Amtrak booking website/issues/timetables removed

[Cal]

Same goes for the California Zephyr

 

[niemi24s]

The Texas Eagle, which is daily, no longer has a PDF schedule.

It does for me: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...ts/timetables/Texas-Eagle-Schedule-030820.pdf

Same goes for the California Zephyr: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...etables/California-Zephyr-Schedule-031620.pdf

But try again, post, try again, post, etc, etc . . . . Good way to build up your already impressive post count!

 

[Cal]

It does for me: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...ts/timetables/Texas-Eagle-Schedule-030820.pdf

Same goes for the California Zephyr: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...etables/California-Zephyr-Schedule-031620.pdf

HOw did you get that? Did you have the link already or what?

 

[niemi24s]

HOw did you get that? Did you have the link already or what?

Followed the directions given previously in Post #114.

 

[jebr]

It does for me: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...ts/timetables/Texas-Eagle-Schedule-030820.pdf

Same goes for the California Zephyr: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...etables/California-Zephyr-Schedule-031620.pdf

But try again, post, try again, post, etc, etc . . . . Good way to build up your already impressive post count!

Tell me - how would I get to that from www.amtrak.com (instead of the virtually unknown aemtest.amtrak.com?) I would bet approximately 99.99% of people who ride Amtrak (including 95%+ of people who at least would like a PDF timetable) do not know about aemtest.amtrak.com, while most know of amtrak.com or www.amtrak.com. There should also not be any reason for most customers to know of what appears to be Amtrak's test site just to access a PDF timetable.

 

[niemi24s]

Tell me - how would I get to that from www.amtrak.com (instead of the virtually unknown aemtest.amtrak.com?)

I've no idea how to do it that way. I stumbled across that "aemtest" URL many months ago and I've no recollection how I did it. Anyway, I've posted that link here several times since that discovery and have it bookmarked on my browser (or whatever the hell Chrome is called). Must confess there was a brief period of about a week during the first part of May when that link quit working for me but it started working again.

Both links (to 7X and 3X timetables) are also in Post #43 here: Long Distance Train Coach & Sleeper Fares (Buckets) Guess there's not enough bazanga in my posts to attract much attention, eh?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

That's exactly how a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS attack) works.

Pick any common carrier website besides Amtrak.com and try to get it to respond as if it is being attacked using nothing more than a single mainstream browser while clicking links with your own two hands. This is nothing like a real DDoS attack.

 

[daybeers]

This isn't rocket surgery:

Those schedules are nowhere near up to date.

I suspect most people would be satisfied with the "new" schedules web page. They may not be familiar with the old paper versions. Here they can put in their start and finish cities and a range of dates and see what's available for those city pairs and dates. For city pairs that have multiple options, you can even see the stops between the city pairs. And, though obscure, there's a print button (3x3 squares).
Here is Washington DC to Chicago. I did have to print two versions as it would not show all stops at once (there're "buttons" to click to show the missing stops).

This way doesn't allow you to view all the times for all trains on a route at once, which is the whole point of a timetable.

The Texas Eagle, which is daily, no longer has a PDF schedule.

View attachment 22624

I don't know why people are pushing back against the theory that Amtrak doesn't care about PDF schedules anymore. Isn't this proof?

It does for me: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...ts/timetables/Texas-Eagle-Schedule-030820.pdf

Same goes for the California Zephyr: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...etables/California-Zephyr-Schedule-031620.pdf

But try again, post, try again, post, etc, etc . . . . Good way to build up your already impressive post count!

As said above, this is a vastly unknown website and those schedules are not current anyway.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

It does for me: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...ts/timetables/Texas-Eagle-Schedule-030820.pdf

Same goes for the California Zephyr: https://aemtest.amtrak.com/content/...etables/California-Zephyr-Schedule-031620.pdf

But try again, post, try again, post, etc, etc . . . . Good way to build up your already impressive post count!

And those are old timetables. The latest timetables, before they disappeared were dated Oct 2020 (when they went to tri-weekly).

For anyone wanting to see past timetables they can check a more reliable website -
https://juckins.net/amtrak_timetables/archive/home.php

 

[acelafan]

I'll also keep Amtrak Timetable Archives - Home updated as best I can. I did like Amtrak's page that had all the PDF timetables together....one-stop shopping.

 

[niemi24s]

As said above, this is a vastly unknown website and those schedules are not current anyway.

Vastly unknown and not current. What more could an Amtrak foamer ask for besides something else to bitch about?

But Acelafan's extensive collection of pdfs is the bees knees. A dozen or more for each route dating back twelve years and twenty six of the most recent system timetable books. I've got that bookmarked too - it's my BUG when it comes to this sort of thing,if you know what I mean.

But is that collection current in the sense that it has the timetables trains are using this very day? Of course not.

And will that collection ever be current and include the type of timetables we've come to know and love? Uh . . . . . . . . .

 

[daybeers]

Vastly unknown and not current. What more could an Amtrak foamer ask for besides something else to ***** about?

I'm not an Amtrak foamer, I just want a half decently-run passenger railroad and that includes publishing current timetables.

 

[me_little_me]

And here we thought that PDF timetables files were the best thing since sliced bread since they eliminated printed material and could be updated more easily and circulated instantly.

This new system must finally be one of Amtrak's "improvements".

 

[zephyr17]

I had a conversation with an individual purporting to be an Amtrak employee with contacts in IT on another forum. He said he had been specifically given permission to discuss the timetable issue in some groups he was already active in. He stated that the new "electronic" timetable, a sample of which was posted by AmtrakBlue in post #121 here, is the way they are going and their intention is to no longer maintain the PDF timetables.

While I cannot vouch for his bona fides, everything I have seen on the Amtrak site is consistent with that interpretation. I did request that he suggest they improve them by providing a download option that would give the entire timetable without paging in a PDF format, so they can be saved and more easily referenced offline. That should not be at all difficult, since it is just a matter of dynamically rendering the data already underlying the UI in a different format. He said he would pass it along.

At this point, I am pretty sure the PDF timetables are almost as dead as the Sunset East.

Amtrak's terrible "upgrades" just keep on coming.

 

[jis]

An example of my favorite live timetable provided for Indian Railways can be seen here:

https://indiarailinfo.com/train/117942
It includes passing times for all interlockings on the route, which also often happen to be a passenger station.

It is actually so live that a train that is currently enroute not only shows its current status and projected status (times) but if it is route diverted it shows passing times on its diverted route! Admittedly that is a lot to ask for, but it is something that is doable if you have a capable IT infrastructure underneath with single source of truth about the system

 

[jruff001]

While we are geeking out on timetables, here is a good one. It is the UK's National Rail master timetable site (not the cutesie public timetables that have been published by the individual operating companies since nationalisation and the demise of British Railways in 1997).

Check out especially the "Working Timetable" section and associated maps for a behind-the-scenes perspective that the public is probably generally unaware of and doesn't care about.

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/the-timetable/

 

[neroden]

I had a conversation with an individual purporting to be an Amtrak employee with contacts in IT on another forum. He said he had been specifically given permission to discuss the timetable issue in some groups he was already active in. He stated that the new "electronic" timetable, a sample of which was posted by AmtrakBlue in post #121 here, is the way they are going and their intention is to no longer maintain the PDF timetables.

While I cannot vouch for his bona fides, everything I have seen on the Amtrak site is consistent with that interpretation. I did request that he suggest they improve them by providing a download option that would give the entire timetable without paging in a PDF format, so they can be saved and more easily referenced offline. That should not be at all difficult, since it is just a matter of dynamically rendering the data already underlying the UI in a different format. He said he would pass it along.

At this point, I am pretty sure the PDF timetables are almost as dead as the Sunset East.

Amtrak's terrible "upgrades" just keep on coming.

This is unacceptable and I am pretty sure we can get Amtrak management fired for this, though it may take a few years.

 

[neroden]

Complaints now showing up in NUMTOTS, "New Urbanist Memes for Transit Oriented Teens", which has *219,000 members*....

"Hi, question, is there a way to browse Amtrak tickets without a destination in mind? I know Google travel did this with airlines, but can't figure it out with trains."

He follows up by explaining:
"So google travel has a mode called explore where you can say this is where I am, I want to find the cheapest rate in the next six months, then a map comes up with the cheapest flights in the next six months at each location. it would beat ass if it weren't planes. "

Still getting about two complaints a day in other Amtrak fan Facebook groups about the lack of timetables.

 

[fdaley]

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which runs the Downeaster, has printable timetables at its site (amtrakdowneaster.com) and also hands them out at stations. California has printable schedules at pacificsurfliner.com, capitolcorridor.org and another site for the San Joaquin trains, and as of 2019 when I was last out there they were still requiring Amtrak to print schedules that were available at stations.

But other state-supported corridors that were relying on Amtrak to provide timetables now have nothing. I've written to both the NY and Wash state DOTs to complain.

 

[neroden]

Thank you, fdaley.

 

[me_little_me]

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which runs the Downeaster, has printable timetables at its site (amtrakdowneaster.com) and also hands them out at stations. California has printable schedules at pacificsurfliner.com, capitolcorridor.org and another site for the San Joaquin trains, and as of 2019 when I was last out there they were still requiring Amtrak to print schedules that were available at stations.

But other state-supported corridors that were relying on Amtrak to provide timetables now have nothing. I've written to both the NY and Wash state DOTs to complain.

NCDOT has schedules but the through train ones (Meteor, Star, Palmetto, Crescent, Carolinian) show last updated in 2018 and mention nothing of cutbacks.
The Piedmonts are more current showing (and stating) some trains have been restored in April so it appears to be up to date. It is dated April 13, 2021.

 

[acelafan]

I noticed Amtrak Cascades has an updated PDF timetable on their website, effective May 24, 2021:

https://www.amtrakcascades.com/our-train-schedules
I did phone and write to RPA/NARP requesting they ask Amtrak about the PDF timetables going missing for some routes as noted in this thread. Also that some TT are very out of date, like the California services.

To me it is a head-scratcher why Amtrak would pull or at least be careless/clueless that some of their PDF timetables are missing. It just leads to more prodding and micro-management from the outside. "OK, here is a best-practice for running a business..."

 

[fdaley]

I noticed Amtrak Cascades has an updated PDF timetable on their website, effective May 24, 2021:

https://www.amtrakcascades.com/our-train-schedules
I did phone and write to RPA/NARP requesting they ask Amtrak about the PDF timetables going missing for some routes as noted in this thread. Also that some TT are very out of date, like the California services.

To me it is a head-scratcher why Amtrak would pull or at least be careless/clueless that some of their PDF timetables are missing. It just leads to more prodding and micro-management from the outside. "OK, here is a best-practice for running a business..."

Oh, progress. The Cascades pdf wasn't there earlier this week. Although the new schedule had taken effect, Washington state still had Amtrak's outdated pdf from early 2020.

 

[jis]

Since they recently added the "Schedule" feature to the App, which BTW works only marginally on the iPhone, just being barely usable, it could possibly indicate that at some point they do have the intetion of populating the timetables to current ones, since that is one of the things you can access through this feature. Or of course, it is possible that they forgot to turn that part off, and it is visible entirely unintentionally.

 

[Willbridge]

Oh, progress. The Cascades pdf wasn't there earlier this week. Although the new schedule had taken effect, Washington state still had Amtrak's outdated pdf from early 2020.

It looks as if the WSDOT people gave up and had a temp type the public schedules, as there are several typos that leap off the page. However, it's better than nothing!

Amtrak Cascades Train Schedule Effective May 24, 2021