{"id":499,"date":"2012-02-20T13:56:36","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T13:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/blog\/?p=499"},"modified":"2012-02-20T13:56:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T13:56:36","slug":"planes-trains-and-automobiles-and-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/20\/planes-trains-and-automobiles-and-buses\/","title":{"rendered":"Planes, Trains and Automobiles&#8230; and Buses?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-500\" title=\"planes-trains-and-automobiles-movie-poster-1987-1020193231\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/hotel-lobbyists.com\/hl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/planes-trains-and-automobiles-movie-poster-1987-1020193231-203x300.jpg\" \/>There\u2019s an enormous amount of choice right now, when it comes to the best way to travel short distances, like for instance the distance I travel when I come back to Washington, DC twice a month.\u00a0 I think I\u2019ve now done the trip every which way but by boat, although I\u2019m considering my options now as I\u2019ll soon embark on my very first cruise.<!--more-->Of the mediums, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve found one I prefer more than the train.\u00a0 I don\u2019t take the silky Acela train, I take the very ordinary but perfectly comfortable Amtrak from New York\u2019s Penn Station to Washington\u2019s Union Station.\u00a0 That\u2019s the longest leg of the trip but not the only leg of the trip.\u00a0 And so if there\u2019s a part of this ride that makes it slightly less desirable, it\u2019s that in order to get my three and a half glorious hours on the choo choo, I must first rely on Jaime to drive me to the train station, hop aboard the Long Island Railroad for an hour to commute into the City, and then once I\u2019ve concluded my Amtrak service, I\u2019ll need to take the metro or a taxi in DC to my final destination.\u00a0 Ignoring for a moment the number of different transportation means it takes to be able to use Amtrak, I really do favor Amtrak as it has the biggest upside \u2013 I can travel during business hours and hardly lose one minute of productivity.\u00a0 I can be connected for the duration of the trip and unless I\u2019m on the dictatorial quiet car, I might be able to conduct the exact same amount of business using the train as I would sitting behind my desk.\u00a0 The downside is that for the amount of time it still takes to make this commute, the price does not reflect a very good value.\u00a0 If one is able to book train tickets far enough in advance, there\u2019s value to be had, but otherwise it can often cost as much as air travel.<\/p>\n<p>Air travel is another means to get to DC that has a lot of upside.\u00a0 The transfer itself is possibly the quickest if you only consider you\u2019re in the air for under an hour.\u00a0 But there are a few glitches with that reasoning.\u00a0 For one, getting to an airport which serves Washington\u2019s most convenient access point, Reagan National Airport, means an hour\u2019s drive to Laguardia.\u00a0 You also must leave an hour to check in and get through security.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s time on the backend to pick up luggage if there\u2019s been luggage checked.\u00a0 Summing up all that ancillary time, and we are now roughly equivalent to using the train and for the same price.\u00a0 If I\u2019m lucky enough to fly out of Macarthur Airport in Islip, which is a short drive from my house, I can get a lower priced ticket, but I\u2019m left flying to BWI \u2013 and that means a longer commute once I\u2019m in the Washington area.\u00a0 Couple that with the biggest down side \u2013 I\u2019m not connected while I\u2019m flying &#8211; and air travel has as much pain as it does gain.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also made the drive so many times I can do it in my sleep and for some stretches of highway I\u2019m hard pressed to remember, I think I must have.\u00a0 No question this has the biggest downside \u2013 a lack of real connectivity while driving (don\u2019t let me catch you e-mailing while you drive), the possibility of traffic delays in addition to it being the slowest medium means the longest stretch.\u00a0 Parking is not inexpensive either, nor is fuel.\u00a0 And in fact the only real upside to driving is the flexibility of having one\u2019s car once in Washington.\u00a0 Sometimes appointments can be scattered about Maryland and Virginia where the car would present a real advantage over trying to get everywhere by metro.\u00a0 If I use the car, I try to drive at non peak, non business hours, in order to make my trip the most efficient.<\/p>\n<p>Finally there\u2019s one mode of transportation I\u2019ve taken only once and the jury is still out as to whether I\u2019ll take it again.\u00a0 That\u2019s the bus.\u00a0 There are now several options that stretch beyond the traditional Greyhound bus service which has always served New York\u2019s Port Authority and Washington\u2019s Union Station.\u00a0 There\u2019s now the Bolt Bus, the MegaBus and a number of other discount bus operators.\u00a0 One might surmise from seeing prices as low as $1 one way that this might be a less than luxurious way to transfer.\u00a0 Do not prejudge!\u00a0 These buses are in very good condition and are generally quite reliable.\u00a0 The biggest challenge for me is that it affords you half the space you might find on an Amtrak train and the trip is notably longer because it travels through unpredictable traffic.\u00a0 Furthermore, there\u2019s little ability to work comfortably and it still requires adding on another mode of transportation once the trip is through.\u00a0 So far as I can tell the only true advantage here is cost.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m looking forward to appending this blog once I\u2019ve figured out the best way to negotiate this trip by sea.\u00a0 In the meantime, you may catch me on the Amtrak nearest you!<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s an enormous amount of choice right now, when it comes to the best way to travel short distances, like for instance the distance I travel when I come back to Washington, DC twice a month.\u00a0 I think I\u2019ve now done the trip every which way but by boat, although I\u2019m considering my options now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Planes, Trains and Automobiles... and Buses? - hotel-lobbyists.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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