Amtrak (tel: (617) 345 7460 or 1 800 872 7245/USA RAIL; website: www.amtrak.com) uses the city's South Station at the junction of Summer Street and Atlantic Avenue, and Back Bay Station, at 145 Dartmouth Street. South Station has restaurants, newsagents and an information booth.

Rail services: The Northeast Direct service runs to Newport News, Virginia (13 hours) via New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC. The Lakeshore Limited service goes from Boston eastwards to Chicago (22 hours) via Albany, Rochester, Buffalo and Cleveland. Amtrak's high-speed train service, the Acela, reduces the Boston-New York journey to a mere 3 hours 15 minutes (from 4 hours 20 minutes) and the Boston-Washington, DC journey to 6 hours 45 minutes (from 7 hours 45 minutes).