Amtrak - NY to Philadelphia
 

We're planning on visiting NY and Philadelphia in mid-September.

I'm thinking we'd train between the two since it looks very convenient.

It appears you must reserve ahead. Are the seat numbers actually reserved or will we have to scramble?

Also, is luggage checked or do you personally care for it as in Europe?

Thanks.

Whether you get a specific reserved seat I think depends on which class you chose. Business Class I think is reserved. For coach, you're merely guaranteed A seat, not a specific seat.

There are some trains that have luggage checking and some that don't. It will indicate in the "amenities" column when you go to select a train.

There are loads of discount codes, some that can halve the price. V383 can be used on regional trains (not Acela) and you get the 2nd person for free. You can't combine it with AAA or Senior discounts though.

You need not reserve between NYC and Philly. In fact more and more people are commuting for business on a daily basis using AMTRAC. You can reserve, if you wish however.

While it is true you don't need to reserve a ticket and you can just arrive at the train station, it is sometimes cheaper to reserve tickets on Amtrak than get a same-day ticket.

If you can't get an amtrak train you can use the combo of NJtransit out of Penn station in NYC and SEPTA , trenton,nj to philly.
you do have to transfer from the NJtransit train to the SEPTA train (southeast pennsylvania transit auth.)
this will give you more time options.

go to www.njtransit.com for schedules and pick penn station to trenton
go to www.septa.org look at the R7 line.

For such a short trip like this, I'd like into Greyhound.

Thanks for the responses.

My wife has a motion sickness issue and buses are at the top of the list.

When arriving in Philadelphia (Amtrak), is there a good reason to arrive before dark?

Since we're allowing 4 days in Philadelphia (never been before) we'd probably like to leave NY (been several times over the past 5-6 years) as late in the evening (app. 7PM) as possible.

There are amany taxis waiting for customers at 30th street station. Don't worry about being there after dark