<p>As we research colleges that are not within a reasonable driving distance from home, and also considering the cost of gas now, we are trying to figure in the cost of travel to/from, and safety issues in travelling.</p>
<p>Home is the Baltimore/Washington area - closest regional airport is BWI. </p>
<p>Cities where my junior may be looking at colleges are Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, or Charleston.</p>
<p>Train travel to any of these places looks to be consistently around $100 one way, with reliable service. Train rides to some of these cities look torturously long. 14 hours, 17 hours, etc. </p>
<p>Plane travel - short flights to all of these places, but what to budget for one way trips? Can someone expect to get $99 one way flights reliably, for instance, through Southwest? Or, what is the proper number to budget for a one way trip to these cities? </p>
<p>Regarding train travel - do any of your students travel this way, and do they find it safe?</p>
<p>my daughter attended school close enough to drive- she doesn't have a car, but we would drive her down at beginning of school year.
But she also enjoyed taking the train back and forth although at times freight traffic can cause delays.
With the price of gas, train travel can be cheaper than driving & it is much more comfortable.
Not sure what you mean about safety- in the pac northwest corridor, it is very safe, in fact I often sent my younger daughter on the train by herself to go visit her sister and she never reported any problems.</p>
<p>Hello, Baltimore. I grew up right near your train station!</p>
<p>It's great to have the choice between trains or planes. Your kid might come to prefer one over the other. The advantage of trains for winter travel is they are MUCH less likely to experience weather delays, closed airports, and so on. Sometimes my kids preferred trains or busses, even with longer hours, because you don't have the added hours in the airport of security, waiting for boarding, that has to be factored in. If they were facing a "90 minute flight", by the time they were driven to the airport, waited to board, experienced a delay of an hour or more, and waited for a public shuttle to their campus (up to an hour), that could easily become a 5 or 6 hour experience. Sometimes they preferred to get onto a train with some homework or a book, not have to deal with the airport noise and stress. They had more actual study time on a train and didn't have to listen for a bazillion announcements, as is true in airports.</p>
<p>These are very safe; just teach some basic street-wisdom to your kids--not to walk away from packages, not to give out personal information to others.
I'd say train and plane crowds are about equally safe, full of business commuters and family travelers. All that matters is to sleep with one's wallet or purse tucked very much inside your clothes, not laying loose on the seat, for either kind of travel. </p>
<p>In general, we found train tickets to cost almost as much as plane tickets, but the ground transportation was simpler to the train station. Also take note of the time of arrival off a train; if it pulls into your destination city at 3 a.m., that's a potential safety problem and reason enough to choose a plane instead, I believe. You'll end up paying for a taxi to campus at that time of night, making the plane ride more economical because it will arrive (usually) when there are still shuttle options to the campus, or public bus routes to campus from the airport in daytime. </p>
<p>Try out different ways and see what your kid prefers. You're so lucky to have the choice.</p>
<p>For travel on a budget, I much preferred the train. Room to move around, study, power for laptop, can use phone (or not) maybe even wifi now. At least for anything between DC and Boston, I'd go that route over flying. Since BWI is a major hub for discount carriers, Chicago and Atlanta might be a toss-up. Trains have advantage for last-minute travel, however.</p>
<p>We looked at 2 schools with amtrak nearby. The school that was 6 hours away by car was a 4 hour train ride. The school that was 4.5 hours away by car was a 6 hour train ride. You are smart to look at the time it takes to travel by train, as well as the frequency of the trains to your destination.</p>
<p>Thanks - I have experienced the horrible delays and frustration that can be part of airline travel (my family nearly lost a cruise due to the recent plane maintenance debacle because we could not get to the port of departure), and agree that 1/2 hour to one hour flights frequently turn into nightmares when you inlcude travel to and from airport, security, and delayed and cancelled flight experiences.</p>
<p>Trains seem very comfortable in comparison, but a lot more on/off stop/go. </p>
<p>My D will definitely need a lesson in safety precautions, as we have lived in a semi-rural area all of our lives and she has barely ever had an opportunity to use public transportation.</p>
<p>D goes back and forth to school via a combination of commuter trains and Amtrak. With the Student Advantage discount, the tickets end up being pretty reasonable. For her, it's the best choice - she can carry her lax stick and so on, get reading/work done on the train (translation: sleep), and just generally be more comfortable.</p>
<p>Remember to factor in the travel time. We recently booked a $200 round trip plane ticket for DS. The cost of gas would have been about $200...plus he would have had to spend one full day driving in each direction. Time is money also...if you have to take time off from a job or something like that, plane travel can be a better choice. </p>
<p>Also, to get to some places by train, you have to do a bunch of "train changes" and that can be a headache...even moreso than switching planes in an airport. Getting from Baltimore to Charleston by train would not be an easy task, I believe.</p>
<p>I vote for train from Baltimore to Boston - Acela is a great way to go. Fast, comfortable, convenient, lots of studying time on trains, no lost luggage. I actually opted for Acela rather than fly to Washington from Boston for a business trip. Much less stress, even though it was about an hour longer than the plane flight from door to door (including travel to airport, security time, picking up luggage, etc).</p>
<p>I'm bucking the trend, I guess, and say I'm more comfortable w/ DD flying. I just booked the NY-Chicago trip on Southwest to go to school for $59. If you go on line as soon as possible after the flights are released it usually works out less expensive (the price of gas would be more) and the time element to me is worth a little added expense.</p>
<p>I like trains, but I find they are rarely cheaper options. Sometimes though if the train route is 3 to 4 hours they can be just as fast as the airport when you figure you don't need to get their hours in advance especially if a train station is convenient on both ends. I often take a train from NY to Boston, occassionally to DC. Rarely much of anywhere else. I consider train travel extremely safe. You also don't have to worry nearly as much about the best window for buying tickets at popular times. By and large the price is the price.</p>
<p>I suppose that the train would depend on how long- for short trips less than 200 miles for my D they were a great option, but recently when I went to southern ca, I was shocked at how long it would have taken by train, didn't want to drive & while the plane was still more expensive- 3 hours compared to three days was worth it. ;)</p>
<p>Student advantage card does save you money on rail fare though & when looking at schools you can also get a discount.</p>
<p>You could also look in to Greyhound. My D travels between home and school (about 3-4 hours) by bus, and actually prefers it to the train. And, it costs a LOT less. Train is, cheapest, about $85 round trip, and can go a lot higher. Bus is $41-$51 round trip. It takes almost the same amount of time. If it is holiday/traffic season, she will go by train to avoid highway jams.</p>
<p>Plane would be the way to go for all destinations except Boston, where you might consider the train.</p>
<p>It's also possible that at the larger Boston-area schools, there may be charter buses right from the campus to the Baltimore/DC area during the official college breaks. There are at a lot of other campuses.</p>
<p>In your experiences, what is a good number to budget for travel if flying, just ballpark? Assuming BWI is a pretty good hub for Atlanta, Chicago, Boston?
Though I think I have enough feedback on Boston regarding the feasibility of train travel - sounds good. </p>
<p>Charter bus to/from Boston also sounds like a very nice way to go.</p>
<p>My daughter has spent four years in school in Philadelphia. She routinely does the train to NYC. However, she has never once found the train to Boston more economical. We are always able to beat Amtrak prices with Southwest fares, Phila to Manchester, NH or USAIR Phila to Boston.</p>
<p>We have gotten fares as low as $29 one way, more typically $59 to $79 one way. I think the worst ever was a particular Thanksgiving break where timing didn't work for the cheapo fares and she paid $59 one direction and $119 the other direction.</p>
<p>My son went to Boston University...one of the largest (if not the largest) universities in Boston. They did not have bus service to any of the major metro areas. DS used the bus, other friends flew or used trains...or drove.</p>
<p>I have one D who travels by train (the Acela Express is her favorite) and another who travels by plane (New England to New Orleans apparently isn't a popular route for trains). There are lots of trains from Baltimore northward, and tickets can be procured on short notice. D has never had a problem. Plane travel can be quicker, but as anyone who travels for a living can tell you air travel can be, um, unpredictable. And if you need a ticket on short notice (or around Christmas or Thanksgiving) the price can be quite a shock. I'd suggest being flexible!</p>