Edits have been made to this thread to conform it to the FlyerTalk Rules that we discuss the topic and not challenge the members. Thanks, Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

Train is 1.5 hours Philly to Baltimore (add 15 minutes if you actually live closer to BWI station). 15 minute walk from Cabletown to 30th Street station. Plus you must give yourself some lead time - 15 minutes. plus the drive from the Baltimore station to home - another 15 minutes?

2 hours 15 minutes each way. If you leave Cabletown at 5pm you'll be walking in the door sometime after 7pm. Is that acceptable? You do get to spend every night at home, but it's a really early start each day if you're gonna try to get to work by 8am or 830am.

I commuted on Amtrak for a number of years, although not quite as far as what the OP is intending to do. You just get into a rhythm. As long as you can keep yourself occupied with work or entertainment, you'll get used to it pretty quickly. The key thing is to be aware of delays and other schedule mishaps. Make sure your employer understands and accepts that perhaps once or twice a month you will get into the office more than an hour late. And the same thing for the trips home. And there will be the rare occasion that trains are unavailable and you'll have to rent a car to get home or just stay in the city.

Find places that offer decent take-out meals so you have something good to eat on the train for dinner.

Oh, and look into the rules for getting cheap upgrades to Acela if you buy monthlies. I remember vaguely that you can upgrade to Acela for $10 after 6pm. But that's old information.

You'll be accumulating points quickly. Amtrak used to be fairly generous to people who reach Select status. But I'm sure you can find that information yourself.

Although you can take the subway into center city, it is my understanding that the Septa trains are free if you have an Amtrak ticket, and they run just as frequently.

It's not ideal and not necessary but certainly doable. Plenty of folks doing to the PHL-WAS commute. My tips:

-Acela is not necessary on this route a waste of your $. The 10 ride or monthly pass gives you flexibility if you don't know the exact time you're going to be done each day. These are only good for the regionals. You can get your tickets a little cheaper if you're really organized and want to spend some time every few weeks making lots of bookings.

-Sign up for Amtrak Guest Rewards and also get an Amtrak credit card.

-Use the app to keep your tickets in order. Keep track of your evoucher numbers in a separate file.

-Have a backup plan for severe delays. That can be keeping a change of clothes at work and getting a hotel. Buses also depart from 30th street station if Amtrak's out.

-Depending on where you live in MD, BWI parking costs less than BAL and easier to get in and out of. It fills up pretty early though. Not all trains stop at ABE and really once you're that close you may as well drive.

-It's free to travel SEPTA between 30th Street and Suburban Station if you have an Amtrak ticket. They almost never ask anyways but the Amtrak ticket counts.

-You can brush teeth and finish getting ready in the train restroom. It's dumb but may save 10-15 mins in the morning.

-Buy a tablet, noise cancelling headphones, and decent coffee thermos

I don't know how much you want to push it when starting new job, but if I were you I would find out more about their telework procedures and policies. For example:
- Will you have a company issued laptop?
- Do you have to be in the office everyday?
- Does your daily work leverage internet connected applications or is there work you can sync to your laptop and complete offline? (if wifi is unreliable)

Since you will be spending a lot of time commuting, you want to be able to maximize your time on the train. Personally when I was commuting weekly by air, I got into a routine of staying up later at home with my wife, taking the earliest flight, passing out as soon as I get on the plane, and would wake up refreshed by the time I got to the office.

If telecommuting works well and there are no late afternoon meetings, you could likely leave an hour earlier then most with the expectation you will continue working on the train each day. The nice thing about Amtrak is your will lose very minimal time until you can be back on your laptop.

As far as getting from 30th st station to Kabletown.. Suburban st station is in the basement, so you can hop on any SEPTA commuter train toward center city and be in the office in 5 minutes without even walking outside. As other posters mentioned, this is free with your amtrak ticket, or you could walk it if you wanted some exercise

It's basically a six month's probation, then will be able to telecommute 1 or 2 days per week depending on projects/work/etc. But I'm going in with the view that I need to kick butt for six months, be there every day, etc. I can tell you that the employment world is very tight right now and I met a lot of qualified unemployed people during job my search. I hope to hang on to this job and get this last kid through school.

And just to put things in perspective, the Amtrak commute between BAL and PHL is roughly 65 to 70 minutes, depending on the train. There are a number of commuter-rail runs throughout the country that exceed that (the outer reaches of some Metro-North and LIRR branches take 2+ hours to reach downtown, as does MARC's Brunswick Line.)

Not to mention the fact that some people commuting around most major cities using local transit often spend 90+ minutes each way using a combination of bus, subway, walking, etc.

So the length of time on the train here really isn't all that unusual. The expense is more of a factor, IMO. But if the OP is comfortable with the expense, then it's certainly doable in terms of the logistics.

I commute between BAL and PJC weekly, and I think the main thing that's been brought up and worth emphasizing again is that delays will happen on the Northeast Corridor. On average I make about 5-10 minutes late to where I'm going, but there have been times that trains have come hours late. The 10-ride/monthly pass will give you some flexibility for Regional, but there will be times that delays cascade and affect everyone. Having that mindset will be particularly important given that there will be times you'll get to work an hour or two late, and it'll be important that your supervisors will be cognizant that every so often you won't be on-time. Overall though, I think it's a very manageable commute, and probably on par with what most people experience in their day to day (albeit far more expensive).

I spent most of 2012 on a 90-minute each way commute, 5 days/week. Other posters are correct: it gets to be a rythm and you just do it automatically.

If I could have taken a train I probably would have, but the car worked out well. Of course, the part of the country where I was commuting to/from is more sparsely populated that where you'd be going, but 90 minutes each way is not at all unheard of. And, as you say, being home every night makes a big difference in familial relationships.

A plan I was going to implement (but didn't have to) was this: get your 40 hrs in by working 4 10's. The 4 days would be MT and ThF, with Wednesday off.

Hotel Monday and Thursday nights, so you can keep status/points on track, and you're home 5 nights/week.

In reading the rules that were posted early in this thread, the residence that counts for determining in-state/out-of-state is the student's residence, not the parents'. I assume that the student in question lives at home for at least part of the year and so the concern arises from the student thus not living in Maryland except for attending school.

Is that the case? If not, there should be no concern about a parent moving. Why not consider just renting an apartment in Maryland for the student year-round?

This sounds like a good idea after the OP is out of his 6-month probation period. Most people won't question you not being there on a Wednesday, while they'd question you not being there on a Friday or Monday. :)

Be sure to find out on which trains the 10-trip and monthly tickets may be used. They're not valid on all train numbers, not even on all regionals. But the good thing is that you can jump on any valid train, even if it's technically sold out. Unless the rules have changes, "all-reserved" does not apply to 10-trips and monthlies.

The one annoying thing about PHL is that Amtrak makes you wait in line before you're allowed to go down to the platform. Ugh.

By the way, when you do get to a point where you can telecommute one day per week, I can confirm that Wednesday is a great day to do so. It breaks up the week and makes the train travel less tiring.