During the summer my wife and I will be travelling from the UK to Philadelphia. Because we really want to use the convenience of our local airport we will be flying into Newark NJ and accept that there's a premium involved with the tickets rather than using a London airport.

Sadly it's close to the beginning of the school vacation and so the prices are really high. Although we're watching the online booking agencies most days, most of the cheaper bookings seem to involve flying half way round the world between Newark and PHL for what is a relatively short distance. Doh!!!

We're considering the option of using Amtrak (do I hear cries of 'aaargh!) for that part of the journey. We have a possible offer of a car-ride down when we arrive so may only need to make the return trip by train.

The Amtrak web site shows a reasonable number of trains through the day between Newark International and Philly at a passable price and length of trip. What it doesn't say is whether that involves changing train anywhere. I'm thinking mainly of the logistics of luggage. So it's the ease of that part of it that I'm interested, you know the sort of thing, getting to & from trains with luggage, whether we'll have to change, etc.

Its over 25 years since I travelled Amtrak and I guess that - like the UK rail system - it hasn't improved. But needs must when the devil drives - as they say. Of course, we may yet get a sensible flight connection at a sensible price but I won't hold my breath.

Usual 'Cat comments about the state of Amtrak etc. are acceptable but hopefully someone will have made that trip recently and is still alive...

Nick