Acela discussion

[Anderson]

In conjunction with the other Acela thread I posted, I was looking over the Acela fares and so on for WAS-NYP/NYP-WAS (I found some $122s, but nothing even close to what I snagged last week), and I found something odd. There seem to be 11 daily WAS-NYP Acelas but 12 daily NYP-WAS Acelas. I'm confused - is Amtrak just deadheading an Acela and crew back up to NYP/NYS empty every day?

[If it was one day, I'd assume it was just some odd maintenance/positioning thing. But it seems to be most or all weekdays.]

 

[AmtrakBlue]

In conjunction with the other Acela thread I posted, I was looking over the Acela fares and so on for WAS-NYP/NYP-WAS (I found some $122s, but nothing even close to what I snagged last week), and I found something odd. There seem to be 11 daily WAS-NYP Acelas but 12 daily NYP-WAS Acelas. I'm confused - is Amtrak just deadheading an Acela and crew back up to NYP/NYS empty every day?

[If it was one day, I'd assume it was just some odd maintenance/positioning thing. But it seems to be most or all weekdays.]

I believe one of those trains makes an almost impossible quick turn and so the set is used 3 times during the day?

 

[Acela150]

They adjusted a lot of turns in the beginning of the month.

2103-2162-2193
2107-2108-2121-2124/2174(Fri)
2104-2117-2172
2190-2163
2150-2167-2130(Fri)
2152-2169
2154-2173
2151-2166
2153-2168
2155-2170
2159-2122

Yesterday (1/16) they had issues with two sets, which led to some annulments. I believe they are only 1 or 2 sets that can be used for protecting any issues that arise and that depends on a wide range of what could be going on.

11 sets are in service on a M-F basis. Not really sure what the turns and set use is like on the weekends though.

 

[Acela150]

Can’t really go into specifics but several cancellations are in place on 1/18.

 

[MARC Rider]

Can’t really go into specifics but several cancellations are in place on 1/18.

The 630 pm from. DC is listed as "delayed" on the station board. I checked the app and it's not showing up for tomorrow.

 

[Septa9739]

It’s almost like the decision to tighten turns on old failing equipment during an operationally challenging time of year might have been slightly misguided.

 

[Maverickstation]

Per this article from CBS News some ACELA services are cancelled today due to weather.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/new...-corridor-service-trains-canceled-january-18/

 

[Trogdor]

I believe one of those trains makes an almost impossible quick turn and so the set is used 3 times during the day?

A quick turn wouldn’t change the imbalance in the number of trains heading one way vs. the other.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

A quick turn wouldn’t change the imbalance in the number of trains heading one way vs. the other.

I was thinking the quick turn might have added an additional “one way” run.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Per this article from CBS News, all ACELA services are cancelled today due to weather.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/new...-corridor-service-trains-canceled-january-18/

As usual, the media got it wrong. Only about 1/2 of the Acelas were cancelled. There are 2 on the tracker right now (6:25 am) and looking at the data for WAS, more are scheduled.
I know that 2 Acelas I usually see when railfanning are not on the service alert someone posted.

 

[Trogdor]

I was thinking the quick turn might have added an additional “one way” run.

But the imbalance still needs to be rebalanced, or eventually you’re going to wind up with a bunch of Acelas piled up in WAS and nothing in NY.

 

[Acela150]

Per this article from CBS News some ACELA services are cancelled today due to weather.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/new...-corridor-service-trains-canceled-january-18/

Yeah. That’s definitely not why their canceled.

 

[Anderson]

I was thinking the quick turn might have added an additional “one way” run.

As Trogdor noted, that might be the case...but then I'd expect another late evening WAS-NYP run to offset it. Now, this might be like how down in VA they'd run a set to NPN and then turn it back to RVR late at night and just not ticket it...but doing that on WAS-NYP seems like a waste if you're already having to pay the crew anyway. I'd be surprised if they couldn't sell a handful of discounted tickets to offset the cafe/FC attendant's pay with (say) a 9 PM departure.

 

[HammerJack]

So what’s up with the 1/18 cancellations? Definitely not weather related, it’s not even that cold out. Has to be something else.

 

[Maverickstation]

Another story on the ACELA cancellations.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/n...la-trains-northeast-cold-weather/72270805007/

 

[MARC Rider]

Are the Acelas back in service on the regular schedule? I have a trip next week that involves an Acela and want to know whether I should worry. Any more details about the issues that caused the mass cancellations?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Are the Acelas back in service on the regular schedule? I have a trip next week that involves an Acela and want to know whether I should worry. Any more details about the issues that caused the mass cancellations?

They were only “out” for the one day.
That doesn’t mean one or more won’t have issues next week. They’re old and tired.

 

[daybeers]

Quite a few are badly delayed today.

 

[BlackDiamond]

NEC looking good today so far. Only 2151 is late and by 18 minutes which it can probably make up some.

 

[Acela150]

TS 6 (2030/31) is in Wilmington on the "0" track currently undergoing the routine COT&S.

 

[Rasputin]

I have a question about meal entitlement on Acela First Class. Are the meal entitlement hours different than on other Amtrak trains?

And specifically on Acela 2166 which departs DC at 1:00 p.m. and arrives in Boston at 7:43 p.m., do First Class passengers receive both lunch and dinner or only dinner?

Thanks.

 

[Acela150]

I have a question about meal entitlement on Acela First Class. Are the meal entitlement hours different than on other Amtrak trains?

And specifically on Acela 2166 which departs DC at 1:00 p.m. and arrives in Boston at 7:43 p.m., do First Class passengers receive both lunch and dinner or only dinner?

Thanks.

Lunch and dinner are the same menu, but in that case, yes you'd receive both. One meal from DC and the other after NYP.

 

[MARC Rider]

Two things from my recent trip to Boston:

We boarded in Baltimore northbound and the conductor scanned out tickets from the app, no problem. Then, after we left New York, the new conductor came by to scan tickets, and my ticket was gone from the app! No real problem, the conductor just looked up my name, and it was fine. Same thing happened on the southbound. I've never had my tickets on the app disappear before the train gets to my destination. I might start printing my tickets as a backup.

The day before we returned, I got an email from Amtrak saying something about "check in" for the Acela. I ignored it and had no problem boarding the Acela at South station and having my ticket scanned. When we go to New York, all of the people boarding were taking out their phones and taking pictures of their seat numbers on the overhead rack. I asked one of them who was sitting next to us about it, and he said that he had gotten an email from Amtrak describing this new "check-in" requirement. They seemed to be some problems getting it to work, and when the conductor came by, he said he didn't know anything about this, and just scanned everybody's tickets, except mine, .of course, because my ticket has disappeared from the app. Don't know what that was about. I'm taking another trip at the end of the month, so I'll see if they still have it.

 

[jis]

Two things from my recent trip to Boston:

We boarded in Baltimore northbound and the conductor scanned out tickets from the app, no problem. Then, after we left New York, the new conductor came by to scan tickets, and my ticket was gone from the app! No real problem, the conductor just looked up my name, and it was fine. Same thing happened on the southbound. I've never had my tickets on the app disappear before the train gets to my destination. I might start printing my tickets as a backup.

This has been happening to me quite a lot, so I simply load it up into the iPhone Wallet, where it stays safe from the vagaries of Amtrak's crack App team's doings.

What is more disconcerting is that sometimes even the subsequent legs in the itinerary also disappear, but usually reappear later. But just in case I stash away the PNR Id somewhere easily accessible. So far I have always been able to recover the itinerary using the PNR Id. The Amtrak App is so fundamentally screwed up that I don;t think even the team that maintains it really knows what it will do for sure.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Two things from my recent trip to Boston:

We boarded in Baltimore northbound and the conductor scanned out tickets from the app, no problem. Then, after we left New York, the new conductor came by to scan tickets, and my ticket was gone from the app! No real problem, the conductor just looked up my name, and it was fine. Same thing happened on the southbound. I've never had my tickets on the app disappear before the train gets to my destination. I might start printing my tickets as a backup.

The day before we returned, I got an email from Amtrak saying something about "check in" for the Acela. I ignored it and had no problem boarding the Acela at South station and having my ticket scanned. When we go to New York, all of the people boarding were taking out their phones and taking pictures of their seat numbers on the overhead rack. I asked one of them who was sitting next to us about it, and he said that he had gotten an email from Amtrak describing this new "check-in" requirement. They seemed to be some problems getting it to work, and when the conductor came by, he said he didn't know anything about this, and just scanned everybody's tickets, except mine, .of course, because my ticket has disappeared from the app. Don't know what that was about. I'm taking another trip at the end of the month, so I'll see if they still have it.

Thanks, that is good information. I had the same thing happen even with a paper ticket the last time I was on a Regional, so it’s not just the Acela. The conductor scanned my ticket when I boarded, and it was fine. When the new conductor at NYP scanned it, it didn’t come up and he had to go look me up somewhere and it was fine.

I will be on the Acela First Class soon after quite a while, but I will be able to start at a lounge and confirm things there and get them to print me out an “official ticket printed from the lounge” as backup. I sincerely hope that is good enough!

I have a question about Acela meals but will post it separately since it’s not related to the ticket discussion here.