<p>Hello east coasters- how would you have your student travel from Philadelphia to Richmond. DD has an entire day to travel, so no worries there. Is it close enough to take a train? Better to fly? Is there some little airline that does little hops out of Richmond?</p>
<p>It is probably close enough to take a train. It’s about a four-hour drive depending on traffic, which can be miserable going around Baltimore and D.C.</p>
<p>Traffic in that corridor can be truly unbelievable at certain times. Train service to DC is reliable and frequent, and I think on to Richmond is relatively frequent. </p>
<p>Air travel is likely to suffer from the small market syndrome where the direct fare is stupendous. Reasonable fares probably require you to fly to atlanta or cincinatti and then fly back.</p>
<p>Or, if the cost is reasonable, fly into Reagan Washington Nat’l Airport, get to train station and take Virginia Railway down to Richmond. Don’t know if it’s better than Amtrak. Commuter Train transportation from Philadelphia Airport is good. It’s the connections that may take additional time.</p>
<p>It’s about a five-hour trip, and the fare should be between $40 and $60 (possible exceptions might be higher rates on Friday afternoons?). I would definitely vote for the train. It’s a nice ride, too.</p>
<p>One hour nonstop flight on USAirways.</p>
<p>Although I would opt for the car (faster, more flexible schedule, travel point to point), I would take the train over the airlines. Round trip Philly to Richmond by Amtrak is about $110 ($55 one way) on weekdays. The main problem with Amtrak is that there are only two direct trains a day to Richmond; one at 10:30 in the morning, the other after 5 pm. I would not suggest taking the late afternoon train since it arrives in Richmond very late at night.</p>
<p>For travel out of Richmond to take a best fare flight to another far away location, what is the best way to fly out? Train or bus to bigger airport?</p>
<p>Sounds like the train is the way to go for the PHL-VA leg of the trip</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>Take the train - even if she has to switch from AMTRAK to a local commuter somewhere along the way. </p>
<p>I-95 and the beltways around Baltimore and Washington are not for an unseasoned driver.</p>
<p>Another vote for the train here. Amtrak is the only train service in Richmond. As far as getting to another airport the news is not good. She could take the train to DC and take the Metro to Reagan but not Dulles. I believe bus service is available to Dulles. She could also get to BWI.</p>
<p>There may be only two direct trains from Philadelphia to Richmond, but there are trains from Philadelphia to Washington hourly, and 8-10 trains/day from Washington to Richmond, so there’s no need to be limited by the direct trains unless the traveler can’t handle changing trains at Union Station in Washington. In fact, I would recommend AGAINST using the direct trains to travel from Richmond to Philadelphia – those are looooong routes, and they tend to pile up big delays on a frequent basis as they make their way up to Washington.</p>
<p>JHS – 8 to 10 trains to Richmond? Where are you seeing this? I checked with the Amtrak site and can only find 2-3 trains on weekdays.</p>
<p>I love the Richmond airport. We live about 1.5 hours away; about 2 hours away from Dulles. Would so much rather go in and out of Richmond. Pretty good selection of direct flights, but physically much smaller, easier parking, easier security, . . .</p>
<p>That said, I like the flexibility of having a car. 95 is well-marked. Trip might not be fun but shouldn’t be difficult.</p>
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<p>Only 2 trains go to downtown Richmond. The rest go to Staples Mill Road 5 miles north.</p>
<p>My own preference would be to drive even though I-95 can be incredibly slow if there is a lot of traffic. It is a very straightforward drive but not a pleasant one and I agree not great for unseasoned drivers. Besides, if a student is traveling alone renting is probably not an option–too young. As noted, train service between Philadelphia and DC is frequent, but south of DC there are fewer trains and potential for lots of delays. Still, it’s a direct trip even if the timing isn’t great. </p>
<p>What about express bus service? is there anything that runs from Philadelphia to Richmond? (There are such great cheap new routes to and from NYC, I wonder if that might be an option–train to NYC and then express bus to Richmond.) If not that, maybe direct flight is worth considering–won’t be that much faster given the need to arrive early for security, but at least it’s simple, although perhaps expensive.</p>
<p>There are $10 buses from Philadelphia to DC; I don’t know what the bus situation is between DC and Richmond, but there probably is something. That’s worth checking out; it could be a real option. (Don’t go to New York to get the bus; all the southbound ones go through Philly.)</p>
<p>In Philadelphia, the Megabus/Bolt buses pick up right by the train station (which is a few blocks from Penn and Drexel), so there’s no difference there for student travel. For the Chinatown buses, you would have to go to Chinatown, an easy public transit trip, or even a walk if the weather’s nice and you don’t have a lot of luggage. I don’t know what happens on the DC end, though.</p>