I’ve posted a route guide to the Vermonter.
Category: Amtrak (Page 2 of 2)
I keep track of all my train mileage because I’m one of those people. By my reckoning I’ve done over 41,000 miles on Amtrak alone and another 10,000+ on other systems, mostly in Europe. A full quarter of my Amtrak mileage is on a single train: the Lake Shore Limited, which operates between Chicago and New York, with a section to Boston. I’ve taken it to three Moodle Hack/Doc Fests: Summer 2009 at Smith College, Winter 2010 at Lafayette College, and Summer 2011 at Hampshire College. I’ve ridden it to a pair of weddings. I took it to HighEdWeb 2012 and B-Fest 2013. I’ve made three trips on it in the last eight months. This makes writing the following all the harder: Lake Shore Limited, I’m afraid that we may have to break up.
Here’s the situation. I have cause to make the trip between New York and Chicago at least once a year for the B-Movie Festival in Evanston, Illinois. I’m likely to make it another time for business related to the German Studies Association, and it’s a fair bet that I’ll make at least one trip for pleasure to the Midwest. I’ve never made less than two round-trips in a calendar year since 2009. I’ve done one already this year, another is booked and at least one more is on the horizon. I’m just not sure I can do it on the Lake Shore Limited anymore. I think my future lies with the Capitol Limited.
7 things I don’t like about the Lake Shore Limited
- The eastbound departure time from Chicago. The Lake Shore Limited is Amtrak’s cleanup train, handling misconnecting passengers from the west. This is a necessary and useful function, but the 9:30 PM departure is a hardship. You’ve got to find dinner in Chicago, though if you’re a sleeper passenger they give you all the wine you want. If the Empire Builder got stuck in the Dakotas you might be a few hours late leaving.
- The eastbound afternoon crawl across upstate New York. Because of the late departure time from Chicago you spend all the daylight hours between Buffalo and Albany. It’s very, very boring. You do get lunch.
- CSX’s handling of the train in western New York. Amtrak is dependent on the freight railroads for dispatching. CSX does an absolutely terrible job between Schenectady and Rochester. They’re incapable of getting the train though on time. It’s just frustrating.
- The toilet in the Viewliner roomette. Amtrak experimented with the design of the Viewliner and included a toilet in each roomette. There’s no problem with smells or anything like that it’s just…awkward…in an already confined space. I can’t tell you how many times I wished for a public restroom instead, even though it meant a walk.
- The track quality around Buffalo. It’s very rough around Buffalo, and westbound you hit it around midnight (ish, depending on how badly CSX screwed you, see point #3) which guarantees you’ll be woken up.
- The Amfleet lounge. I’ve discussed this in the various route guides linked above but the Amfleet lounge/cafe simply doesn’t compare to the Sightseer Lounge on the Capitol Limited. There’s no good place for sitting and watching, and perhaps more importantly there’s not enough seating.
- The Amfleet lounge, Part II. It’s located on the back of the train because it travels to Boston. If you’re a New York sleeper passenger you’re walking through five coach cars to reach it.
The Capitol Limited improves on all these points. Its most significant drawback, of course, is that it doesn’t go to New York–it terminates in Washington, D.C. Passengers traveling to and from New York must take a Northeast Regional. That adds about four hours to the trip, allowing for connection times. This April I’m testing out taking the Capitol Limited westbound. We’ll see how it goes.
I’ve posted a route guide to the Capitol Limited.
Yesterday I showed my phone to gate agent in Chicago and successfully boarded the Wolverine. This morning we boarded the Blue Water in Kalamazoo using only a phone. Our conductor beeped the QR code on the screen without incident.
Folks, I’m here to tell you that e-ticketing works. The only open question is how well these trips post to my rewards account. I don’t expect problems but I’ll check in a week or two to see if the points post. As I said in Part I the only thing missing from the app is my room and car assignment on the sleeper, and that’s only for my benefit.
Previous posts about e-ticketing:
Yesterday I discussed Amtrak’s rollout of eticketing nationwide. I outlined four tasks which required a proof of ticket and which I hoped to accomplish with my phone alone. So far, we’re two-for-two. At the baggage counter, the attendant didn’t bat an eye as I offered her my phone with the eticket displayed. Our bag was ticketed through to Chicago and whisked away. Painless. At the Club Acela, I showed my phone again and the attendant verified that we were ticketed for a roomette on today’s Lake Shore Limited, allowing us access. Two steps to go.
As an aside, the baggage attendant had no problem with ticketing our bag to Chicago even though our ultimate destination, Kalamazoo, has no baggage service. I’m still puzzled by Seattle’s refusal to do the same thing in May 2011 with the Empire Builder, and I have to assume it was because of the endemic delays at that time (those delays will be covered in a future post).
This summer Amtrak rolled out e-ticketing on all its routes. This is long overdue and a step in the right direction, not just in itself but for the efficiencies which should follow. One of the interesting features of the old system is that the paper tickets had cash value–that is, they were important in themselves. I once had to mail my actual ticket stubs via certified mail to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia in order to procure a refund (long story, and Amtrak fulfilled my request). With e-tickets Amtrak’s on the same footing as the airlines–your e-ticket holds no value of its own. This is a huge step forward.
And tomorrow I’m going to find out how well it works. I’m going to try to do all the following with my phone (I do have printouts available as a quick safety):
- Check a bag through to Chicago
- Gain entry to Club Acela (Amtrak’s lounge at Penn Station for First Class and sleeper passengers)
- Board the train (thus satisfying the gate agent, an institution Amtrak can abolish whenever it wants)
- Get my actual ticket checked.
I’ve already noticed a limitation that will probably require the printout for step #4. When you book a sleeping accommodation with Amtrak (in effect, a hotel room) you’re assigned to a car and room. This information is on the printout. However, it’s not visible on the phone. Doing this with the phone alone I would have no idea where my room was. The New York section has two sleeping cars (normally); each has two bedrooms, a handicapped-accessible bedroom, and twelve roomettes.
The last time I took the Lake Shore Limited was in May, before the nationwide rollout. I’m honestly curious to see the effect on boarding procedures. I’ve boarded at all four stations I’ll be using this trip (New York Penn, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Milwaukee) so I have a basis for comparison.
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:
- Milwaukee-Chicago-Indianapolis-Dayton-Charleston-Greensboro-Raleigh-New Bern
- 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:
- Clueless advice.
- Bad advice.
- 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.
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:
- The Lake Shore Limited from Chicago to either New York (train 48/49) or Boston (train 448/449).
- 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.
- The same as #2, except switching to the Pennsylvanian (train 42/43/44) in Pittsburgh and continuing to New York.
- 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.
I’ve posted a first draft of a route guide to the Lake Shore Limited.
I’m on the road today, heading back to Michigan for a friend’s wedding. This involves three different transit operations playing ball: Trans-Bridge Lines between Easton and the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) in New York, the MTA between the PABT and Pennsylvania Station (Penn), and finally Amtrak from Penn to Kalamazoo, via Union Station in Chicago.
One of the minor pleasures of taking the bus from the valley to New York (and there aren’t many so you really can’t be choosy) is running along the Northeast Corridor near Jersey City. Today, a little bit after 11 AM, I spotted the Silver Star, just a few minutes into its 31-hour, 1500-mile run to Miami and points in between. I recognized it from the two Viewliner sleepers behind the HHP-8 locomotive (see this page for more on train identification). Pleased, I tweeted the following:
On the bus to NYC and just saw the
@AMTRAK Silver Star go by. Too fast for a picture!
This drew a quick reply from Amtrak’s social media folks. I’ve found them to be pretty responsive…
@mackensen Very cool! We’re glad you got to see it 🙂 How’s your ride going?
Amused that I’d gotten them interested, I replied with the following:
@Amtrak not bad but we’re crawling through the Holland tunnel. Happily I’m on the Lake Shore Limited this evening.
That tweet went out from the tunnel, incidentally. I continue to be impressed with Verizon’s coverage. That last tweet drew an odd reply, ending our little colloquy:
@mackensen We are sorry for any delay, we hope to have you to your destination ASAP! We look forward to having you on board again later!
I’ve been thinking this one over. At first I was deeply confused, but I’m coming to realize that I never said whose bus I was on, although I don’t think Amtrak operates any Thruway services in New Jersey. Also, it probably comes naturally to Amtrak to apologize for service delays (*cough*), even ones it isn’t responsible for.
Anyway, thought I’d mention all this. It really can be fun to tweet at Amtrak and see what you get back. A couple months ago I was coming back from New Orleans and got help up by Norfolk Southern maintenance in northern Indiana. I started including @Amtrak in my tweets slagging away at NS and eventually drew a friendly reply.
From Amtrak, that is. Those bastards at NS never said a word.