<p>Just a question?? How does your child get home? First time my son came home he tried Greyhound. It went ok I guess. When we took him to the station it was so....dirty and unorganizied. It looked like a nightmare. I worried about him on the trip back to school. I felt so much better once he got back to San Diego. But, for Thanksgiving we tried AmTrack. And it was so much better. The place was clean and organized more or less. He had to take a bus to LA, then get on a train to San Diego. He said it was so much better than Greyhound. So for now on we will book on AmTrack. This time I didn't cry when he left!!!</p>
<p>Funny, we had the same experience. My son has to travel from Boston to NYC to get home. First time home he used Greyhound and he reported it was a long, uncomfortable 5 hours home. Then he tried Amtrak's Acela Express for Thanksgiving. It's 3 1/2 hours instead and he had tons of room to stretch, plug in his laptop, study, etc. The cost differential though is huge: $40 RT vs. $180. Ouch. But we think we may simply bite the bullet and continue with Amtrak. Thankfully, next year as a sophomore he can bring his 1994 Toyota to school. Let's just hope there's an end to the insane gas prices or even driving himself won't be much of a bargain!</p>
<p>My kids learned quickly to get rides from kids heading the same way and splitting gas and toll costs. We found that the most efficient way of getting them to school with their stuff and bringing them home again at the end of the year is with a one way van or large car rental. H would drive with them to school, unload the stuff and take a flight home after dropping off the rental at the airport. He would take a flight to the school, rent at the airport, load kids and stuff and drive home, returning the car when he was done.</p>
<p>Oldest son is in Boston. First year he and friends took train to NYC but found most cars had reserved seats so when they finally got on a train they stood most of the way. Return trip was horrendous. Second year he had a car and drove. Drive from Boston to NYC/NJ was okay but return on Sunday turned into 10 hr drive (it's usually
4 1/2 - 5 hrs). Second child is in Midwest and travels by plane. For Thanksgiving it's best to arrive home Tuesday night and depart by noon or so on Sunday. This child has become very independent traveling so often on his own. Guess there's no easy way to travel from Boston to NYC/NJ or Midwest/NJ especially on short holiday weekends. It's just nice to see them.</p>
<p>My S has been taking the Chinatown bus between Boston and NYC. It's not the greatest mode of travel, but unless there's a traffic jam, it gets him from Chinatown to Chinatown in 4 hours. It used to cost $20 RT, it now costs $30 RT. It's still the equivalent of 6 RT on Amtrak Acela, which is not as frequent and sometimes it's faster than the regular Amtrak.</p>
<p>Daughter took the greyhound, because it stops right in front of the Hanover Inn on campus (where they would have to take a cab to White River Junction). The ride does not bother her as she and her next door neighbor stayed up all night so they would not oversleep and miss the bus. She found that a lot of her other friends had stayed up all night. They slept almost all the way to New York inspite of the fact that the bus came in 2 hours late.</p>
<p>Going back she saw at least 15 other people (not counting the 6 that she orginally came down with) she knew that was taking the bus back. Knowing her she was asleep before the bus got out of manhattan. She travels extremely well as long as she has a book, some music and a pillow, she is set</p>
<p>DS takes the bus from Hartford to Boston and back when needed. If he has a ton of "stuff" to bring home, we will go and get him. He has also found rides with friends (or friends parents). To take the train from here requires going first from Hartford to New Haven...then switching trains to Boston. It takes much less time to just take the bus...2 hours and 10 minutes. DS is usually back in his dorm in under 3 hours.</p>
<p>My son is 1600 miles away. He'll be coming home via airplane, although there are students that drive. (Freshmen can't have cars) He tried to do Greyhound down to his grandparents over Thanksgiving and that was a nightmare! The first bus didn't come because it was full. The second bus took a long detour. He was already over five hours behind on his 12 hour trip so they ended up picking him up in Washington, D.C. It was probably the worst time to travel on the bus. We're thinking Amtrak if he wants to go down there again.</p>
<p>It's the airlines for us. (MA to FLA) Smith has a bus to get students to the airport, at least on holidays. We looked into a bus or train to get her to another relatives house for fall break but it was just too much of a pain.</p>
<p>Amtrack is actually fairly nice, since you can actually stand up to relax, get food, walk around, etc...</p>
<p>Our D took the bus to DC (grandma's house) from western MA for Thanksgiving because it was much cheaper, left from a block away from her house and the trains were sold out by the time she got it together to make plans. It was fine except the reading light didn't work, she will bring a flashlight next time. She took the overnight bus home and got in this morning and only missed one class. She even got some sleep on the bus. She will fly home, Washington State, in a few weeks, YEAH.</p>
<p>my daughter usually takes Amtrak although you have to be careful not to get trains coming up from San Diego as those are often delayed.
If you get fares in advance the train is basically same price as Greyhound, however if you wait till last minute the bus is much cheaper.
The bus is much more colorful, the Seattle station is decrepit although the one in Portland isn't bad she says. Several times she has had the experience of sitting next to pretty sketchy ( and talkative) characters. For someone that is as street naive as she is, I am surprised she isn't put off.
The train you can not only walk around and get food, but you can check online to see if it is on time.
With the bus, they don't even know if the bus is on time, at the Station!!
( It would be silly to take air from Seattle to Portland,unless you are already going to be in Tacoma where the airport is and are in a BIG hurry)
She also often drives even though she doesn't have a car. Her friends give her rides back and forth to get her to visit more often.</p>
<p>My daughter has a 16 hour drive from college to home. She's driven with friends and/or taken the plane. All I can say is thank goodness for Southwest airlines. For this break she drove home with eastbound friends but will fly back.</p>
<p>* The bus is much more colorful, the Seattle station is decrepit although the one in Portland isn't bad she says. Several times she has had the experience of sitting next to pretty sketchy ( and talkative) characters. For someone that is as street naive as she is, I am surprised she isn't put off. *</p>
<p>Boy, does this bring back memories of my own college days. I took the Greyhound quite a bit, as I had a boyfriend attending college in another state, and there was no Amtrak between the two cities, just bus service. I definitely heard some interesting stories on the bus. I also had fellow passengers who wanted to know if I was "saved" or if I would be willing let them "save" me, etc.</p>
<p>Anyway, my experience with the bus and train between our daughter's college city and ours is that Greyhound bus is much more reliable than the Amtrak train, in general. (It should be noted that our two cities are on an east-west axis and there's only train a day that passes through, while there are probably 12 buses a day. That one train a day is actually part of a very long distance-route going halfway across the country, so there are lots of places along the way for it to get held up.)</p>
<p>However, I think the northeast corridor (north-south route) trains are a lot more reliable than the east-west axis trains. Also, they are far more numerous, so if one north-south train breaks down, you can probably hop on another coming along an hour later. (That's not an option on the east-west train routes.)</p>
<p>So, for us, on an east-west route, buses work much better (and are quite a bit cheaper too.) Still, they're far from perfect. Greyhound bus drivers have been known to get lost and wander offtrack for hours. Nobody's perfect. At least Amtrak trains have several employees on board to keep an eye on one another, unlike a Greyhound bus.</p>
<p>FWIW, Googling on "Greyhound complaints" turns up 30,000 hits. Googling on "Amtrak complaints" turns up 36,000 hits.</p>
<p>Daughter flies home from Phila. We can get $29 fares each way to Logan in Boston or to Manchester, NH --Air Trans, Southwest, and Jet Blue all compete.</p>
<p>Swat's only about 15 minutes from the airport. The college runs shuttle vans or there is door to door train service from the campus to the airport terminals.</p>
<p>There are cheaper trains than the Acela.</p>
<p>Slower, but cheaper.</p>
<p>S takes Amtrak VA to CT. I pay the extra $30 or so to upgrade him to 'business class'...gets a reserved seat with a bit more leg room, plug for laptop, and free drinks from the club car!!
For a 9 hour trip, I figure its worth it. This is so convenient for him - walk to train station from campus, and then just chill for the trip. Flying involves getting to the airport, changing planes, etc.</p>
<p>S takes shuttle from campus to the airport. He takes plane from RDU airport to Manchester (NH). The best deal we got for Christmas break (2 weeks) is $150 RT. Manchester airport is about 45 minutes from home, but we don't mind picking him up there at all. It is much easier to get in and out of than Boston. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from RDU, so he usually connects through Philadelphia or Baltimore. When we picked him up at Thanksgiving he looked so grown up!</p>
<p>My D takes Amtrak from NYC to Philadelphia and back. This year she remembered to make reservations and actually got a seat. There have been times where she had to stand all of the way. She has not taken the Acela but it is a short hop between the two cities so she does not feel the need. NJ Transit trains occasionally work around her schedule.</p>
<p>Once in a while she can sweet talk her Dad into coming to pick her up with the enticement of a run in Central Park and NY pizza before returning home. He is sooo easy.</p>
<p>Being about ten miles from NYC, my S takes the commuter bus to Port Authority, then the subway. When he had to come home on an emergency basis two weeks ago, my H drove in to get him, and I took him back--but the GW Bridge traffic on a Sunday night is murder, and the parking is non-existent, so that was an exception. What he doesn't like is that if the bus is crowded, he has to stow his stuff in the luggage compartment on the side of the bus, which ticks off everyone else as it is a commuter bus and that slows things down.</p>