Announcing OTOL Silver Star Raleigh Excursion (SSRE) 2022
Saturday & Sunday, March 26-27, 2022
Welcome to OTOL Silver Star Raleigh Excursion 2022 (SSRE). This will be another 2-day weekend round trip, taking us between Northeastern cities and Raleigh, NC on Amtrak's Silver Star. The goal is the trip itself, and like our Roanoke Excursion last year, we will be in town only approximately 12 hours.
We continue to be concerned about COVID-19 and its variants. This has affected the completion of projects in other cities (such as Boston) that we were originally going to ride in 2020 when the Pandemic struck, but have postponed since then. Hopefully we can get back to riding rail transit and commuter rail later this year. In the meantime, Amtrak mileage beckons us. Also, many have not seen the relatively new Raleigh Union Station since it opened in the summer of 2018.
The difference between the Roanoke trip and the Raleigh trip is that aboard the Silver Star we can take sleepers, and have meals together -- or choose to do so in our rooms if we want. Of course Coach is always there too for those who want to travel that way.
Federal mask mandates for travel at this current time are expected to expire in mid-March, which would be before this planned weekend. Nevertheless, the expected travel time between Washington, DC and Raleigh is about 6 hours in each direction, and between New York City and Raleigh is about 10 hours in each direction.
For this trip together we will need to stay one night at a hotel. From experience there are 3 Marriott family (Marriott, Residence, and Sheraton) properties within about 7 blocks walking distance east of the train station, and a round Holiday Inn about 4 blocks north of the station. Those who favor the Hilton family chain there's a Hampton Inn downtown and the Doubletree Brownstone to the west near NC State University -- however they are too far for an easy walk with luggage so a taxi or hired car is suggested. The Raleigh-specific Rails to Rooms page is here; note there are plenty of other places to stay besides the ones mentioned.
We will follow this itinerary, always subject to change at the whim of Amtrak. As we get to know where people will be boarding 91 on Saturday and leaving 92 on Sunday, the origins and destinations can be refined. And this is the homepage. A participant list will be created and then continue to be updated as people join us.
See you aboard the Silver Star the last weekend in March!
