# Reaching Select Plus RT on Acela NYP-BOS



## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 22, 2010)

For the second day in a row I woke got ready, and caught the same NJ Transit North Jersey Coastline Train heading toward New York Penn Station. The train was even more crowded then it was yesterday, and at least in my car we quickly were running out of seats. The train made good time until we pulled out of Newark Penn Station. From there we crawled at 25 MPH all the way to New York Penn Station I’m not sure why we went so slow for so long, but we arrived on track 9 at 9:15 14 minutes late.

I took a quick stroll around Penn Station before I grabbed a bagel, and head to the Acela seating area to wait for my train. After my experience yesterday I elected to not try and beat the train to the platform. Instead I stayed on the Amtrak concourse, and as usual people started to gather well before any kind of announcement. I have no idea how these people knew, but regardless it put in a very good position to get a good seat for the trip to Boston. After a few minutes the track was announced and I found an empty pair of seats.

The entire ride to Boston was largely uneventful. We weren’t plagued with slow orders like my northbound trip yesterday, and we were running ahead of schedule from Stamford on. I didn’t record our time in New Haven but we sat there for a few minutes. The ride to Providence went smoothly, and we didn’t encounter any delays.

We left Providence 9 minutes early and spent pretty much the entire run from Providence to Route 128 above 100 MPH, and at one point my GPS showed us traveling at 152 MPH. We departed Route 128 station 14 minutes ahead of the schedule.

We got to Back Bay at 1:28 6 minutes early. We finished the trip by arriving in Boston South Station a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule! The time keeping was much better than my ill fated northbound trip yesterday. Although I noticed this particular train was much rougher then either train set I experienced yesterday. My laptop plug was shook loose a couple times during the trip. Otherwise it was a perfect trip!

I spent the layover in Boston inside the Club Acela courtesy of the coupon Alan gave me yesterday, and was glad that at least in 2011 I would no longer be saving my 3 select coupons for only my longest layovers. The more I think about it the more I am glad I decided to spend the extra money, and go for Select Plus.

I was hoping to walk to a bookstore in Boston, but Google Maps didn’t show any good alternatives, so I decided to wait until I got back to New York. I went and got some lunch and bought it back to the lounge. After I ate there was only about a half hour till the train was set to depart, so I decided to just go outside. There were a couple of people already waiting, so I joined the short line, and made small talk with one of the guys in line.

At 3:05 they started boarding the train, and since there were only 5 people in front of me I had no trouble getting a pair of seats to myself. The train wasn’t too crowded, again I would say roughly half full much like the other 3 trains. As luck would have it the conductor that took my final ticket the one that would push my rail points balance over the 10,000 mark knew who I was. His grandson had his birthday party at the railroad where I am a conductor, and we had a nice conversation about 6 months ago. I was surprised that I had made that much of impression with him. We spoke briefly and he carried on with is job. It was quite interesting that I the only Amtrak conductor I’d ever met off the clock would remember me, and take the ticket that would qualify me for Select Plus.

Aside from my brief conversation with the conductor the trip to New Haven was pretty uneventful. I realized that today was the shortest day of the year, and that exactly 6 months ago I was on the Lakeshore Limited on the longest day of the year. It has certainly been a great 6 months on the rails!

We arrived in Stamford on time and departed 2 minutes behind. Next stop New York Penn Station. I debated getting something to eat, but instead ate the pound cake I took with me from the Club Acela. We arrived in Penn station on track 15 which is quite out of the way. I found my way to the Amtrak concourse, and Penn station was much different the usual. I found there to be more panhandlers crawling all over the place. I quickly stopped walking alone, and joined a crowd watching the monitors for track posting. Then walked over to Zarro’s for a bagel since I wasn’t sure when I’d be back in the city.

I finally boarded the last NJ Transit North Jersey Coastline express train. We were plagued with delays including a malfunctioning grade crossing that had to be flagged by the conductor. It was quite a long ride, and I felt bad for all the commuters waiting to get home. NJ Transits performance was pretty poor over the 2 days, and I hoped I was just catching them on a bad couple of days.

When I got to the Little Silver train station I took a moment not only to reflect on the past couple of days, but this entire year. I not only made Select Plus but traveled 6 different long distance routes in sleepers from end to end. Traveled across the country and covered the West Coast from San Diego up to Seattle. I had an amazing year covering 16,951 miles and racking up 10,128 rail points. I want to take a moment and thank all those AU members who joined me along the way. From the gathering in St. Louis to riding down to the Mexican Border on the light rail. I had a lot of really good times this year, and I want to thank everyone who provided some advice, or came along for the ride.


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## pennyk (Dec 22, 2010)

Congratulations on reaching Select Plus. I am happy that your Acela experience on Tuesday was positive.


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## Shanghai (Dec 23, 2010)

*Good report Stephen. Now you can wait at the Club Acela at NYP.*

*I'm glad to know you got back from Boston.*

*Happy Holidays.*


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## NETrainfan (Dec 23, 2010)

Congratulations on your achievements. Just wondering-did you stop over (for the night) on many of your trips?


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## Long Train Runnin' (Dec 24, 2010)

NETrainfan said:


> Congratulations on your achievements. Just wondering-did you stop over (for the night) on many of your trips?


I stopped over in LA, Seattle, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis this year. Otherwise it was just me passing through.


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## ExtonFlyer (Dec 24, 2010)

congrats!!! Thanks for the great trip report as well - very cool that the conductor recognized and remembered you.


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## rrdude (Dec 27, 2010)

Sheesh! I'm glad I rode into Select + a couple of weeks ago. I was scheduled to be in Raleigh today, but with all the snow, who knows what "kind" of trip it would have been......


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