BWI Amtrak Station

I visited Amtrak's BWI train station yesterday. I wanted to make my train reservations to visit my friend Harvey who lives in Richmond, Virginia. The station is very small. It has only three rows of 8 seats each. There are three ticket counters though only one was open when I visited. There is also a small news stand and a couple soda machines. Incredibly, the station has a double 7-tier parking lot. I suspect that's because the station is used for commuters into Baltimore and Washington D.C. I also believe the station is used by those who choose to take the train to Baltimore Washington International Airport. It's probably cheaper than an airport shuttle. The reason I use it is because it's easier to take trains from there vice using the Maryland State rail network. The Maryland network is run purely for commuters and as I've previously reported, it only runs in the mornings and evenings. After 9 a.m., there aren't anymore trains till 3:30 p.m. This means if you take it into Washington D.C. or Baltimore, you're stuck there all day, a major nuisance.

Price wise for the parking, its daily rates are comparable to the long term parking lots close to the airport. They charge $9 a day I believe. I plan to use one of their lots when I drive out there for my trip to Richmond.

I will give kudos to Amtrak for one particular thing I like about their service. You can upgrade your seat on their regional trains to business class for just $17 each way. To me, this is cheap! The seats are wider and I think more comfortable. Plus, I just like travelling Business Class if I can afford it. At $17 each way, I can afford it.

One downside I will slam Amtrak for is some of their so-called train stations. I discovered yesterday that the Virginia Beach train station is in fact a bus stop! It turns out that if you want to take the train on the Northeast Corridor line to Virginia Beach, you get to de-train at Newport News and take a 90 minute bus ride to Virginia Beach. I wasn't amused by that. I think it is a bit dishonest. The schedule implies they have TRAIN service there and they don't.