That's 5 and a half hours on a train - it's only a little over 2 hours from Philly to D.C. on the NE Regional so you'll be in D.C. at like 7 am. So where does the time go? Oh yeah you end up sitting for ages in D.C. and won't be in Alexandria before close to 8 and then you're stopping in every small town. That would get real old real fast especially if you left the house at 4 in the morning.