Amtrak Michigan to NYC
 

Considering rail to NYC for Summer 2013 instead of air or road trip. From home in mid-Michigan, it seems impractical and takes way too long if we board Amtrak here with multiple stops as well as some departures backtracking to Chicago enroute to NYC. Not opposed to driving a good chunk of the way and traveling rail from a location outside the city..perhaps from a fun place to spend a day or two before or after. Hoping to maximize time in NYC and, while loving rail travel, don't want to spend days traveling there. Any ideas?

You can train from Buffalo to NYC - but I think it's 8 or 9 hours (similar to driving). That would let you see Niagara Falls.

Other than that the only routes that are frequent are from Boston down though DC. So you could visit Philly and train to NYC - but I don't know what you would do with your car in Philly.

Hi daschmo,

There's the Lakeshore Limited train from Chicago-NYC. Without having to head north or west, probably closest place of interest to Michigan on this route would be Cleveland, OH. Cleveland has The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a stellar art museum, the West Side Market and a beautiful cemetery with a quite impressive mausoleum to James A. Garfield. I think Cleveland is more interesting than people give it credit for.

The only ick is that the train is scheduled to leave Cleveland at 5:50am and on the return arrives in Cleveland at 3 am. Buffalo might be a better choice as the hours of departure and arrival are better.

If you have passports, another possibility which would be mostly train with little backtracking is drive to Windsor, Ontario across from Detroit. From there, you could take VIA Rail to Toronto and then Amtrak's Maple Leaf train from T.O. to NYC. Only issue with this is that the train does take a seeming eternity to go through customs.

Best wishes D. Williams