Amtrak has announced the adding of sleepers to some NorthEast regional trains. Check their website for details.
Jon 
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Very excited for this. We live in Boston and go to DC and Philly quite often. It’ll be great to take the train overnight and wake up fresh. Hope it proves to be successful for Amtrak
Will Amtrak also be adding full service dinning cars, with REAL COOKED MEALS, along with those sleepers?
Nope. But you better believe that's the most commented thing on their Facebook post!
Jon
Sounds like a great deal price wise from Boston to DC at $288 for a single person in a single compartment. Figuring in a hotel/motel room, tolls, and gasoline, not to mention wear and tear on your car at $288 you come out ahead when going from Boston to DC or DC to Boston ... plus you arrive in the city. Driving a car the tolls alone are probably close to $100 one way ( my guess ). When I drive from Maryland to visit friends in Queens the tolls round trip are around $70.... plus the gasoline. I began taking AMTRAK because it costs less $ if I booked in advance. Of course too, taking AMTRAK is much less hassle than driving the car. Always love taking the train whenever I can.
Interesting to know, but any sort of rail travel is completely off the agenda for me, while this “face mask” business is in force.
@Rockershovel posted:Interesting to know, but any sort of rail travel is completely off the agenda for me, while this “face mask” business is in force.
Traveling in a sleeping car compartment is about the safest way to travel in a pandemic. And once the door is closed, you can take the mask off.
We have friends with a baby who had already figured out how to get a compartment on trains that go beyond the Northeast Corridor and that's how they travel between northern Virginia and New York. They don't sleep or use the beds but the peace of mind is worth the extra cost to them.
I agree Patrick, taking the train to Philly and DC can be time consuming/expensive with tolls. Taking the train is nice, but the sleeper will make it much nicer.
I have a few trips planned to visit family (Near Burlington IA) and this new sleeper option allows me to add a “day time layover” so I can visit NY, Philly, or DC, before hoping on an overnight train for the Midwest.
Excellent!
Peter
My wife and I live in Boston and haven't had a vacation in quite some time. Maybe we will give this a try down to D.C.
It's also time for REAL food (again) on the Lake Shore from Erie to Boston!
I wonder where they got the sleeper cards from. Did they take them from other long distance trains?
About 10 years ago there was a sleeper from Boston to DC. Left about 11PM. It was dropped about the time the Acela began, with its 6 hour travel time.
The sleepers are probably coming from trains which are getting Viewliner IIs.
The Night Owl.
Jon
@ChooChoo1972 posted:I wonder where they got the sleeper cards from. Did they take them from other long distance trains?
Viewliner II sleepers have been coming online since last year. They have many improvements over the original Viewliners. Currently based on how many long distance trains use single level trains, there will be excess equipment to bring on services like this.
The Viewliner II fleet also adds:
- All new baggage cars that we have seen in service since 2018.
- Baggage dorm cars so the hotel crew no longer needs to use the more valuable real estate of the sleeper on the long distance trains.
- Diners. With the change in management, there is a chance we may see diners back on some trains that lost them. Hard to tell with Amtrak.
The future of the Superliners is not clear. There was a plan to start replacing them in 2026 but that date seems unlikely at the moment.
