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[EllisSimon]

Home from a quick hop to Boston and back on Amtrak to take my daughter to an open house at Emerson College. Left Oceanside Friday afternoon on the 3:03, which arrived at NYP at 3:49; just enough time to catch Acela #2166 (4 pm departure from NYP) Friday evening. As my former boss said: "Getting to the train early wastes time." #2166 had a good crowd all the way. The train was clean and rode smoothly, except for some vibrations in 150 mph territory. Since we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, we only had a light snack in the cafe. It turned out this was a good thing since the attendant told the person ahead of me that she was out of sandwiches. We were on time until after we left Providence. Then an Amtrak dispatcher placed an MBTA local in front of us and we crawled from Sharon to Back Bay. That put our arrival at 7:35; 10 minutes late. From there, it was a 10-minute walk along the blustery streets of Boston to our hotel, which was just two blocks from Emerson. Originally, we planned to return on the 5:10 from Back Bay (Regional #167), but during lunch in the Emerson cafeteria Emma decided she wanted to get home early to go to a party at a friend's house. Not knowing when the next train would depart I called "Julie," the Amtrak automated CSR, who told me there would be a train in 25 minutes. We rushed out of the building and back to the hotel to collect our bags. The we walked back to the Back Bay depot and we were on the station platform five minutes before the train arrived. (Remember what my ex-boss used to say.) Train #135, a Regional, had an eight-car consist pulled by an AEM-7 in Phase IV colors. The first three coaches were closed off, but the conductor opened the third car just before Providence. We rode in the fourth car, which varied between half and two-thirds full. Since we had a nice lunch at Emerson, my only trip to the cafe, a full Amdinette car, was for another light snack. I purchased a delicious giant oatmeal raisin cookie that I washed down with a Diet Pepsi. The trip down was excellent. The 1:40 departure gave us plenty of daylight running to enjoy the scenic highlights of the Shore Line. As Lowell Thomas would have said: "you know you're traveling in New England." We raced a Metro North New Haven express coming out of Stamford until it left us in the dust just east of Rye. We arrived in NYP 10 minutes EARLY at 5:40 pm. That is outstanding, IMHO, especially since the run was a local that made 12 intermediate stops between Boston and New York. The early arrival enabled us to catch the Long Island RR's 5:48 to Oceanside and avoid a one-hour wait at NYP. (Again, remember what my ex-boss used to say.) That train, unfortunately, ran 10 minutes late due to a stalled train at Jamaica. Guess I broke even. All in all it was an excellent trip. Kudos to the crews. Razzes to that dispatcher who delayed our Boston arrival; hopefully there is some coaching in his future. Best of all, Emma loved Emerson and the Acela. There may be a lot of train riding in her future. Can anyone lend me $33,000 a year for each year from 2005 to 2008?