Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson wouldn’t stop calling wide receiver Zay Flowers’ number until he changed his answer.

When asked Friday afternoon in the locker room if he preferred taking trains or planes to away games, Flowers was quick to say “plane.” That’s when Jackson and nearby lockermates Isaiah Likely and Ronnie Stanley jumped in. It’s more relaxing, security is easier, for short trips a train is just as fast — they argued in the huddle until Flowers eventually gave up and audibled.

Travel for this past Sunday’s rout of the New York Giants looked a bit different for Jackson and the Ravens, who improved to 9-5 on the season before returning to Baltimore ahead of Saturday’s marquee rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers that could decide the division. They chartered a private Amtrak train out of Baltimore’s historic Penn Station. Turns out a lot of the players prefer it to flying — at least for shorter trips.

Moving trucks, likely carrying equipment, still left the team’s Owings Mills practice facility Friday afternoon. But the whole team, including trainers and staff, made the roughly two-hour-and-change train ride north, according to a team spokesman. Some players said that train travel is physically less demanding on the body, while others like that it’s easier to hang out with each other in a train car than in a plane cabin.

“It’s just kind of a different experience,” said fullback Pat Ricard. Given the choice of a two-hour train or plane ride, he’d choose the ground game: “You see more of where you’re traveling looking out the windows — you’re not just up in the clouds.”

Punter Jordan Stout made the train trip for the first time back in 2022, also for a game against the Giants, which they lost. He said the trip up was “a little more serious” as guys mentally prepared. But the trip back offered the rookie an easier chance to bond with his teammates than some of the plane rides had that year.

The zen-like sights of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor seemed to work for Ricard and the Ravens this time around. Running back Justice Hill flew out of the station like a high-speed Acela on the opening kickoff, turning up the sideline for a 59-yard return.

Sure, they sputtered a bit after a week off — Jackson fumbled just two plays later, and the following drive ended in a punt. But Jackson, ever the prolific conductor against the NFC (he improved to 24-2 all-time against the conference), got the team back on track with three touchdown passes before halftime and two more in the second half.

Out of about a dozen interviews, only two players who spoke to the Baltimore Banner on Friday expressed a preference for air travel. Fittingly, they are both wide receivers — Flowers, who led the team in catches Sunday, and Rashod Bateman, who posted his first-ever multi-touchdown game.

Just as his teammates convinced Flowers, Nelson Agholor tried to convince Bateman to change his answer, too. It’s nice having cellphone service and better WiFi to watch his shows, Agholor argued. Bateman saw the logic.

For some players, the preference had to do with staying physically locked in.

“When you’re that high up, taking care of your body, there’s just an extra element to it,” said tight end Mark Andrews, who surpassed running back Jamal Lewis as the all-time Ravens touchdown leader against the Giants. “It’s just something you’ve gotta account for, being able to hydrate, limit any swelling and whatever else may be going on.”

Muscles can tense, lactic acid can build up — “That’s why they recommend when we land to go in the pool and flush our legs out from traveling on the plane,” Ricard said. He remembers plane rides to London when the trainers handed out devices to help with leg inflammation. Maybe Russell Wilson was onto something with all those high knees on the Denver Broncos’ plane ride to London in 2022?

Trains can offer more space to spread out — a nice perk. Just ask Daniel Faalele. At 6-foot-8-inches and almost 380 pounds, he overpowers plane seats just like he does defensive linemen.

“Flying in general for me is just uncomfortable because of my size,” said Faalele, who grew up in Australia and used public transit to get around most places. Like Stout, he took the train with the team as a rookie back in 2022. He thought it was a nice break from all the plane rides.

Defensive end Brent Urban, whose towering, 6-foot-7-inch frame is great for batting down passes but requires quite a bit of leg room, agrees. But he and plenty of others also brought up more of an intangible as to why the train is better for shorter trips: vibes.

“There’s just like a vintage feel,” said Urban with a smile and a nod.

More space and superior vibes — it’s a winning combination to set the tone for a return trip where the players like to socialize and decompress. Some guys bring cards, others play chess — Andrews said the offensive lineman love playing a sort of “who done it” card game, a la Werewolf.

“We do it [play games] on the plane too, it’s just not as easy to do as a group because it’s not a big space where you can all be in,” said Faalele.

It’s not like the team will suddenly start chartering trains bound for Los Angeles — once train trips get to be more than four or five hours, players said they’d rather just fly.

The team has so far only opted Amtrak for games against New York teams, but the stadium that houses the Philadelphia Eagles is also just a quick train ride away. Northwest Stadium, home of the Washington Commanders, is a roughly 10-minute drive from the New Carrollton station. Ricard remembers taking the bus to both of those stadiums — he and a couple other teammates agreed: Bus is bottom-of-the-barrel as far as travel options are concerned.

Sorry, Greyhound.