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Amtrak, B-Movies, Web Development, and other nonsense

Month: June 2012

Thinking with networks

June 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I’m a regular on some transit boards. Every once in a while someone will drop by and post a variation of “I need to get from A to B, is this possible?” In most cases if both places are served by public inter-city transport the answer is yes, so the real question is “how painful/time-consuming this?” In tonight’s thought experiment A is Milwaukee, Wisconsin while B is New Bern, North Carolina.

Where are we going?

Wikipedia tells us that New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi, near Cape Lookout and a good 90-100 miles from major hubs like Raleigh and Wilmington. Hipmunk (if you’ve never messed around with Hipmunk, stop reading now and go do so) tells us that the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport is a stone’s throw from New Bern, and serves multiple major airlines with multiple departures. Greyhound’s System Timetables (another invaluable resource) tell us that New Bern sits a line between Raleigh and Myrtle Beach and sees two buses a day.

How do we get there?

Let’s start by asking Google Maps about the shortest distance between the two points. While public transport networks don’t (always) map to road networks this method can suggest possibilities that route planners don’t. Google Maps suggests two routes:

  1. Milwaukee-Chicago-Indianapolis-Dayton-Charleston-Greensboro-Raleigh-New Bern
  2. Milwaukee-Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus-Charleston-Greensboro-Raleigh-New Bern
The first thing you’ll notice is that neither of these maps well to Amtrak’s system map. Amtrak’s skeletal system will send you either to Washington (via the Capitol Limited) or Richmond (via the Cardinal and a bus connection).  Further, you can’t make a same-day connection in either of these places with Amtrak’s two Raleigh-bound trains, the Carolinian and the Silver Star.

The shortest distance between two points…

I’d say that there are three kinds of advice you can receive in a situation like this:

  1. Clueless advice.
  2. Bad advice.
  3. Good advice.

Clueless advice is someone who only knows how to use trip planners, and concludes that it can’t be done because of the day layover in Washington. Bad advice comes from someone who knows about the layover and, per the Dunning-Kruger Effect, thinks they’re giving good advice. That person says: take the night in Washington, catch the train to Raleigh or Selma-Smithfield the next day, and then take the bus. This is bad advice, because it overlooks something very, very important: the last bus to New Bern from Raleigh leaves after the earliest possible train arrival in Raleigh. If you take this person’s advice you’re spending the night in Raleigh as well.

Good advice is given by someone who checked on this possibility and realized that taking the train to North Carolina is a no-op and should be avoided. Instead, we need to work with Greyhound’s network as well and figure out how to get to New Bern faster, avoiding the overnight in Raleigh.  Greyhound will sell you a ticket to New Bern from Washington via Richmond and Raleigh. Your first bus leaves Washington at 7:35 PM. Your transfers are at 10:20 PM (Richmond–two hours layover) and 2:50 AM (Raleigh–two hours layover). This trades two hotel stays for a single awful night in buses and bus stations and an arrival in New Bern an entire day sooner.

(As an aside, even better advice is to take that Delta flight from Milwaukee to New Bern via Atlanta, which takes a total of six hours with the layover and is about $400 round-trip. Sometimes the answer is flying unless you’ve got no choice.)

Rounding it all up…

The poster didn’t say why s/he was going from Milwaukee to New Bern, and why s/he considered going by train. If you have business in Washington, for instance, then spending the night could make sense. If you have friends in Raleigh maybe you don’t mind the hotel stay there. Knowing how transit systems connect with each other can save you a day and some real aggravation.

Getting there from here

June 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Today I’m grandly announcing a new series: Getting There From Here (GTFH). Perhaps one of the most mystifying things for people accustomed to flying is making sense of Amtrak’s routes. The trains have different names, go to different places, and (sometimes) offer different levels of services. They all cost varying amounts at different times. You’re starting to panic.

Relax: I’m from the Internet and I’m here to help.

I’m starting this series with my favorite problem: getting from Chicago to the East Coast (Washington-New York-Boston). I make this trip about twice a year. There are four different ways of doing it, and I’ve done three of them:

  1. The Lake Shore Limited from Chicago to either New York (train 48/49) or Boston (train 448/449).
  2. The Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington (train 29/30), and then a connecting Northeast Regional or Acela Express from Washington to New York, Boston and points in between.
  3. The same as #2, except switching to the Pennsylvanian (train 42/43/44) in Pittsburgh and continuing to New York.
  4. The Cardinal from Chicago to New York (train 50/51) via Washington.

In later posts I’ll break down the difference between these four options. For now I’m going to explain selection criteria, or what Donald Rumsfeld might have called “unknown unknowns.” Here’s how to pick a train.

Timing

Trains depart and arrive at different times. Amtrak also publishes an endpoint-to-endpoint travel time for each train. Some times use a more direct route and may be faster, but may also leave at less convenient times. Consider what works for your schedule, and when you’d like to be onboard.

Cost

Amtrak uses a pricing strategy similar to that of airlines. Prices fluctuate based on time of purchase and demand. Railfans refer to “buckets” of pricing, with the “low bucket” being the lowest available fare for a given train between two given cities and the “high bucket” the opposite. To get a sense of what a reasonable fare between two cities, try plugging in your desired route about 5-6 months out. In most cases that will give you the low bucket, or something close to it. Amtrak fares will rise noticeably in the last few weeks, particularly for long-distance trains. Don’t wait! You can always cancel and rebook at a lower price–up until the day before in coach, and a week before in sleeping accommodations.

On-board amenities

Over the last twenty years Amtrak has pushed to standardize its offerings across the system. Like a Hampton or a Holiday Inn, you’re going to get the same experience on most trains, with a few noteworthy exceptions which we don’t need to get into here. What’s most important is to recognize the character of the train and the classes of services it offers. See this guide for more information.

Scenery

You’re on a train. Unless it’s the Acela Express you aren’t doing it for the speed and you’ll spend a good deal of time looking out the window. Amtrak publishes route guides for many of its routes full of information about the sites along the route and things to watch out for. I’m slowly adding guides of my own under the “Route guides” heading based on my own observations.

Equipment

Okay, this one is really nerdy. Amtrak operates several different types of equipment. If you’re like me this is actually a consideration. If you’re not like me it’s not.

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