route planning

[adularia]

Oogedah. The only way between South Station and North Station makes you walk half a mile to the Orange Line? This would be fine, if I knew anything at all about Boston...

I'm plotting to visit angharads_house, working in as many forms of public transit as possible because I have more parsimony than sense. I am counting the subway, Fung Wah, T, and MBTA surface

Comments

[cow]

I'm reasonably certain I did this once, and it didn't involve walking half a mile. I seem to recall the Blue Line being involved.

This was four or five years ago, though, so my memory is useless.

(Deleted the other half, because I just found out it's not on this end of the world.)

[adularia]

Hmm. MBTA thinks the orange line. Wonder what Hopstop thinks. Wonder what Boston cabbies think. :) I was about to be indignant that there's no shuttle train between the stations, but there's no Penn->Grand Central train either...

[cow]

So I totally failed at remembering colors, but according to the MBTA maps (and confirmed by Google), South Station is right on the Red Line, transfer one stop up to the Orange Line, and the Orange Line stops at North Station.

(I was sleep-deprived from a red-eye flight and excited about meeting an e-friend in person for the first time, so I wasn't paying all that much attention.)

[adularia]

I will also be meeting an e-friend in person for the first time! Popular activity, lately.

[pauldf]

Hmm. Amtrak says to not use South Station if you want to use the T to get to/from North Station; use Back Bay station instead.

more here

[adularia]

The Fung Wah bus goes to South Station.

I wouldn't take Amtrak (except possibly Acela service) anyway, because it'd take two hours longer and cost eight times as much. None of the available choices for the NY->Boston leg reduce the number of transfers I have to make between systems, so there's no point paying more.

[pauldf]

Oh, right, you mentioned you were taking a bus. I've gone Amtrak (South Station) to the red line before, when headed to Cambridge; it worked well. I had prior experience with the T (subway), and had been to Cambridge before, but hadn't ever taken the train to/from Boston or been near any of their train stations before. I don't think there was a 1/2-mile walk, but I'm not sure.

Oh, there's one more catch. MTBA is more expensive if you don't have a Charlie Card, which, as far as a few of us can tell, is really just a random tourist/idiot tax, since it's hard to buy one if you're taking the T from the airport. Apparently, you can actually buy one at South Station. You can also buy one in advance online, which makes sense if you'll take at least three subway trips and have time for them to mail it to you. Don't be fooled by the machines willing to sell you a higher priced "Charlie Ticket", unless you're pressed enough for time that you don't care.