We recently took an Amtrak from Boston to Harrisburg PA for a family wedding and I have some thoughts to share if you are considering a similar trip. We were facing a 7 hour ride one way and had a travel credit in hand for Amtrak which was due to expire in a month or so. I decided we’d try an Amtrak trip. It was challenging to book the trip using the credit, but we finally booked it. We left from Boston South Station at 8 AM, changed trains in Philadelphia and arrived around 5 PM. A full day. It was even longer on the return trip.
We enjoyed arriving at our destination more rested and relaxed than we would have been otherwise especially since it was raining ALL DAY ALL THE WAY. We traveled coach class and the seats were quite comfortable. There was decent wifi and charging availability at each seat. The staff was helpful if a bit brusque. The stations were well marked and generally clean. Despite the long hours, it was overall a good way to take that trip.
As I mentioned earlier, it was a challenge to book the trip using the travel credit partly because an Amtrak vacation trip is different than a “commuter” style trip. We tried to change the return ticket to get back earlier but the agent told us we got really good prices on our tickets and didn’t advise changing them as the price would double. So, bottom line my recommendation would be to check Railbookers.com as they were the ones that booked these tickets for us as this very decent price. I would definitely consider a vacation package, but probably wouldn’t do a long distance commuter trip again due to the cost.
Good Morning Gloucester 
great experience from Boston to Pittsburgh. Nine hours with freight having the right of way. Interesting history of traveling that corridor.
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