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  1. trainman74

    MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) discussion

    I discovered last month when I was in Boston for a brief visit that the T accepts contactless payments, so you can just tap with a credit card (or phone or watch) to get through the fare gates... However, other systems I've encountered with this setup will automatically cap fares at a certain...
  2. trainman74

    Time Before "X" and Text Delayed Train Alerts

    From a 1974 Amtrak system timetable, via timetables.org -- I assume most of these were a version of what railliner describes in the previous post.
  3. trainman74

    Tampa Union Station

    No, there never was -- rail service between Tampa and St. Petersburg has always gone "up and over" (through Oldsmar and Clearwater).
  4. trainman74

    There is no good way to travel in America

    The cost probably only makes sense for frequent flyers, but domestic airport lounge memberships are basically open to anyone who has a few hundred dollars a year to spend (either directly to an airline, or as the annual fee for a credit card that includes lounge access).
  5. trainman74

    Santa Barbara, CA

    Chad's Cafe on Cabrillo Boulevard a couple blocks from the station is a very good breakfast/brunch spot with an ocean view (it's popular enough that there's almost always a line waiting). Once upon a time, it was the original location of the Sambo's chain. Otherwise, there are plenty of...
  6. trainman74

    Would the Golden Gate Bridge have been able to support a BART train?

    Over the bridge's lifetime, I'm sure there have been countless cases of one end of the bridge momentarily having a lot more weight on it than the other end (particularly since trucks are allowed on the bridge), so I don't see why trains would inherently be a problem.
  7. trainman74

    Downtown ticket offices

    I used timetables.org to check the timetable that was in effect 40 years ago (October 30, 1983 issue), and here are Amtrak's city ticket offices from back then: Boston Statler Office Building, 13-15 Columbus Ave. (another Boston location at 10-12 Park Plaza was listed as "coming soon") Chicago...
  8. trainman74

    Amtrak Dining and Cafe service 2023 H2

    "C" is for "cycle" (but I don't know how long each menu cycle lasts on the Acela).
  9. trainman74

    Question about connecting time at Los Angeles Union Station

    The Flyaway bus from LAX to Union Station can actually be reasonably fast, because for much of the route, it can use carpool/HOV lanes on the freeways. (There's also a Flyaway bus from LAX to Van Nuys... but it only serves a dedicated bus terminal that's about 2½ miles from the Amtrak station.)...
  10. trainman74

    FNBO closed account and deleted points - any chance to reinstate?

    Not sure where the "22 months" came from - FNBO's Amtrak cards have only existed for about 13 months. Presumably, they've been reviewing accounts that have been around since the beginning but had no card activity - I'm actually in that category, and I got a etter from them last week warning...
  11. trainman74

    Los Angeles Metrolink steps up to mitigate the I-10 closing

    Although the San Bernardino line parallels I-10, the closed part of the freeway is south/west of Union Station -- the extra service isn't for literally bypassing the closure, it's just providing more opportunity for people to use public transit.
  12. trainman74

    Hotels convenient to Amtrak

    When I went to a game in Cincinnati a few years ago, I parked at the Newport on the Levee shopping center in Kentucky and walked along the Taylor Southgate Bridge (U.S. 27) to get across the river. (There's also a pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge, known as the "Purple People Bridge," just a bit...
  13. trainman74

    Train festival 2023 at LA Union Station

    It seemed even more crowded than back when they did similar events for National Train Day. A couple friends and I went on Saturday -- we arrived about half an hour after the official start time, and the line to view the historic equipment was already 2 hours long (if you believed the "wait time...
  14. trainman74

    Amtrak has a new Chief Commercial Officer (09/2023)

    He was in charge of marketing for AMC, you say? Sounds like they're going to bring back TV screens on board solely so they can show a one-minute commercial for Amtrak after every stop. "Somehow, being delayed 4 hours by a disabled freight feels good in a place like this." (Actually, in all...
  15. trainman74

    Washington DC Metro discussion

    It's not officially called that anymore, though -- it's now the B Line. (Metro can't control what people call it in practice, though, and it is still denoted by a red line on maps.)
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