union station

Credit: National Train Day

Do you have a kiddo that loves trains? I do. My five year old fell in love with trains from the moment he laid eyes on one. We have to pass railroad tracks on the way to my daughter’s dance studio each day, and my son loves every minute of that drive because he knows he will see train tracks and maybe if he’s lucky, a train. If you have a kiddo(or a husband) that has a love of trains, you definitely want to make sure to save the date, Saturday, May 12th is National Train Day!

National Train Day will take place on Saturday, May 12th in select cities throughout the country, including NY, Chicago, LA, and Philadelphia as well as hundreds of grassroots events throughout the nation. For a list of all event locations, you can click here

If you decide to take a trip on this day we recommend you to visit the best parks in the Chicago area, you will have a lot of fun.

Union Station in Downtown LA, will be host to National Train Day Los Angeles and will feature

Arts and crafts for the kiddos
Meet and greets with Dora the Explorer
Live entertainment
Tour luxury train cars, freight, commuter and of course Amtrak passenger service

National Train Day Los Angeles will be taking place at Union Station. Exhibits and tours open at 11am, so make sure to get there early! It should be a fun day!

For additional info head here.

My almost 4 year old son has been obsessed with trains ever since I can remember. He loves every kind of train, from miniatures to the commuter trains he sees everyday.

He will be taking a field trip with school to Union Station soon and he is so excited he can’t stand it. He talks about it every single day! I think he forgot that just a few months ago, we took this same trip ourselves. We parked our car at the Fullerton Station and took off on our adventure to Union Station. We had a great time touring the beautiful station and actually wound up riding the subway from Union Station to Hollywood and Highland. It was an inexpensive but very fun trip that my daughter still talks about. My son actually only remembers the subway segment and nothing else.

Needless to day when I read about this great deal from the folks at Metrolink, I had to pass it on. You can purchase a family four pack of round trip tickets on Metrolink for $29 to use on the weekends. I would highly recommend taking the train to Union Station, touring the station, riding the subway to Hollywood and Highland and having a fun lunch at Hollywood and Highland. I can’t rave enough about what a great time we had as a family when we did it.

Here are the details..

The Metrolink “Friends and Family 4-Pack” (FF4P) is a ticket package specifically geared toward weekend travellers. It consists of a package of four individual round trip tickets that can be purchased from any Metrolink ticket vending machine (TVM). The FF4P round trip ticket will allow a group of up to four persons to travel together on Metrolink all day on either Saturday or Sunday for only $29.

Press the “Friends and Family 4-Pack” button on the ticket vending machine ONCE only. Four individual round trip tickets will be dispensed from the ticket machine. DO NOT PRESS THE “FRIENDS AND FAMILY 4-PACK” BUTTON MORE THAN ONCE FOR EACH SET OF 4 TICKETS.
Future dated (advance purchase) FF4P tickets are also available through the TVMs.
FF4P is good for weekend systemwide travel on date of purchase.
FF4P is also available for Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Friday and New Year’s Day.

Restrictions for the FF4P include:

Valid for Saturday or Sunday travel only
Up to four persons may travel together, as a group, not separately, on the FF4P
Not transferable to Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains
Not valid for free transfers to EZ Transit Pass operators including the Metro Rail Lines and bus operators.
No refunds for this 4-Pack tickets

It is a great deal! To learn more about the Friends and Family Deal head here. Happy exploring!