Conference 7.286::railroad

We're getting ready to take another trip from Atlanta (Gainesville, GA, really)
to Boston in early April.  We're doing coach on the way up (2 adults, 8yr son,
6yr old daughter), but will have 2 Viewliner rooms from NY all the way back.

We've used the Heritage sleepers before so we'll see how these new rooms compare.
They gave us rooms across from each other since they can't open up two rooms
into 1 large one like on the Heritage cars.  Hopefully they will be quieter and
smoother since we had one that was a bit noisy on one trip.

These new sleepers also have a radio and tv with preprogrammed movies in the
evening.  I asked if we could bring VHS tapes to play, but they don't have
players.

Now we're just dealing with the perpetual problem from getting from South
Station to a rental car agency on Saturday night....

Dave

    can't you take the tube up to the airport and rent a car there?
    ed
    

Yes, that is what we are planning to do.  However, it's just a little 'busy' 
the kids and luggage.  Exit the Amtrak train and board the Red Line at South 
Station.  Go to Park Street and get on the Green line for one stop north to
the Blue Line.  Get off at the airport stop and board the Massport bus to the
airport.  Exit the bus at any terminal and wait for the Avis courtesy shuttle.

It will work but we'll have to keep our luggage to a minimum.  Last time we took
a taxi, but this time we'll try the T.

Dave

  I recall that the original plans for establishing a "transportation center"
at South Station included dedicated shuttle buses to car rental places. I
guess this didn't happen.
  The lack of car rental facilities at stations is one of many things that
discourage people from traveling by train. There should be an alternative to
paying big bucks for a taxi ride or taking a 3-transfer subway ride to get
from South Station to a car rental place.

The Amtrak schedule shows South Station as having rental cars 'on call', but I 
have yet to find out what that means.  Avis has car pickup at Gov't Center,
but not late at night and maybe not on weekends.  We haven't made any car
reservations so I still have time to figure out if 'on call' means anything
useful (and inexpensive...)

Dave

    I traveled this route last spring.  The woman staffing the Avis office
    at Government Center said, when asked, that the ONLY place you could
    pick up their cards late at night or after (I think about 3:00 PM) on
    weekends was the airport.  She said even their office located in the
    hotel in Cambridge did not issue cars late on weekends.
    
    Seems absurd, but that appears to be how it is.
    
    You can't always trust the central office, however.  Budget told me
    that if you drop a car off at their site located within the Amtrak
    station in Los Angeles, it had to be before they closed (something like
    5:00 or 6:00 PM, even on week days).  When I got there, the woman at
    the desk told me you could drop them off later: just fill out the forms
    and drop them and the key and parking lot receipt with the Amtrak agent
    at the information/assistance window.  Nobody anywhere else within
    Budget appeared to know this.  So if you're travelling anywhere you
    have to try to get the telephone number that goes directly to the
    office in question and ask the people who actually work there what is
    going on.  (The Avis information above does come from that source.)
    

    Maybe too late for this trip, but the switch from Amtrak to several
    major car rental outfits would seem much easier from Providence, which
    is an hour's drive to/from Boston. A cab ride of a mile or so would get
    you to Kennedy Plaza (ground zero in Providence) or the convention
    center or the big new hotel. I'm skimpy on the details because I drive
    by these places without going in. I did rent a car at Avis in the
    Biltmore Hotel right on Kennedy Plaza within sight of the rather nice
    domed Amtrak station, and our family has traveled painlessly in and out
    of Providence on the NEC many times. Parking is not cheap but it's
    secure and handy to the station, so we have left the DECWagon there for
    a few days at a time for Disney World trips. ($40 or $50 for less than
    a week as I recall.)
    
    The air/rail or rail/air transition may not be so easy. Dunno, never
    tried it. But when it comes to rental/Amtrak or Amtrak/rental, you
    ought to consider Providence. I've driven to Logan many times (pure
    hell) and to South Station (special Rail Hell) and I won't do either 
    (EVER AGAIN) if I can arrange to travel through Providence.
    
    Happy travels-
    Chris Reed      MCS Engineer @PVO