# Rare Mileage Trip - DC, VA, WV, PA & MD CANCELLED



## PRR 60 (Jan 22, 2018)

A rare mileage rail trip - the Susquehanna Express - is planned out of Washington Union Station on Saturday, May 19. It's an all-day loop trip passing through Manassas, Front Royal, Hagerstown, Harrisburg, and Baltimore en route back to Washington. Details can be found HERE.


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## norfolkwesternhenry (Jan 23, 2018)

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/01/22-rare-mileage-trip-out-of-washington

Fair use quote from the article.

Leaving Washington at 7 a.m., the train will travel south to Alexandria, Va., then west to Manassas, Va., and on across the Blue Ridge Mountains to Front Royal, Va. Turning north, it will cross the West Virginia panhandle through Charles Town and cross the Shepherdstown, W.Va. High Bridge into Maryland. After traversing Hagerstown, it will enter Pennsylvania and wind through farm country around Chambersburg and Shippensburg, Pa.

After crossing the Susquehanna River into Harrisburg, the train will turn southeast and hug the Susquehanna River for 60 scenic miles downriver to Perryville, Md. At that point, the train will join Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and cross the Susquehanna again at Havre de Grace, Md., to return south to Washington via Baltimore. Arrival back at Washington Union Station is estimated at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets set at 180 coach and 298 first (PV) if I'm correct

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## Steve4031 (Jan 23, 2018)

Wow. This one is worth doing.

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## Bob Dylan (Jan 23, 2018)

Steve4031 said:


> Wow. This one is worth doing.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum


Ditto!


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## pennyk (Jan 24, 2018)

It should be noted that this is NOT an Amtrak excursion and likely will not be organized in the same manner as Amtrak excursions have been in the past.

Several questions have been posed to me that I am unable to answer. Possibly, someone "in the know" will respond.

1. Will there be assigned seats? Will it be possible to guarantee a window seat?

2. Will there be a food car serving snacks/lunch, etc.? What type of items and what is the price range?

3. Will AU members be given a "heads up" if and when it looks like the excursion will sell out?

Thanks.


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## Seaboard92 (Jan 24, 2018)

pennyk said:


> It should be noted that this is NOT an Amtrak excursion and likely will not be organized in the same manner as Amtrak excursions have been in the past.
> 
> Several questions have been posed to me that I am unable to answer. Possibly, someone "in the know" will respond.
> 
> ...


1. No assigned seats, but we do have assigned cars. 
2. Yes, I'll get that answer back to you further in the planning stages when I have it. But right now I would expect standard amcafe.

3. Most definitely.


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## Steve4031 (Jan 24, 2018)

Are these going to be Amtrak cars only, or will there be private cars too?

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## Seaboard92 (Jan 24, 2018)

Steve4031 said:


> Are these going to be Amtrak cars only, or will there be private cars too?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum


Four private cars available for purchase. But there are actually five in total.


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## Steve4031 (Jan 24, 2018)

Thank you. That link at the top is informative.

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## willem (Jan 24, 2018)

norfolkwesternhenry said:


> Tickets set at 180 coach and 298 first (PV) if I'm correct


Well, it appears that you are not correct.

I try to avoid saying always or never, but it will be a rare occasion that I come across the phrase "Taxes & fees are extra and will be added at time of booking" and continue investigating. The organizer knows so much better than I do what the taxes are, and fees are often just a gimmick to jack the price after a teaser. If the organizer cannot be honest about how much money I need to pony up for what it is providing, then why would I trust it to be honest about anything else?

Yes, I know it is marketing, and truth has no meaning.


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## jebr (Jan 24, 2018)

willem said:


> norfolkwesternhenry said:
> 
> 
> > Tickets set at 180 coach and 298 first (PV) if I'm correct
> ...


I found this when going to checkout:







Clicking through to the check-out page, it appears that's all they're adding. It's, sadly, pretty common in the entertainment world to see booking fees being offloaded to the customer. I'd rather see the offering be $199 for coach and $319 or $329 for first class with no additional fees. I can understand line-iteming any sales taxes (that's SOP for most businesses in the US) but it should be clear. Adding booking fees, while pretty common in the industry, is an annoying practice.


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## Bob Dylan (Jan 24, 2018)

"Booking/Convienence fees,as was said,are common for all types of tickets, but they really should be called ADP, Additional Dealer Profit. I've actually seen this listed on Stickers on Cars @ Auto Dealers!


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## Seaboard92 (Jan 24, 2018)

I'm just the trainmaster on the trip and I have no real control over fees and terms. But I will relay that concern to my boss. I've been saying the terms and conditions and service charges are extreme. And when I said it he did nothing. However when a group of 60 declined the trip due to bad terms marketing and I used our collective strength to get that fixed.

So no promises I can pull any rank on transparency in it. But I promise you I will be looking into it.


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## City of Miami (Jan 24, 2018)

jebr said:


> Adding booking fees, while pretty common in the industry, is an annoying practice.


I HATE them. Sometimes they're exorbitant for booking tickets online and not revealed until the last click. MANY times it has caused me to cancel rhe whole trip. It's so distasteful!!


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## Ryan (Jan 24, 2018)

Just saw a post on the BookFace that this trip isn't happening.


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## jis (Jan 24, 2018)

They have certainly gone very silent over the last day or two. Emails to them have gone unanswered. So who knows what is going on?

One odd thing was, they tried to convince me to pay by check. I told them I was only going to pay by Amex since I do intend to recover my funds if the trip does not happen and the organizers try to abscond. Didn't hear anything further from them.

On relief is that nothing has been charged on anything yet.


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## jis (Jan 24, 2018)

OK, I just go an official email from the organizers that the trip is officially off.

There is some blurb about some other trip that they are trying to organize instead...



> However, we are working to on an exciting alternative itinerary for May 19th. We believe it will have an easier time gaining host railroad approval. This could be a trip on the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Port Road Branch hugging the Susquehanna River both ways between Washington and Harrisburg, or it could be a scenic daylight round-trip on the former B&O to Cumberland, MD and back. I hope you will decide to stay with us and travel on the alternate route.


They said they will be happy to keep me in the pre-booked list, and give me a chance to cancel after the new tripis announced, and nothing will be charged to the credit card before I explicitly approve the new trip.


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## Bob Dylan (Jan 25, 2018)

This is starting to sound shakey, hopefully no-one will get burned on this scheme!!!


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## Seaboard92 (Jan 25, 2018)

I'm the trainmaster on the train and I'm not by anyway the business person on this. I can give anyone who wants his email that email so you can talk. But I will address all of the issues.

1. My boss Mr. Horstman unfortunately made the decision based on bad information to launch before the Norfolk Southern approval. Amtrak had already given him a quote for the train of 75,400 for the day trip which he took as a sign of it not having issues getting approved. Our contact at Amtrak was not concerned about the threat of NS turning it down. With that being said the marketing department has drafted an apology letter that should have been uploaded to the site. If it wasn't please let me know and I will personally have words with Mr. Horstman.

2. No money has been spent in marketing, deposits, or anything up to this point. So anyone who has reserved a spot has nothing to worry about. The reason Mr. Horstman has not approved PV deposits being paid at this point is because they are non refundable and he didn't want to pay them to have the trip pulled as what happened and be unable to refund your money. However we did have those four cars lined up that if they would have had a charter they would have notified us to give us first right of refusal.

3. What's happening now. Right now Mr. Horstman is attempting to work with Amtrak who is still willing to work with him. Here is what is being worked on WAS-HAR up and back via the Port Road is the first option. And the second option is WAS-CUM as a daytrip on the CL route. When I hear something I will be the first to pass it on.

4. This is me asking you not to judge me based on the failure. My job is strictly to manage the operation of the train on the day, crew the train, service, and to arrange which private cars are on the train. So any failures of my boss I please ask that you do not hold me to him. I've told him repeatedly to remove the taxes and fees or to specify what they are. I begged for him to change the refund policy till he lost a sixty man group because of it. I have relatively no power over the business of it.

If anyone has any questions feel free to reach out to me. I am still contracted to whatever spring excursion happens. And after that I am retiring from the excursion business because there are less stressful jobs to make money. And the bullying and cattiness between operators that I've witnessed happen because of this trip from people in the rail industry has really made me despise the rail industry. The funny thing is I loved trains before I worked on them. Now I really have grown to indifference and borderline hatred.

JH


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## Bob Dylan (Jan 25, 2018)

Sounds like a good choice to change careers, your Boss sounds like a Hustler to me!


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## Seaboard92 (Jan 25, 2018)

Hence today I've put in about thirty different applications in another industry after I heard the news. Why the train master doesn't hear till the passengers beats me. Hello Aviation.


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## OBS (Jan 25, 2018)

Just doing back of the envelope accounting, charging $189 in coach, you would need 400 reservations just to cover what Amtrak is charging, not to mention NS costs, PV charges ( which obviously wouldn't be covered by the limited numbers you can book in a first class car, and then you have salaries for TM, reservations people, marketing costs, etc.

This trip looks like it was destined to fail....


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## Steve4031 (Jan 25, 2018)

Seaboard92 said:


> I'm the trainmaster on the train and I'm not by anyway the business person on this. I can give anyone who wants his email that email so you can talk. But I will address all of the issues.
> 
> 1. My boss Mr. Horstman unfortunately made the decision based on bad information to launch before the Norfolk Southern approval. Amtrak had already given him a quote for the train of 75,400 for the day trip which he took as a sign of it not having issues getting approved. Our contact at Amtrak was not concerned about the threat of NS turning it down. With that being said the marketing department has drafted an apology letter that should have been uploaded to the site. If it wasn't please let me know and I will personally have words with Mr. Horstman.
> 
> ...


You are handling this with class.

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## Seaboard92 (Jan 25, 2018)

OBS said:


> Just doing back of the envelope accounting, charging $189 in coach, you would need 400 reservations just to cover what Amtrak is charging, not to mention NS costs, PV charges ( which obviously wouldn't be covered by the limited numbers you can book in a first class car, and then you have salaries for TM, reservations people, marketing costs, etc.
> 
> This trip looks like it was destined to fail....


I've had my doubts but I generally have had to keep quiet on those because I do not want to ruffle my boss's feelings too much because I do like a paycheck.


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## Mystic River Dragon (Jan 26, 2018)

Not your fault, Seaboard92--we understand.

I agree--time to try another career.

I've had several in my life that I just sort of fell into, and I've liked all of them. It's important to have work you enjoy.


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## Anderson (Feb 11, 2018)

Seaboard92 said:


> Hence today I've put in about thirty different applications in another industry after I heard the news. Why the train master doesn't hear till the passengers beats me. Hello Aviation.


Well, there's a decent chance that "we" (generally and collectively) heard about it through a grapevine originating at NS rather than your company...


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## Seaboard92 (Feb 11, 2018)

I have an interview for aviation in two weeks. So we shall see if I make the cut.


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## JRR (Feb 11, 2018)

Good luck on your interviews.

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## Seaboard92 (Feb 11, 2018)

JRR said:


> Good luck on your interviews.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum


Thank you. I figured I would take the train to my interview to destress somewhat and detox. So me and a friend are taking the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland. And he's going to drill me with interview questions the entire time.


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## JRR (Feb 11, 2018)

Sounds like a good plan!

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## railiner (Feb 12, 2018)

Best of luck on your interview! Working for an airline will open up new world's for you (literally) in railfanning all over....


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## jis (Feb 12, 2018)

So AU! Thread on Rare Mileage trip has transformed itself into the Airline Interview Trip thread


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## JRR (Feb 12, 2018)

Actually it is related since the trip ( cancelled) is related ultimately to the interviews.

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## Seaboard92 (Feb 12, 2018)

Thank you. We shall see how it goes. Alaska/Horizon may not have the international destinations. But it does allow me to move out of SC which is something I've dreamed about since I was seven. I used to say at age seven "we have substandard education in SC." And I've been to Portland so many times that it feels like a home to me.


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## railiner (Feb 22, 2018)

Seaboard92 said:


> Thank you. We shall see how it goes. Alaska/Horizon may not have the international destinations. But it does allow me to move out of SC which is something I've dreamed about since I was seven.


Not to worry....where Alaska doesn't go, "ZED" and Interline reciprocity will take you there.....


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