5 Reasons Why Traveling on the Amtrak Is My Ideal Remote Working Space

• Rossilynne Culgan often takes the nine-hour Amtrak trip from New York to Pennsylvania.
• As a freelancer who works from home, she finds the train journey a great place to get work done.
• Culgan shares five reasons she swears by the Amtrak to maximize productivity on travel days.

I’ve worked in a lot of different offices over the years — a “hot-desk” coworking space, a cubicle farm, an open-plan newsroom, and even a corner office with a view.

But the best office in America for productiveness, I’m convinced, isn’t an office at all — it’s a seat on an Amtrak train.

I take Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian train every few months to travel between New York City, my current home, and my hometown near Pittsburgh.

Every trip, I look forward to visiting family and friends, of course, but I also look forward to the intensely focused nine hours of work I can count on during the journey.

As a freelance journalist, I can write anywhere. But working from home with a pet and a partner who also works from home often means interruptions and jockeying for quiet in our tiny Manhattan apartment.

On the train, however, my train of thought is rarely disrupted.

This mobile, makeshift office offers the ambient sound and furtive people watching that you get while working in a coffee shop — the epitome of focus for me.

On two trips this summer, for example, I plowed through my to-do lists, pitching articles, sorting through hundreds of emails, creating a PowerPoint for an upcoming speaking event, editing an 8,000-word story, and working on this very article. Had I been working from home, or any other office, for that matter, I likely wouldn’t have been able to complete as much.

In addition to the deep focus I find on the train, there’s also WiFi, an outlet at each seat, and easy access to a bathroom that’s, frankly, tidier than many coffee-shop restrooms.

Here are the five reasons I find working from the Amtrak so productive.

Amtrak is a stress-free way of cross-country travel

Amtrak travels to more than 500 destinations in 46 states and promises “the best views North America has to offer,” a claim I have to agree with.

My regular route clocks in at about the length of a typical workday, but there are longer or shorter journeys to choose from.

With Amtrak, I avoid fighting through airports and transfers. I can sit and work peacefully for my entire journey and still get to my destination.

Instead of travel taking time out of my workday, I get more work done on a travel day.

In addition to its role as an efficient workspace, Amtrak is a more energy-efficient option compared with car or plane travel. Amtrak is 46% more energy-efficient than traveling by car and 34% more energy-efficient than domestic air travel, according to Amtrak’s website.

I can feel confident that I’m more environmentally conscious on my trip than all these celebs traveling in their private jets.

I pay a little more for business class, and it’s worth it

Business-class seats are available on a variety of routes. They’re a bit more expensive, but they’re worth it. Business class offers extra leg room, more spacious seats, and free soft drinks. This is crucial for my ideal Amtrak setup.

The cost of my most recent one-way business-class seats this summer came in at $141 and $105.

For comparison, airfare between New York City and Pittsburgh is running at about $220 on most airlines — except for a few cheap Spirit flights. A one-way standard rental car costs about $120, and that’s before gas and tolls.

A coworking day pass in New York City costs about $35 a day, so my train trip is obviously more, but it propels me 373 miles westward.

Amtrak lets you see how busy your train is going to be

When you buy your ticket, the Amtrak website will show in real time how full the train will be. I’ve seen trains anywhere from 40% full to 80% full, depending on the day.

It’s like being able to see how busy a coffee shop or coworking space is before you get there.

If you have flexibility in your schedule, I always recommend finding a train that is less busy.

I prefer a less full train so I’m more likely to have an entire row to myself to stretch out with my backpack, sweater, laptop, and snacks.

Having this space booked and marked out means I can relax for the rest of the day and focus on my work.

Occasional spotty WiFi helps me plan out my work and stay on task

Many Amtrak trains offer WiFi, and it generally connects well for me. But I travel through parts of central Pennsylvania that are very rural, so the signal can get spotty in some areas.

This forces me to organize my work in batches and impose deadlines. I focus on internet-intensive work on the leg between New York City and Philadelphia, where I can expect fast WiFi, then save offline work for the next part of the journey.

I can take a relaxing break just by looking out the window

Whenever I feel the need to take a short break, I don’t even get up from my seat. I just turn to the window and marvel at the view rolling by, listen to the click-clicking rails, and hear the train’s whistle.

I feel immediately transported away from my work and peaceful admiring the natural beauty outside. When I turn back to my laptop, I’m refreshed and ready to plow on.

There’s something magical about seeing the country by rail and arriving at a destination to explore — perhaps even more magical than checking items off your to-do list.