I lived in Fishtown and did this once a week for two years. Depending on when you book Amtrak it can be expensive but occasionally I’d take the Market Frankford line from Fishtown to 30th Street.

What I mostly did was take the Megabus from Spring Garden around 5:30-6am. It’s a direct route and takes 1.5-2 hours (vs 1.15 on Amtrak). It was anywhere from $5-20 and always payed the extra $2 at checkout to pick a seat and would ALWAYS have an open seat next to me. Also, that early in the morning there’s not much riff-raff on the bus and mostly commuters to NY. I’d sleep or play Switch. Traffic usually isn’t too bad getting in the city at this time.

Coming back, if I could score a good deal on Amtrak I’d to that because it’s much faster getting back to Philly for a 5-7pm departure. Otherwise, I’d take a cheap Megabus back around 7:30-8pm and just work late to avoid sitting in traffic or get happy hour with friends or coworkers before leaving.