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Which makes the payor (you) get gypped in my opinion. I have a friend I've been riding with lately and when I haven't been using a companion coupon, get gypped on getting points for one, instead of two. What a racket! Think of a family of 5 where dad pays the fare and only gets points for his...

'Cooked properly?' The best breafast sandwich on an east coast train is on the NEC...the new bacon/egg/cheese Bialy is tasty, even when nuked for 2 minutes, and most of the cheese is stuck inside the wrapper. 1 min or 2, there's no such thing as 'cooked properly' on the Amtrak menu. Although...

This past July, when boarding the Cardinal in WAS for a trip to CHI, my window was filthy. Thankfully, it was on the platform side, so I grabbed some paper towels from the bathroom (VII bag/slpr) and wet some of them down, and did the window from the platform. At 6'0" tall, I had to stand on...

As a Springfield area resident, I can confirm that all the 400-series trains to/from New Haven are 2 car coach only trains...no BC, no cafe. So get your coffee before boarding. The Valley Flyer's are simply an extension of those trains to Greenfield. At New Haven, you'll be switching to either...

I recall an LD trip being on the aisle with the window seat occupied by a stranger. The leg and foot rests combined to make a fairly comfortable sleep position for this 6 footer. Thankfully, he deboarded about 2AM and I had the seat all to myself after that. Diagonally across 2 seats worked...

As a resident of the Springfield area, I've ridden the line SPG-NHV countless times through the years, most recently, Tuesday this week, both ways. I've read about trackwork in Vermont delaying the SB Vermonter. In 'watching' its progress on Transitdocs.com almost every day, it's been anywhere...

Thank you MARC Rider and trainrider1 for the info. My plans are to head to Sonny's upon returning from Septa 101 to Media and return on former PRR route. I did the reverse about 6-7 years ago, so this time I'm walking downhill in Media to the former PRR station. I remember I liked Sonny's from...

I've booked a day trip to Philadelphia less than 2 weeks from now and am curious about the Amtrak ticket scanners at Jefferson & 30th. In particular, does it read an 8.5"x11" printed ticket, the Ticketrax ticket, or a cell phone bar code? That might come in handy to get from a Philly...

I considered Ryans' idea of a separate 'throwaway' coach ticket SAC-MTZ-SAC if the CS was running late as well. The price was low enough that $10-15 or so that if I didn't use it, it wouldn't dent my wallet much.

Getting there more than, say, 30 minutes early won't help much. Being at or near the front of the line when they start boarding IS important in getting a window seat. Know that #48/448 most likely boards from at the easternmost glass doors in the waiting area at CHI as far as I know. If you...

Beware that the bus bridge may or may not include dinner on your own dime...if they stop somewhere. When I got bused from Galesburg to Indianapolis 7-8 years ago I was fortunate that they stopped at an exit with 4-5 fast food places clustered together. A couple years later, account a late...

Thirty years ago, I made the #14->#28 and #28->#11 connection without fear, and made it every time. But then, the railroads kept Amtrak pretty close to schedule unless there were unforeseeable problems. These days, hoping to make that connection is like winning the lottery. In the past 10...

I did the PDX-SAC-CHI transfer 5 or 6 years ago. Aside from having to getting up early due to the early arrival and only vending machines available for the 5 hour layover, it was OK. If I was already booked to EMY, I might consider 'risking it'. I considered it when I decided to go for the...

I was in #5109 room #5 back in July WAS->CHI. Then as now, it's was running an hour+ late at CIN and loses another hour before reaching Dyer. Most astounding was there were no delays whatsoever between Dyer and CHI! I had a pleasant journey and chatted with the young attendant (20-25?) a...

I think their website is a bit screwed up as of late. I tried to book a Springfield MA to Trenton NJ trip for October and it only came up with 2 trains vs 7 or so it should have! Fortunately, my choice for train #141 was one of those two options. Returning from Philadelphia, it pulled the...

In my opinion, whichever costs less on the day desired. Whether it's one or two cars to the Sightseer Lounge car for food doesn't really matter. Given there's at least 2 sleepers at the front for the SEA section, there's sufficient horn noise reduction that the SEA section coaches would...

Between Covid restrictions and Andersons' iron-handed PV rules and rates, the size of the AARPCO convention trains has really dwindled. Maybe 20 years ago, I happened upon the convention at Portland, OR and they had 20-25 cars there. About 40 years ago, I had more money than these days and...

The 'limit' you are likely encountering is a limitation of the Amtrak software. Back when I was writing programs for clients for a living, in one payroll system I created and implemented for a client I had allowed for 30 character employee names in the master file. Looking at the phone book...

Depending on how one 'values' the advantage of the next AGR tier vs the cost to get there makes all the difference in the world. Getting tier status strictly from credit card spending $5,000/1,000 TQPs is a very expensive way to do it. As for me, I enjoy sitting quietly on the train for...

As others have noted, I've made a good number of trips simply to rack up points. In the 'good old days' of AGR 1.0, my trick was Springfield MA to Hartford CT for $7 or something like that and get 100 points. Why Hartford? It provided a 10 minute layover before catching a northbound train...