A Lesson Learned While Traveling on the Amtrak

I am used to traveling by either car or airplane whenever I travel but when me and my wife decided to travel to Washington from New Jersey; this was going to be the first time that we were going there by train.

We booked and purchased our tickets online the night before and were at the train station early. With ticket in hand, we assumed that just like riding a plane, you look for the gate number where your flight will be posted. So there we were at the track waiting for the train.

I heard the announcement which said that the train will be arriving in two minutes or so and waited inside this small room which had a heater since it was pretty cold outside.

A little while later, the train pulled up but the number of the train was not the same as the one printed on our ticket. Thinking it was a different train; we didn't board it and watched the train go away.

Minutes later, we wondered why the train was not there yet. Since there was no one we could ask, we went back upstairs and I asked the woman at the ticket counter if the train for Washington had already arrived. She said yes and only then did we realize that we should have boarded that train.

So what lesson did we learn from this? Well, you should not rely on the train number printed on the ticket to tell you if that is the train you are going to board.

Since most trains depart and arrive on time, the train that arrives at the track the moment you are supposed to go is most likely the correct on so you don't hesitate and board it at once.

If possible, ask a fellow passenger or the conductor if this is the train you are supposed to board. Otherwise, you could be riding the wrong train which also happened to us in another experience since we assumed that all trains that go along the tracks will all end up in the same destination.

The ending of this experience is that we were able to board the next train which departed an hour later en route to Washington. Going back three days later was pretty easy since the signage at Union Station was clearly visible so we did not have a hard time taking the train back home.