MangoCon Is official!

scottalanmiller

Just done a general search and a Weeks holiday in NY with flights and hotel £1000 might be having a holiday in Sept lol

Have @dominica do some looking at flights too. She deals with getting flights between NY and Dublin regularly and knows a lot of the tricks to good pricing.

Have you checked AerLingus? We love using them. And you can fly from Shannon, too.

NYC to the Rochester location for the event is an easy train ride.

Minion Queen

There is free shuttle service from both the airport and train station as well as lots of locals who might be willing to pick people up too!

JaredBusch

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

Minion Queen

@JaredBusch I know a few people are talking about driving.... You might be able to pick up some passengers on your way here

scottalanmiller

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

JaredBusch

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Minion Queen

Yes they are horrible about delays. Drives me nuts.

JaredBusch

@Minion-Queen said:

@JaredBusch I know a few people are talking about driving.... You might be able to pick up some passengers on your way here

I dunno if it was this thread or another, but yeah, we had a conversation about that. I could do a 3-4 carpool easy from here.

coliver

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

JaredBusch

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

If you want to be on a schedule, Amtrak is bad for everywhere outside the NY to DC run.
For vacation, it could be easily doable if you are not in a hurry.

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

The stretch through Albany is terrible, delays of 2-6 hours are standard. Chicago to Rochester, i thought, was pretty reliable, but have not taken it. For a vacation it is perfectly fine, your schedule is your own. I would do it too.

coliver

@JaredBusch said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

If you want to be on a schedule, Amtrak is bad for everywhere outside the NY to DC run.
For vacation, it could be easily doable if you are not in a hurry.

Hmm, we were thinking of picking up either in Syracuse or Utica... the southern-tier has basically nothing as far as commuter rail goes.

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

If you want to be on a schedule, Amtrak is bad for everywhere outside the NY to DC run.
For vacation, it could be easily doable if you are not in a hurry.

Hmm, we were thinking of picking up either in Syracuse or Utica... the southern-tier has basically nothing as far as commuter rail goes.

Literally nothing. No trains the whole way.

Utica has the best station. My favourite Amtrak station anywhere. I use it all of the time. It's grand. nothing like the boring box in Rochester.

Minion Queen

They are starting to put in a New Station in Rochester next summer (it wont be done by Saturday).

coliver

@scottalanmiller said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

If you want to be on a schedule, Amtrak is bad for everywhere outside the NY to DC run.
For vacation, it could be easily doable if you are not in a hurry.

Hmm, we were thinking of picking up either in Syracuse or Utica... the southern-tier has basically nothing as far as commuter rail goes.

Literally nothing. No trains the whole way.

Utica has the best station. My favourite Amtrak station anywhere. I use it all of the time. It's grand. nothing like the boring box in Rochester.

They are trying to get a commuter rail in place from Oneonta to Cooperstown and want to tie it into Utica in the next 5-7 years.... funding is starting to be an issue though.

scottalanmiller

@Minion-Queen said:

They are starting to put in a New Station in Rochester next summer (it wont be done by Saturday).

They've been putting that in for a long time. I saw the hole in the ground when I was at the train station this past summer.

coliver

@Minion-Queen said:

They are starting to put in a New Station in Rochester next summer (it wont be done by Saturday).

They were working on that when I was in school there I think... that was 3 years ago.

scottalanmiller

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

If you want to be on a schedule, Amtrak is bad for everywhere outside the NY to DC run.
For vacation, it could be easily doable if you are not in a hurry.

Hmm, we were thinking of picking up either in Syracuse or Utica... the southern-tier has basically nothing as far as commuter rail goes.

Literally nothing. No trains the whole way.

Utica has the best station. My favourite Amtrak station anywhere. I use it all of the time. It's grand. nothing like the boring box in Rochester.

They are trying to get a commuter rail in place from Oneonta to Cooperstown and want to tie it into Utica in the next 5-7 years.... funding is starting to be an issue though.

That would be amazing but I don't see it happening. What a weird run to add, but absolutely perfect for me as I always want to specifically go from Utica to Cooperstown. So sad that it is down the road, not now. My SIL was from Utica and went to Oneonta, that would have been perfect for her. And my in laws are moving out of Utica next year, so too late for us to use.

coliver

@scottalanmiller said:

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@coliver said:

@JaredBusch said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@JaredBusch said:

Best non-stop i can get currently out of O'Hare is $270. Still deciding if I want to drive or fly.

There is a train for you too, direct. But it is long.

I will never take Amtrak anywhere that I want to get to on a schedule.

Is Amtrak bad from NY to Chicago? We are thinking about visiting some my wife's family this summer and she wants to take the train.

If you want to be on a schedule, Amtrak is bad for everywhere outside the NY to DC run.
For vacation, it could be easily doable if you are not in a hurry.

Hmm, we were thinking of picking up either in Syracuse or Utica... the southern-tier has basically nothing as far as commuter rail goes.

Literally nothing. No trains the whole way.

Utica has the best station. My favourite Amtrak station anywhere. I use it all of the time. It's grand. nothing like the boring box in Rochester.

They are trying to get a commuter rail in place from Oneonta to Cooperstown and want to tie it into Utica in the next 5-7 years.... funding is starting to be an issue though.

That would be amazing but I don't see it happening. What a weird run to add, but absolutely perfect for me as I always want to specifically go from Utica to Cooperstown. So sad that it is down the road, not now. My SIL was from Utica and went to Oneonta, that would have been perfect for her. And my in laws are moving out of Utica next year, so too late for us to use.

Yep, it has been talked about a lot lately it seems that more and more people are coming to the colleges from the northeast and a train route would be a huge incentive to bring students in. They also want to alleviate some of the traffic during baseball season on 88. Oneonta used to be the central hub for most of the southern-tier rail... all of the right-of-ways still exist from what I've read.

scottalanmiller

NY needs to do something to reinvent themselves. They need to look to Europe and build out a serious public transportation system. NY is too deep to go to the low tax systems that Texas or Florida do to inspire growth. They and California need to go European with high taxes and huge social services to make it work. They could do it, if they are smart about it. They need a LOT of rail and they need it to really work, unlike it is today. But the I90 corridor and the ST corridor are so dense and linear that they could, even with all the open space, pull off a European style structure out there if they were smart.