Amtrak Smart Pass fares will increase in February

The final installment of the huge Amtrak fare hike first announced in late October is to take effect on February 16th. The monthly unlimited pass between Philly and New York will be $1,008 (currently it's $821), a completely and totally insane price. This got some press recently as there was an AP story released last week: Amtrak Smart Pass fares will increase in February.

The pricing strategy Amtrak has in place now for monthly passes is terrible. You can find my thoughts and analysis as I break down the new Amtrak Smart Pass pricing in my blog posting here.

How can one deal with commuting regularly via Amtrak but not spend crazy amounts of money and bust your budget? I don't know yet, but read one of my posts on this matter as a start.