travel reading - Amtrak

[15_the_circle]

[OT from cottage renovations]

Laura Hostetler: Quing Colonial Enterprise (ISBN 0-226-35421-0)

ethnology and cartograph in early modern China. 
on loan from Taunton, and what I have read so far is way cool. 

inevitable travel whining

reservations are required for all trains on the Northeast Corridor, so why the [colourful expression] did we have standees (yours truly included) for the first bloody hour, as far as Philadelphia?  these [another colourful expression]s are using yield management software to jack up the fares but aren't bothering to match capacity against demand -- the same demand they are so very carefully computing in order to charge the highest amount. 

grumble grumble. 

Comments

[szap.livejournal.com]

Hey, my Dad lives near Metropark. If you're ever stranded feel free to crash in their spare room. (You could just take the local NJ Transit train back south from Metropark to New Brunswick and walk to their place in 20 minutes.)

Got a question for you, we want to go to Maine next month. I don't want to drive 12 hours with a toddler, and David doesn't want to fly. Will we get there if we take Amtrak at least as far as Boston? (I have little faith that we could make a transfer to the Portland line and that all would be running on time for that. We'd probably do an overnight train right from Alexandria to BOS. How is Amtrak doing?

[15-the-circle.livejournal.com]

>
> ... we want to go to Maine next month. I don't want to drive 12 hours
> with a toddler, and David doesn't want to fly. Will we get there
> if we take Amtrak at least as far as Boston? (I have little faith that
> we could make a transfer to the Portland line and that all would be
> running on time for that. We'd probably do an overnight train right
> from Alexandria to BOS. How is Amtrak doing?
> 

ever since they pulled the sleeper off nos. 66 and 67 there hasn't been any point in taking the night train to Boston (too bad, since it used to run right out of the Alejandria station in your back yard).  even if it gets in on time it's too tight a connection given the inevitable change of station (and damn their eyes for deleting the rail connection from the Big Dig).  with only four trains/day the Portland service is still a bit scanty; there's only a single NB morning train.  so catch it after laying over in Boston for the night, there's plenty to do there (take your toddler for a ride on the T, dine at the Durgin Park, all the turista stuff). 

as to how Amtrak is doing, it seems to be experiencing the slow (though accelerating) death wished upon it by this administration, and though as always one has the occasional pleasant experience it basically seems to be falling apart at the seams.  if there's anywhere you want to have gone to by train, particularly the long distance ones out West, my recommendation would be to go ahead and do it before the opportunity disappears forever. 

consolation

[15-the-circle.livejournal.com]

whining aside there was, however, a pretty decent consolation prize: as a side effect of the daily evacuation of the Garden State's working population from the Big Apple, NJT and Amtrak put on one heck of a rush hour show up on the former PRR main line.  10- and 12-car commuter trains running express and local service along with Amtrak's regional trains, Decelas and the occasional long distance train, all of it at track speed and at headways on the order of a couple of minutes on all tracks. 

while awaiting the returning regional train, I caught this grab shot of a commuter train as it came whooshing through at track speed right past the platform in the late afternoon rain. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

(http://pics.livejournal.com/15_the_circle/pic/000rg530/)
NJT Metro Park

as noted above, having been on my feet and presenting all day, standing for the first hour until we got past Philadelphia -- on an allegedly all-reserved train -- didn't go over well, but the show on the platform made up for it.  well, mostly.