Category: By Rail

Rail

From Stamford By Train

I drove to JFK Airport recently on a Saturday. I was hoping it wouldn’t be a long and stressful drive. It was over 90 minutes coming and going and there were a lot of dangerous drivers.

I mention this because this summer I am going to take the train for day trips  as much as possible. You too can take the train from Stamford. There are many interesting trips you can take and many of them can be day trips.

Here is a list of some of the trips.

Greenwich and New Canaan; both are less than 20 minutes, and both are very walk-able from the train station. Heck New Canaan drops you right into the town.

Westport is less than 30 Minutes and the walk to the beach is historic and nice. Definitely worth a train ride.  A little tip: take the train that leaves around the half-hour. There are three less stops.

Bridgeport is about a 30-to-40-minute ride. You can walk to the Port Jefferson Ferry and take the ferry to Long Island. The town of Port Jefferson is a nice town to explore and have lunch. The ferry ride is about an hour long.

At the hour mark for travel is New York City and New Haven.

New Haven has three free museums the Yale Art Museum, The Peabody Museum and the British Museum of Art. There is also a nice selection of restaurants in New Haven.

What can I say about New York City, there are a million things to explore in the city.

Lately I have been getting off the train in Fordham in the Bronx.  You must take the local to NYC. A short walk from the station will take you to Arthur Avenue, The Bronx Zoo and the Bronx Botanical Garden

The two-hour mark brings you to either New London or Mystic. Mystic is only available by using Amtrak. New London can be either Amtrak or Metro North and Shoreline East.

I have taken the train to Mystic. The seaport is around a fifteen-minute walk from the station.

New London has ferry service to Long Island, Block Island in the summer and Fishers Island.

Amtrak tickets cost more. However, if you buy your tickets at least a month earlier you can get a decent price.

So, take the train and enjoy the state of CT and New York.

A Nice Day Trip

Last week I took the train to New York City. I exited the train at the Fordham Station in the Bronx. I have been getting off the train quite a bit in Fordham. I have found the Bronx is to be very walk-able and there is a lot to see and do there.

This trip was an easy walk.  I went to Arthur Avenue for lunch.  If you haven’t been you must go.  Arthur Ave is only a ten-minute walk from the train station. If you want to enjoy Italian food this is the place to go. They have a food store that still makes sausages the old-fashioned way.

After lunch I walked over to the Bronx Botanical Garden. Always a nice place to visit.

This summer the theme is “Alice in Wonderland.”

This rabbit topiary is just one of many items at the Garden.

The train from Stamford to Fordham takes 50 minutes and the is a train every half hour doing the day. Both Arthur Avenue and the Botanical Garden can be walked to in less than fifteen minutes.  Uber or Lyft is an alternative if you want to save your walking for the garden.

Enjoy.

Old Saybrook

Old Saybrook is a town in Connecticut that sits at the mouth of the Connecticut River. I have driven past the town many times on I-95

Last summer I was able to walk thru the town twice on my Stamford to Stonington walk.  Unfortunately, I was not able to explore the town in-depth. The sign saying this way to beach was tantalizing though.

I decided to remedy that oversight. This summer I traveled by train and started the Walking journey at the train station.

The walk to Long Island Sound is great. There is a sidewalk the entire way to the sound.  The village is just delightful. There is a beautiful theater named the Kate after Katherine Hepburn who was a long-time resident of the city

There are historical plaques along the way. Yale University was founded in Old Saybrook according to the plaques

The view at Long Island Sound is nice. The walk to the Sound and back is around five miles. If you are hungry there is a wide selection of eating establishments to choose lunch from.

I took Amtrak to Old Saybrook. The train left Stamford at 7:45 and I arrived at the destination at 9:15. The cost was $20.00. I took Shoreline East back.  As a senior the cost was $7.50. Time wise you are looking at over two hours on Shoreline East

One nice thing about the train is the view. Leaving New Haven you will see marshlands, wildlife and the sound. I counted dozens of egrets along the train ride.

To Westport by Train

Westport is a great town to take the train to and walk around. Actually all the towns along the Connecticut coast are great to walk thru.. I should know.  Last summer I walked from Stamford to Stonington and it was a delight walking all the towns. This article is about Westport. The Stroll to Compo Beach.

Leaving the train station you stay on the south side and follow the tracks to the train bridge.  There is a walkway next to the tracks walking over the Saugatuck River

 You will have a beautiful view of the sound. If you are lucky  you will see rowing teams practicing.

Leaving the bridge just follow the road until it comes to Compo Road South. Turn right and enjoy the walk. There is a plaque worth reading. Soon after you will be passing the golf Course.

When you come to the Minute Man Statue you can turn right onto Comp Beach Road. There will be a sight of nature and water on your right and lovely houses on your left. Rounding the curve, you get to see the Sound and Compo Beach.

The walk from the train station to Compo Beach is about 35 minutes. Coming back to the train station there are some restaurants. A nice meal can be had while waiting for the train

The Train from Stamford to Westport is 15 to 20 minutes depending on getting a local or semi-local. When I went traffic on I-95 was horrendous.  I am sure it would have taken me longer by car.

ENJOY

A Trip to the Zoo

The other day I decided to take the trip to the Bronx Zoo. The route was walk and take the bus to the Stamford Train Station. Take the local train to New York City and get off at the Fordham station in the Bronx. Then walk to the Zoo.

I chose this trip to see if taking the train and walking is a good alternative to driving to the Zoo.

Driving your car to the Zoo is around 25 miles each way. Most likely a round trip will use two gallons of gas. At today’s pricing that is $10.00. Parking at the Zoo is $20.00 Time frame is 45 minutes to One hour depending on traffic. Don’t plan on coming back on a Thursday or Friday afternoon. The NCY getaway traffic is awful then.

The train to Fordham runs at least once an hour. The time to get to Fordham is fifty minutes. The cost for a senior citizen round trip is $6.00 $12.00 regular. If you travel with children, their fare is $2.00. The walk from Fordham to the Zoo was twenty minutes.  There are numerous buses you could take. B-12 is one and that would save you at least ten minutes.

The walk along East Fordham Road is very easy.  You will pass by Arthur Avenue, a White Castle Restaurant. If you haven’t eaten at a White Castle you should stop in for the square mini-burgers. There is plenty of hustle and bustle on the street.  It is part of New York City.

Total time traveling and visiting was six hours. I spent two hours at the Zoo and afterwards went to Arthur Ave to buy cheese and see the sights.

Is it worthwhile to take the train?  I definitely saved money by taking the train. It was longer but I enjoy walking the streets of NYC and I was able to do some writing on the train. I feel the time tradeoff is worth it. I leave the decision to you

Saturday’s Journey


A little bit of housekeeping. I have decided to use journey instead of walking. One description of journey is “A days Travel”.  That is what I am doing as I have expanded my travels in many ways these days. Today I had two destinations that I wanted to visit. One was the dam at the beginning of the Mianus River in Cos Cob. The second location was the Silvermine Art School in New Canaan. The distance between the two destinations is fifteen miles. If I walked the entire distance plus going and coming to my house the distance would have been over thirty miles.  There is no way to walk that much in one day. So, I incorporated my other means of traveling. I walked, took the bus, took the train and even used my car to go from my house to the Springdale Train Station. I still logged twelve miles of walking. I was not able to make it to the Dam.  I got within 1,000 feet and stopped at the top of the hill.   There was a Scottish Bagpiper standing in front of a church and I waited there hoping to hear him play. Unfortunately, the bus came before he played. The train ride to New Canaan is always interesting.  The leaves are not out and you can see quite a ways into the woods and yards.  Today I was amazed how many tree houses are in people’s yard.   I saw at least four The journey from the New Canaan Train Station to the Silvermine Art School took almost an hour to walk.  The Art School usually has an art exhibit, and I was not disappointed with it. Walking back to New Canaan I noticed many vernal pools in the ground.  They usually disappear by summertime. Walking by

the train tracks I discovered an underground river.  You can see from the picture it surfaces for five feet and goes back underground again.  I wonder where it actually starts. Today’s journey shows me that the unexpected is always lurking.  If you had told me, I would see a bagpiper and an underground river I would have said no way.  There is so much happening out in the neighborhood.  Hidden in plain sight. Enjoy your travels    

New Canaan by Train

New Canaan is a perfect destination for a train ride.  The town is quaint, very walkable and the great news is the train station is right in the town. You only need to walk a hundred feet and you are on Elm Street.  Let the journey begin.

The train to New Canaan leaves the Stamford Train Station on the hour during the day.  Rush hour is slightly different.  The train usually leaves from track five and takes about twenty minutes.

As the train leaves the station you have downtown Stamford on your left and the train yard on you right.  Within a few minutes the New Canaan spur breaks off from the main line and wends its way to New Canaan. Right after the Glenbrook stop you encounter the giant antenna farm always an interesting sight.

Once you leave the Springdale stop the landscape slowly starts to change.  There are more trees and less civilization.

By the time you arrive in New Canaan it is almost all trees around the tracks. Passing over the Merritt Parkway is only a slight reminder of traffic.

Walking down Elm Street is just charming.  I grew up in Pound Ridge NY.  It is next to New Canaan, and I spent a lot of time in New Canaan. The town has expanded but has kept its charm and looks from the fifties.

One suggestion is to walk around the town and find a restaurant to eat at.  There are lots of choices for your eating needs.

Now for the serious walker.  You can walk to the New Canaan Nature Center. It is about a mile walk.  They have an Aviary where they keep wild birds that cannot be released back to the wild.  One of the birds is Gloria a Bald Eagle.

The next walk is turn right on South Avenue off Elm Continue to Farm Road where the High School is. take a short right and there is a trail for walking thru the Waveny Park.  You can walk to Lapham Road and go south on Talmadge Hill Road and catch the train at Talmadge Hill Station back to the Stamford.

I have just touched on a few of the great things to do and see in New Canaan.  Take the train and start enjoying

An Unusual Day for Walking

Tuesday Feb 8th walk was not my normal walk. I walked over fourteen miles. Which I have not done in a while. The unusual part about that was only a quarter mile was in Stamford. Two miles were at JFK Airport and the rest of the miles walked were in Boston MA.

Jet Blue Airlines had been advertising a fare of $29.00 one way to Boston and I thought why not try it. So, I flew to Boston spent six hours walking the streets and took the Acela Train back to Stamford that evening.

I arrived in Boston at 9:45 am and took the free shuttle bus from Logan Airport to Downtown Boston. It took about fifteen minutes to get to the South Street Train Station.

From there I walked to the Institute for Contemporary Art Museum.  The exhibits were interesting, and the view of the harbor from the museum was like a scene in a play

It was then time for lunch, and I walked to Quincy Market and had nice choice of food to pick from.

After lunch it was off to the Charleston Navy Yard where Old Ironsides (USS Constitution}  is berthed.  My Uncle Mark was assigned to Old Ironsides for a while during WWII. Because it is an active ship of the US Navy, they must have sailors assigned to it. There is also a museum about Old Ironsides right next door.  Definitely worth viewing.

From there it is a short walk to Bunker Hill.  The monument was closed so I was not able to walk up to the top of it. It was still worth the visit

I retraced my steps to downtown and decided to head to the Boston Commons.  I passed by the Old North Church and Paul Reveres house along the way.

At the Boston Commons there was a young man standing on the walkway with a sign saying portraits for one dollar.  I decided to see what he could do. Here is

the portrait of me. The hat and scarf are certainly me. I definitely  got my money’s worth.

Time to head to the train station.  The Acela train took less that three hours to go from Boston to Stamford. I barely had time to finish my book on Kindle.

Today I traveled by car, train, bus, airplane and of course walking.