notice…
VERY comfortable seats, free WiFi, AC, and lots of room. AND decent coffee.
The Amtrak train was clean and quiet, and the ride was smooth. Well, a lot smoother than the 20+ year-old German sports car that needs its bushings replaced!
Lookit those faces – taking the train is a lot less stressful than fighting traffic on I-95!!!
The round trip on the weekend was only $44 per person (because we bought the tickets in advance) and was almost an hour FASTER than driving!!!
Sitting on a nice cushy semi-armchair seat and looking out a gi-normous window as a slice of the northeast section of the country sped by was so much more relaxing than fighting/sitting in/dealing with traffic on the interstate. Another bonus: the amazing water views along the way: even though the tracks follow mostly follows the same “path” as the highway, the view from the train is something you can’t see or imagine when driving on the interstate!!!
Great scenery along the way to New London
A shout-out to Amtrak: Like pretty much every station on our national train system, the New London station is right in the middle of downtown: when you get off the train you are exactly where you travelled to!
If all you’ve ever taken are planes, actually arriving at your destination when you’ve finished the journey–as opposed to merely finishing one leg of your travel to your destination–is an eye opener.
New London, Connecticut
Our friend moved from New York to New London prior to the pandemic. New London is a (somewhat) sleepy little(ish) city with some large industries, a lot of water frontage, and affordable real estate prices (compared to NYC and Boston).
One cannot get this kind of water view in NYC without adding a whole lotta zeros to the price of the real estate…
A contemporary, shore based, reimagining of The Three Musketeers.
We hadn’t seen her in a while and was eager for a get together. So when a weekend opportunity arose, she was on our list of “first contact.”
The awesome water view from her deck had NOTHING to do with anything, except it can be a little mesmerizing (for a lot of time).
The amazing margaritas she made for her visitors, on the other hand, is a completely different story…which we are not going tell.
A view, a view, a view, and then a view.
Safari Summary
Taking Amtrak to and from New London was far superior to driving, even though a little more expensive.
Our friend lived close to the train station, was able to pick us up in less than ten minutes, and had margaritas at the ready 20 minutes after that.
Even without that last part, though, traveling by train is an excellent way to get where you want to go, and we plan to take advantage of that whenever we can!
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