Marscon by Train

My wife and I decided to travel to Marscon by train this year.  Marscon is a "weekend long party for people who enjoy Science Fiction and Fantasy" to quote the event's website.  In the last several years since we moved to Northern Virginia/Washington DC metro area, we have driven to Williamsburg, where Marscon is held.  According to Google Maps, one can drive from our home to the Marscon hotel in as little as two hours and forty minutes.  This is the most optimistic estimate Google Maps gives and assumes that we leave at 10:00 PM on a Monday.  With the convention being on a weekend,
however, we usually left for the convention around 4:00 PM after work -- along with everyone else leaving Washington for the weekend.  The drive therefore took much longer and often involved in transit adjustments of routes, sitting in traffic, comparing different GPS programs' directions, and shaking heads at other drivers.  A four hour drive was typical, and some drives could last longer than five hours.  We always arrived at Marscon with drive frazzled nerves.

Our principal goal in taking the train, therefore, was to have an easier time getting there and getting back.  We knew it would take longer, but we wanted to arrive fresh and energetic for Marscon.  Still, I was curious just how much in time and money we were paying for that improved experience.  That is part of what I am outlining in this post.

Money:  We bought Amtrak tickets during a late November weekend sale.  The price per round trip ticket was $48, or $96 for two people.  Because we don't live in the city, we also had to drive from Loudoun County (the outer suburbs) to my office in McLean, Virginia where I would park my car for the weekend.  I probably used about a gallon of gas driving their and back, so that cost was about $2.60.  Parking was free.  We would then take the Metro from there to Union Station.  Metro fare, because we were travelling during non-peak hours, was $3.85 per person each way.  My metro fare (but, not my wife's) is discounted by about one third through a program at work, so our total for both of us was $12.86.  Once arriving at Williamsburg, we needed to take a Lyft to the hotel.  It was a short drive of just a few miles.  We paid $11, including tip (a friend dropped us off at the train station for our return journey).  Our total monetary cost was therefore $122.46 (train fare + gas + metro fare + ridesharing).    For comparison, I estimate gas cost to run at about $25 based on the current price of gas, my car's mileage, and the round trip distance our most likely routes.  Taking the train was therefore about $97 more expensive for two people travelling -- the cost difference coincidentally being nearly the same as the Amtrak tickets themselves.

Time:  To give ourselves plenty of time to catch our 2:30 PM train, we left our house at 12:00 noon.  We arrived, after driving to my work, parking my car, and taking the Metro, at Union Station at 1:30 PM.  This gave us plenty of time to eat lunch at Union Station and wait for the train.  We could have left later, but it felt better having extra time in case anything went wrong with finding parking at my office (there was a small possibility of there being no parking) or something going awry with the Metro (also a possibility).  The train arrived in Williamsburg at 6:40 PM.  Our Lyft driver dropped us at the hotel at 7:00 PM sharp, so our door to door travel time was seven hours.  Our return trip door to door was from 5:00 PM to 10:45 PM, an improvement of more than an hour (this also included picking up fast food dinner to eat on the train.  For comparison, I estimate that it would have taken us about four and a half hours to drive down (including stopping for dinner -- remember that our train door to door time also included time spent eating lunch) and three and a half hours to drive back.  The total door to door times there and back would be 12 hours and 45 minutes by train and eight hours by car.  Clearly, driving gets us there and back quicker.

Convenience:  This is what we were paying for in terms of time and money.  The principal convenience for us was that neither one of us had to drive.  I actually worked on the train for about

Work supervisor

three hours (this is what allowed us to leave so early in the day).  Later on the trip, knowing that I would be staying up late each night during the weekend, I took a nap.  We also both read.  We couldn't have done any of these things in the car.    The train also afforded us space to get up and walk around.  Another bonus convenience was that we didn't have to search for a parking space at the hotel.  The hotel parking lot is always full (Marscon had nearly 1500 attendees this year, and regularly sells out the hotel).  Our Lyft driver delivered us to the front lobby door of the hotel, and we simply walked in.

We did have to pack lighter than we have in previous years.  Instead of packing a car full of luggage, games, and party supplies (we sometimes host room parties), we limited ourselves to one piece of luggage each.    The only limitations this created was that I needed to be choosy about the number of board games I brought (I brought four, instead of a giant stack of them) and that we couldn't host a room party.

Conclusion:  We loved our train experience going to Marscon.  The train was comfortable, we arrived refreshed and ready to go for our weekend long party (and were able to join friends Friday night just as they were sitting down to dinner).  The train also proved to be timely in it schedule.  We arrived just 15 minutes late to Williamsburg and arrived 10 minutes early on our return to Washington, DC.  We also had the bonus of visiting Union Station, which is a gorgeous building.  The convenience and experience was worth the extra cost for us.  The extra time was offset for me by being able to make good use of the time (using the train's wifi or my phone's mobile hotspot to connect for work for several hours).  In future, I will always look at the train as a good option for journeys to Hampton Roads (train stations in Williamsburg, Newport News, and Norfolk).  For people who live in the city, this is an even better mode of travel because of the train's location downtown.  Even if you live in the suburbs, like we do, I encourage you to consider taking the train to your destination.

The smiles remained upon our arrival in Williamsburg