We grew up in Rochester, NY. My Dad was a Track Foreman for the NY Central Railroad. We didn't have a car, and my father had a pass for the family to ride the train for free. We'd visit friends for a weekend, take a ride to Buffalo and go to the zoo, get back on the train the same day and ride to Niagara Falls, and once a year on Labor Day, we'd ride to Syracuse to go to the State Fair. My brother and I were the youngest of the family, and my parents would take us to NY City for a weekend every once-in-a-while. We thought it was the cat's meow, and service on the train back then was much better than it is today. Every train had a dining car. The last time I took Amtrak from Rome, NY to New York City was around 2006, and the only thing they had was vending machines. Today, you can't even get a train from Rome to NY City anymore.
Sounds like a cool childhood- we didn’t travel much. Just around neighboring towns really. Would been cool to hop a train and go places. And yep on the service- we get less today and pay more unfortunately. Would been nice to have dining carts to chill in -
It’s a 2 1/2 hour drive to the nearest Amtrak station from here...