Originally Posted by
guv1976
Does your friend know about Continental's code-share service with Amtrak to and from EWR? Sometimes a ticket on Continental to ZFV (30th Street Station, Philadelphia) via EWR is less than the cost of a ticket to EWR alone. Prices can be checked on both continental.com and travelocity.com using ZFV as the destination city. And on a one-way from someplace to ZFV via EWR, your friend can certainly get off the train at an intermediate stop, such as Trenton or Metropark, if she prefers, with no problem.
Yeah, ZFV seems to be the ONLY place where the plane-train connection makes economic sense on Amtrak, because CO will usually price ABC-ZFV the same as ABC-PHL -- so if there's a cheap airfare into Philly, you often can get the same deal on CO into ZFV.
I've always been surprised that CO didn't do the same thing to ZWI (Wilmington, DE), a supposed "codeshare" destination they launched several years ago with Amtrak. Greater Wilmington has about 500,000 people, and logic would suggest a fast train to EWR would be a good alternative to those folks travelling from PHL. But CO has never marketed the service, and the pricing is ridiculous (paying $120 for the roundtrip Amtrak service to EWR and then buying a plane ticket would almost certainly be cheaper, but I doubt very many do this). Ironically, last year Delta launched service into the Wilmington airport (ILG), but even that didn't prompt CO to match DL's fares.
I guess the CO "codeshare" is still also in effect to New Haven (ZVE) and Stamford (ZTF), but I assume the pricing is also ridiculous and the service barely utilized.
It's just such a shame because Amtrak and CO could have a great relationship at EWR. The opportunity seems to be almost completely squandered.
Like pretty much all passenger rail opportunities in America.