Departure - Rochester to NYC
Grandma’s musings:
Tues. Feb. 3, 1959 – Wed. Feb. 4th.
Rochester
Weather – Wet, slushy – about to ice over
10 p.m. David put us on the train for N.Y.C.
“Bedroom” - squeeze – hot -
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My musings:
From Rochester to NYC
Grandma Bowen notes the weather, as she often does in her diary entries, mentioning the wintery conditions they were happy to leave behind for a time in Rochester, NY in February of 1959. Their eldest son David drove them to the train station to catch the night train to New York City. Leaving at 10 pm, they spent the night in a sleeper car and, based on Grandma’s reporting, it sounds like it was an uncomfortable, tight fit; not an extremely enjoyable experience.
Rochester is actually quite a far distance from NYC, about 350 miles by car, passing either to the north or to the south of the stunning Finger Lakes region. During my childhood we went to many places in the area when staying at my grandparents’ farm in Naples, NY. It’s definitely a place I would recommend visiting some time. You can request a free travel guide and book a place to stay right on the Finger Lakes website.
Railroads
I encourage you to check out the history of Rochester, NY railroads. I really enjoyed looking at Scot Lawrence’s scrolling map of the railroad system between 1837 and 2006.
There are no longer any overnight trains available between Rochester and NYC to my knowledge. Today Amtrak offers four daily daytime departures from Rochester to the Big Apple that take roughly 7 hours and cost around $92. If you want to make the trip overnight you can take the Greyhound Bus (6h15m, $45) or Megabus, which sometimes has tickets for as little as $1.00! Their Rochester - NYC route is on hold for the moment due to COVID but when things run normally again the trip is 10 hours and costs about $10.00.
My experience with Greyhound dates back to the 1980s when I used to take the 17 hour bus ride between Rochester and Ripon, WI. I haven’t done it recently but the advice I could share of what I remember from back then is to dress warmly for the night! I remember on my first overnight bus journey I was so cold I couldn’t sleep!
I took Megabus just once but was very impressed by the professional skills and attitude of the driver and the cleanliness of the bus. It took my son and me just four hours to go from NYC to Greenbelt, MD in 2018, paying a whopping $20 a seat which, compared to the other options I found, was quite reasonable. Learn more about getting from Rochester to NYC nowadays from the folks at Rome2Rio. I always enjoy using their website.