# A better deal than PAO-PHL...



## wayman (Jan 16, 2008)

Today I took an AGR run on the Keystone out to Paoli and back with a friend, and he let me in on an even better--very peculiar--deal than my typical $5.40/100 AGR PAO-PHL or ARD-PHL runs.

PAO-CRH. As in, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

When Amtrak handed over the Atlantic City Line to New Jersey Transit, they left the ACL stations in the system, such that you can ticket them as "thruway train" connections on a single Amtrak itinerary. Which means, in theory (and according to folks on railroad.net), that a $9.25 PAO-CRH one-way itinerary gets 200 AGR (two separate legs, each on Amtrak ticket stock).

Yes, I could just ticket PHL-CRH through Amtrak for $3.25, but that might not result in any AGR--NJT conductors might not send the Amtrak ticket to the right place, I'm told. But by doing a two-leg itinerary (with a PAO-PHL leg), there should be an Amtrak itinerary number in the AGR system when the Amtrak leg posts, and AGR can look that up, see that there was a second leg on that itinerary, and credit accordingly. Or so the theory at railroad.net goes; neither my friend nor I has tried it yet, though he is tomorrow.

It's a full day, with a *lot* of dead time (three hours of layovers at PHL for reading on the comfy benches, plus shorter layovers in Paoli), but

dep. PHL 9:00 am, arr. PAO 9:23 am (100 AGR, $5.40)

dep. PAO 10:16 am, arr. CRH 12:06 pm (200 AGR, $9.25)

dep. CRH 1:21 pm, arr. PAO 4:09 pm (200 AGR, $9.25)

dep. PAO 4:37 pm, arr. PHL 5:05 pm (100 AGR, $5.40)

costs $29.30 for 600 AGR--750 since I'm Select now!--or 3.9 cents per point. And in my theme of "use these AGR trips for grocery shopping", the Cherry Hill Wegman's is two-tenths of a mile from CRH--that gives me about 40 minutes to shop 

(I'm also saving $3.30 in gas and $3 in tolls by not driving from Philly to Cherry Hill and back.)


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## PRR 60 (Jan 16, 2008)

wayman said:


> ...And in my theme of "use these AGR trips for grocery shopping", the Cherry Hill Wegman's is two-tenths of a mile from CRH--that gives me about 40 minutes to shop


Wegman's is a pretty hefty walk from the NJT station. It is on the wrong side of the tracks - literally. There is no direct walking route to get there. You have to walk to Route 70 and then east to Wegmans next to Haddonfield Road. Figure about a mile each way. There is a Shop Rite next to the NJT station, but then it's a Shop Rite, not a Wegman's.


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## Sam Damon (Jan 16, 2008)

Been a long time since I was in Cherry Hill; I took Amtrak to Philly, and then the "Lindenwold Hi-Speed Line" to Cherry Hill. I then taxied to a motel.


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## wayman (Jan 16, 2008)

PRR 60 said:


> wayman said:
> 
> 
> > ...And in my theme of "use these AGR trips for grocery shopping", the Cherry Hill Wegman's is two-tenths of a mile from CRH--that gives me about 40 minutes to shop
> ...


That's a lot longer than it looks from the map, so maybe the station isn't where I/Google think it is... Google is frequently wrong about New Jersey, as will obviously be seen by comparing Google Maps and Mapquest:












Google's photo is pre-2001 (when the Garden State Park racetrack was torn up)! I'd guess Mapquest's is 2007 or so, since it looks like the Wegman's and Home Depot are built but the stuff between the two is still under construction. I've been to the Wegman's before, and know it's the blue-boxed building. But is the Cherry Hill station actually at the intersection of the train line and Rt 70 (Marlton), as Google has it, or is it further afield?

If it's there, it looks like I just have to descend from train level to street level, walk under the railway bridge, and along Rt 70 for about 1000 feet, then turn into the shopping center and walk across the (huge) parking lot to Wegman's. Maybe half a mile total, unless that doesn't work on foot for some reason. I'm not sure why I would have to walk all the way to Haddonfield Road.

But if the station is further from Rt 70, that obviously adds to the distance. If it's within these maps, where is it? And if it's not, how far off the maps is it?


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## PRR 60 (Jan 17, 2008)

wayman said:


> ...But if the station is further from Rt 70, that obviously adds to the distance. If it's within these maps, where is it? And if it's not, how far off the maps is it?


The Google Maps location for the NJT station is inaccurate.

The NJT Cherry Hill station is located about a half mile north of Route 70 behind the Shop Rite supermarket (with a scenic view of the Shop Rite garbage dumpsters). The Shop Rite is the fourth building in the center north of Route 70. To get from there to Wegman's (with much nicer garbage dumpsters), you have to walk from the station behind the Shop Rite and then west on the driveway to the front of the shopping center buildings: then south and west heading toward Cornell Avenue and Route 70 to get to where you can get down to the Route 70 sidewalk: then east on Route 70, under the tracks, then into the shopping center to Wegman's which is the last building heading east next to Haddonfield Road (of course watching for crazed Cherry Hill shoppers in their Lexus SUV's). It looks like it is just short of a mile depending on where you can to the Route 70 sidewalk.

Here a link to Local.com showing the NJT station.

local.live birds eye view


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## wayman (Jan 17, 2008)

PRR 60 said:


> The NJT Cherry Hill station is located about a half mile north of Route 70 behind the Shop Rite supermarket (with a scenic view of the Shop Rite garbage dumpsters). The Shop Rite is the fourth building in the center north of Route 70. To get from there to Wegman's (with much nicer garbage dumpsters), you have to walk from the station behind the Shop Rite and then west on the driveway to the front of the shopping center buildings: then south and west heading toward Cornell Avenue and Route 70 to get to where you can get down to the Route 70 sidewalk: then east on Route 70, under the tracks, then into the shopping center to Wegman's which is the last building heading east next to Haddonfield Road (of course watching for crazed Cherry Hill shoppers in their Lexus SUV's). It looks like it is just short of a mile depending on where you can to the Route 70 sidewalk.


Very helpful, thanks! OK, that's more of a walk, but a mile each way isn't bad. (OK, a mile through dumpsterland and along a highway isn't my favorite scenic walk, and I might find I don't like it much after trying it once, but it's definitely worth trying once.)

I gather there's no shortcut across the remains of Garden State Park behind the Home Depot because there's no way to safely/legally cross the NJT right-of-way short of going under it at Rt 70--doesn't look like there's any need to have put an under/overpass in at the station, as it would sort of lead to nowhere. For that matter, what's going on with the land behind the Home Depot/Wegmans? It looks pretty desolate in the aerial photos, and it's sort of blocked off from access to Rt 70 though I guess it's got good access from Haddonfield. Is further development planned? Will they redevelop it as a smaller park of some sort?

(But for the return trip... is "taking the shortcut behind the Home Depot" a possible way to get back to the eastbound platform with my groceries?)

I lived in Bryn Mawr for two years and got pretty experienced at Lexus-dodging :lol: Of course, there it was soccer moms picking up their kids at the Baldwin School (in the former PRR Hotel) and Shipley School (right across the street from my building), but I imagine it might be the very same Lexus soccer moms, shopping at Wegman's while their kids are in school!

Thanks again!


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