Work meetings complete, I had to make my way home today through a maze of transportation; Amtrak was going to convert trains north of New Haven into buses. At least I had some warning about this situation beforehand. Still, I'm sure it will be hard to accentuate the positive during my continued progress towards home... I woke before my alarm (0545) and started teleworking from my hotel room - I also re-packed my bags and ate a light snack. At 0700, I checked out of the Holiday Inn and, because it wasn't too hot yet, walked all the way to Union Station. I arrived at around 0720 and stopped into Au Bon Pain for some breakfast to go (0725). For the next 20 minutes, I sat in a waiting area nearby, watching the "Departures" screen for updates on "The Vermonter" status and gate. Eventually, we were told where to go and I stood in a long queue for 25 more minutes while the Amtrak crew tried to resolve some issues. There were all kinds of "heat" warnings but I don't think the train was even parked when we were supposed to leave. During this time, I met a young guy from Ohio who was riding Amtrak (to NYC) for the first time in his life. We discussed the pros/cons and compared notes from our travel in other parts of the world where rail travel is more popular, cheap and easy. At about 0810 (only five minutes late), we had a rushed boarding and departed shortly afterwards. I was able to find the "Quiet Car", managed by a gruff lady who did not allow ANY noise at all. This was good but there was one really loud exchange with one person who would not cooperate with the conductors and started yelling about "racism". I started to wonder if I should move to another seat but things eventually quieted down again. During this phase of the trip, I didn't have very many people around me and I was able to put in more than four straight hours of work on my computer. Unfortunately, this crew changed in NYC and the newer conductors didn't enforce the quiet after that. On top of the changing "office" conditions, I started to get annoyed at all the additional requests I was getting from my colleagues, who typically rely on me for a lot of things anyway. I wanted to quit working by 1215 but knew it would be even harder to get anything done on the bus that I had to take beyond New Haven (due to track closures to allow repairs after all the damage caused by recent major floods). Instead, I powered through... When I asked a conductor about whether there was food or stops for food on the way to White River Junction, he told me there weren't. This inspired me to pick up some lunch in the Cafe Car (1255). Shortly after that, we reached the end of the train ride. Arriving in New Haven almost exactly on time (1310), we were asked to get off the train and walk through the entire station (towards the Greyhound Bus area). There were Amtrak staff-members pointing the way and there was a bit of urgency all around. We were separated into two different buses: one went to Hartford and Meriden while the other (the one I boarded) went "everywhere else." Departing at 1330, we drove all the way to Springfield, MA with only a few short stops on the way. It felt strange to trade my nice seat in a stable rolling carriage for a bench in a vehicle that was constantly careening around other traffic on I-91... Once we arrived at the Springfield Amtrak Station, the staff got off the bus and left us sitting for a while (no announcement or anything). Since it looked like a long delay, I asked if I could go inside the station to buy a drink (they said it was OK). After purchasing a soda at Commuter Variety (1510), I returned to the bus and found that nothing had changed in the meantime. After nearly 30 minutes, it became clear that we were waiting for the other bus. During this time, I tried to do some telework but it was harder than it had been on the train (I had to use my iPhone hot spot because they'd never told us about WiFi). Passengers were getting quite irritated and the staff continued being quite mysterious. Finally, another bus arrived but it turned out to be a southbound link to New Haven (annoying). When the "correct" bus finally arrived, the new Amtrak staff (conductors I recognized from my ride to Baltimore earlier in the month) reorganized the passengers between the two busses, using a paper "map" of the best way to get everyone home. Our bus then left Springfield and made stops in Holyoke, Deerfield and Bellows Falls. We next continued next to White River Junction and arrived at the Amtrak Station to find the other bus waiting on us (!!!) - I was annoyed with the way this whole thing was managed but was tired enough that I just bolted off the bus, grabbed my bag, packed my car (nearby) and started driving home (US-4 to NH-10). I arrived at my condo by 1830 and began unpacking, exhausted from my journey but wanting to get cleaned up as soon as possible. Since I'd been interrupted previously, I did some more teleworking in the evening to close out my Friday. Even though I've made several trips to DC since I left in 2020, this was the first time in many years I truly felt like I was traveling for the Government. It worked out OK but I hope to have some better flexibility in the future...
