Amtrak Timetables

JamesWhitcombRiley said:

D is discharge only, R is receive only, on RPA's timetables, which do have notes. They look like Amtrak's old timetables. But there are errors. The RPA volunteers can't be expected to make new PDF's every time schedules are slightly adjusted. The complex NEC situation though leads to outright mistakes, such as omitting all of #66 on weekends this go round, and missing some D and R on the combined NEC schedule. Compare their individual LD schedules that ride the NEC. And some of those have D/R errors too I think. I wonder if RPA's volunteers use Github or the like to collaboarate. In those systems, used for software development as well as general structured documentation, anyone can submit a correction, and then administrators decide whether to accept it.

Amtrak doesn't have real-time station boards online. But some commuter lines have them on the web, with Amtrak trains included. Don't know about mobile apps.

• NJT Departure Vision. Probably the best known. Shows NJT, Amtrak, MNR West, no LIRR. Choose any station, including PHL and NYP. Handy when in the Moynihan food court. Drop-down lists show previous station departures, and upcoming stations. Shows Discharge only in the list. Has errors when Amtrak trains are canceled.
• VRE Train Status. Shows VRE, Amtrak, no MARC. Choose any station, including WAS. Works on weekends, unlike VRE itself. No drop downs for further information. Has errors when Amtrak trains are canceled.
• Other local sites? California?
• Transitdocs. Great map with real time information, history, and other features. Canceled trains are absent without leave.
• Dixieland. Also excellent. Has real time simulated Solari boards for stations as well as maps.
• Amtrak Track-a-train, another real time map, with somewhat less information than Transitdocs. Now branded as part of the Amtrak/Google partnership. It's used a Google base map since it started, in September 2013, based on looking at the Wayback Machine. A blog post "Track Your Train with Google Maps" may have first appeared in May 2020.
• Amtrak Schedules page. Definitive for cancellations, which are show as canceled, but does not show real time information. And the drop downs are just general information.

Some stations really go the extra mile with information. I'd guess the NC stations do, though the NC by Rail website for real time information requires you to know the train number. Culpeper is the most informative station I've seen in Virginia, because they have printed schedules for Washington area transit. They print out some of them using the printer in the office. It's owned by the Town of Culpeper, and staffed by the town or volunteers. By contrast, Ashland, for all its picturesqueness, and proximity to a model train store, and nearby outdoor dining by the tracks, is closed when most trains arrive.

View attachment 37908
It says "Amtrak Travel Agent." From "Booklet_Travel by Train_1970s.pdf," Amtrak History Archives, https://history.amtrak.com/archives/
The archives are offline now, and the history page has been redesigned. The Wayback machine shows the archives were fine three days ago.

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JamesWhitcombRiley said:

I agree half the value in the older timetables were the notes. Do LD trains still do discharge-only and boarding-only stops on the NEC?

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JamesWhitcombRiley said:

I agree half the value in the older timetables were the notes. Do LD trains still do discharge-only and boarding-only stops on the NEC?

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acelafan said:

This is a great list of resources.

Correct, RPA timetables are powered by Amtrak's GTFS data. Unfortunately there are a lot of bugs and errors in their dataset, and they are unresponsive and obviously do not care to fix them.

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PaTrainFan said:

I love that RPA is attempting to keep .pdf schedules available and I know it is a big task. I appreciate the immense attention to detail required to do the job, but noticed an error in the Lake Shore Limited schedule. Missing calling times for 449 between Boston and Albany, as well as departure time for 448 from Albany. I alerted them via the rarely monitored general email, so figured I would post here just in case anyone from RPA reads this forum.

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acelafan said:

Thanks for calling this out - yeah, single man show right now (me) - so I get to them when I can.
It's unfortunate that Amtrak updates the GTFS schedule data every single day, so we can only create the timetables as far out in time as the source data permits. Sometimes it's valid for months and sometimes it's only valid for a week. So the PDFs can go stale quickly in some cases.

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