Travel from New York City to Anaheim, California Only via Amtrak Trains
Have you ever felt the need to travel between New York City and Anaheim, California? Perhaps it's to Visit Disneyland? Whatever the reason is, you can get to Anaheim from New York City with Amtrak Trains just as well as with airlines and rental cars.
Contents
Steps
Using The Most Common Routes
- Find a train path that will lead you to Chicago. Along with holding many trains arriving there, Chicago's Union Station also houses a train that takes you directly to a station in Los Angeles. Whether it's the 24 hour trip directly from New York to Chicago on the Lake Shore Limited (pricey but most direct), or it's one of several routes south to Washington, D.C. and which lead you later northwest to Chicago can also get you to this city's Amtrak station.
- Your other choices include a Northeast Regional train to a Capital Limited line at Washington D.C., or a Cardinal Line directly to Chicago from Washington to Chicago.
- Catch a Southwest Chief train from' Chicago's Union Station to the entire terminus at the other end in Los Angeles. This train will take 4 days to get from one end to the other, but it's well worth it. And besides, it's the only train that Amtrak runs that runs between these two cities.
- Realize that you have another choice of path that can take an adjusted route through Texas's northern section called the "Texas Eagle" line of Amtrak.
- Take a Pacific Surfliner train from Los Angeles' Union Station to Anaheim's station. The train duration of travel takes about 45 minutes. This station is less than one block from Anaheim Stadium and is about fifteen minutes from Disneyland.
Using Transfer Points in California
- Take a set of trains to get you from New York to Chicago as described above.
- Take the California Zephyr train from Chicago to San Francisco. Although this classic train will get you farther north than you need to be, there are ways around this and some additional changes you need to make to get you to Anaheim.
- Take the San Joaquin train from San Francisco to Anaheim.
Tips
- Be prepared to have some long transit times on some of these trains. Like what was stated above, the one train takes 4 days to travel from one station to another station about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} away, while another takes about another day for about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}.
- Rack up some rewards points on the Amtrak's Guest Rewards program. If you are going to spend this high amount, you might want to get something out of your price. This program will allow you to grab points for each train segment of your journey.
- Pack clothes for each segment of your journey—pack for both warmer and colder weather. Though most trains will be air-conditioned (and heated in the winter), days can vary in these different cities.
- Try to bring along a smartphone. It's awfully-nice to know the weather in a particular city for a short time before you arrive in the city itself. Prepare yourself with one.
- Try not to trip over things. Injuries can happen, either between the station platform or at the station, or within the train. Be careful.
- Prepare yourself for a letdown. There are no rental car agencies at the Anaheim rail station. If you call an Anaheim rental car location, you'll find that they exist, but you'll have to find another transport method to get there, as they won't bring over a car to the rail station to pick you up when you arrive. If you'd like, you can stop at Los Angeles' Union Station and transfer to the airport. Nearby the airport, you'll find the rental car agency shuttles. However, doing so will defeat the purpose of the Pacific Surfliner going from LA to Anaheim.
- Be prepared for layovers at most of these stations. Both trains rarely connect so that you can hop out of one and into another - so don't plan on it.
- There are many different ways to get there solely by Amtrak train, but you'll have to have a creative mind and a timetable to find them out.
Related Articles
References
- Amtrak System Timetable, Effective June 9, 2014 (Summer Fall 2014 edition) - research source
