Printed-out seat checks

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but yesterday was the first time I'd seen these "printed out" seat checks. Unfortunately, I barely looked up as the conductor scanned my e-ticket, so I didn't actually see the device they used to print these out. But I ride once or twice a week, so this must be a brand-new thing, as least on the Cascades. Maybe it's old hat elsewhere? I can't find any mention of these in the search function.

fairviewroad said:

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Sorry if this has been discussed before, but yesterday was the first time I'd seen these "printed out" seat checks. Unfortunately, I barely looked up as the conductor scanned my e-ticket, so I didn't actually see the device they used to print these out. But I ride once or twice a week, so this must be a brand-new thing, as least on the Cascades. Maybe it's old hat elsewhere? I can't find any mention of these in the search function.

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I first encountered this on the Pacific Surfliner last February.

Cool! Yeah, I figured a Cascades train in Oregon probably did not represent the roll-out of this technology. Seems like a more efficient (not to mention legible) option for seat checks, and they can always keep a stash of the old slips around if the printer stops working, I suppose.

These have been around for at least a decade. It's mentioned here from an old topic (mine strangely enough) from 2013. Apparently these were beta tested on the Capitol Corridor. There might have been an image, but it's broken. I remember by 2014 I saw them being used on Capitol Corridor far more often than traditional seat checks.

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/electronically-printed-seat-checks.57864/

Strike that, I was able to grab the photo, which is kind of small and hard to read. But you can make out that it was from 2013. I think this was for two ticketed passengers and the conductor printed them without tearing each one out individually.

Funny how Amtrak has had this technology for years now and yet it's still not used all that much. On the surfliner two weeks ago the regular ones were being used.

I remember seeing them on the Capitol Corridor in 2010. It seems to me that it's sort of pointless, just adding the relatively complicated technology of a printer to make something that's not really needed. E-ticketing allows for automatic recordkeeping of what tickets are being lifted; the only point of a seat check is to show passengers and the conductor that the seat is occupied, and where the passenger is getting off. This could just as easily be done with the old-fashioned pre-printed seat checks, which would avoid the problems with printer malfunctions.

The conductor has had a printer for printing receipts but it's slow. Plus it would use more thermal paper and have wear and tear from printing seat checks. Maybe it's always had this ability but conductors rarely use it.

Wasn't the Acela originally supposed to have electronic seat checks, a little LED display over the seat that showed the station? I know the original Acela electronic ticketing never worked.

alanh said:

The conductor has had a printer for printing receipts but it's slow. Plus it would use more thermal paper and have wear and tear from printing seat checks. Maybe it's always had this ability but conductors rarely use it.

Wasn't the Acela originally supposed to have electronic seat checks, a little LED display over the seat that showed the station? I know the original Acela electronic ticketing never worked.

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It has always been a problem that the Amtrak Hard Product group and Soft Product Group do not coordinate very well with each other. So a lot of Hard Product good intentions lay by the wayside once the Soft Product folks charge off in a different direction. This is nothing new. The Acela integrated passenger record system was never deployed as intended by the Hard Product folks, since the Soft Product never quite materialized for whatever reason.

I mostly ride Keystones, regionals on the Northeast Corridor, and occasionally Empire trains. I've never noticed those printed seat checks.

When the new eMD’s came out a printer was optional for us. And said printer can be used to print out seat checks as seen. However on the Corridor we still use traditional seat checks and rip or tear part of them to indicate destinations.

The only major benefit would be on trains where there’s a high level of fare evasion. That said, the fare evader would have to be pretty savvy. In my experience on the California corridors, the conductors use a pretty unintelligible system of folds/tears/colors to indicate destination… and it’s not always consistent from team to team.