JFK to Baltimore - bus or train?
 

Not sure if this belongs to the right forum...pls feel free to move...

My friend is arriving at JFK on Friday morning around 8 am, and wondering what's the easiest/quickest way to get to Baltimore? He would have one suitcase, and one back-pack...not too familiar with US.

Appreciate the help.

Take the Airtrain to the Long Island Railroad terminal at Jamaica. Take the LIRR to Penn Station and then take an Amtrak train to Baltimore. That's what I would do. Easy and comfortable.

Train easier, bus cheaper.

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The "easiest/quickest way" to get from JFK to Baltimore is to fly. Delta has a 9:00 AM departure.

If you friend wants to take Amtrak, the whole trip from JFK to Baltimore can be booked on Amtrak's website. Enter "JFK" as the origin station.

For more discussion, please follow the thread to the Travel->Mid-Atlantic forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

The Delta fares are actually pretty reasonable too. $59 for JFK-BWI.

I figured they would charge high like how US does on flights such as PHL-(any city within 5 hours drive, such as DCA), and have the flights set aside more for connection purposes than for servicing/stimulating the local traffic, but not in this case. Maybe they charge less so that JetBlue doesn't jump in on JFK-BWI.

Wow. That's the answer. Faster, easier, cheaper too!

Thanks a lot folks for the suggestions.

My friend is arriving to JFK at 8 am on an international flight, by Air India...so the Delta flight, though looks great, but it does not have the flexibility, just in case the air India flight is delayed, or there's more than anticipated wait for customs/immigration etc. On the other hand if we buy ticket in advance keeping lot of time as buffer, then my friend will have to wait unnecessarily. Same inflexibility with Amtrak if the ticket is bought in advance.

In order to be flexible, we've decided to have him take a cab or shuttle from JFK to NYC downtown, and board the NY-Baltimore bus, which leave every 30 mins to an hour.

I'd welcome feedback on goto bus or megabus...or any other bus option...

Thanks again.

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"Same inflexibility with Amtrak if the ticket is bought in advance."

An Amtrak ticket that has been purchased but not yet printed is normally fully refundable, as long as one cancels prior to departure time.

Honestly, I think sitting on a long bus ride after an extremely long flight sounds like hell on earth. Amtrak offers MUCH more comfort.

The train is much faster and much more comfortable than the bus. If purchased in advance and not at peak business travel times, you can probably get an Amtrak ticket for under $50.

In addition, purchased and printed, but unused Amtrak tickets can be exchanged for a ticket on a later train with no penalty (just pay the fare difference if there is any).

Also, I concur with Analise that taking the bus after such a long flight sounds like pure hell!

Yuk ! I cannot imagine an intl. flight to a cab to an inter-city bus. At a minimum, spring for Amtrak. Even Acela (which is only 2 hours from Penn Station to Baltimore) can be found for pretty cheap.

I would check with the intl. carrier as to whether it can issue its ticket from intl. embarcation to BWI. It's possibly close to free (and in some instances less) and protects your friend if there's a misconnect. There's also the chance that intl. carrier can interline to DL and thus your friend doesn't have to lug checked bag, other than from inspection to bag drop.

hope the OPs friend made it aok, but for others thinking about taking a bus, keep in mind many of the buses do Not go into DT Balt but instead have their drops on the outskits of Balt

so if you are gonna go by bus or tell someone to ,make sure they know where they will be dropped off

Train! Much more pleasant ride and less delays. No traffic to deal with.