Conductors scanning tickets with iPhone camera?

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jis said:
Used to be an even more frequent issue in the 100 points per segment days. :)
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Isn't there is a story posted here about someone get a conductor to scan 100 tickets that cost a few dollars each, to get Select Executive?
 
BCL said:
What are they using now? When they first started using iPhones, it was the iPhone 4s, but those are frankly ancient by now. With the scanner/battery combo it would keep the battery from having to be used often, and the battery only had a rated life of a few hundred cycles and wasn't something that Apple installed (they would replace the whole thing for a battery price and have some central repair swap out the battery for new replacements).

I've personally seen Amtrak conductors used their phones out the case 7 or 8 years ago. The speed of QR code processing depends on what's currently running. If you're taking about just turning the normal camera mode on, it's laggy because that's just a secondary function compared to taking photos. But a dedicated app that only looking for codes should be much faster.

I barely ride Amtrak since I don't really need to and I didn't pay that much attention to what the conductors were using to scan my tickets. For unreserved commute rides I recall getting scanned almost every time. In fact I think they just asked for my name on the Coast Starlight, marked it on a sheet, and then just handled it later. The bus driver on my last connecting Amtrak trip did the same. I don't recall what the conductor used on Capitol Corridor.
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There are various iPhone models being used. We are using a dedicated app, but inside that app it launches the camera view so you can see where it is pointed. It recognizes QR codes from pretty much any angle/direction immediately. It's the (very few left) paper tickets and station docs that really slow things down.

I think pretty much all dedicated Thruway busses have eMDs now, too.


Barb Stout said:
What is an eMD and/or what do the initials stand for?
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Electronic Mobile Device
 
eMD: (eTicketing Mobile Device) An electronic device (Smartphone) used for lifting tickets electronically and assist with other train related tasks.
 
neutralist said:
Isn't there is a story posted here about someone get a conductor to scan 100 tickets that cost a few dollars each, to get Select Executive?
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I heard the story, but I think it was before the use of electronic devices and eTickets. Wasn't it on the Keystone Service? I think it was about one passenger with maybe 100 tickets at a really low price (maybe $2.50 each?) and each one had to be lifted and the whole ticket taken and processed. That sort of thing seems to be the genesis for one ticket per passenger and a 400 point minimum point max per day. I did the whole thing with live tickets (multi-rides were live until maybe 2014) and it took a few days before the last ride was used up before my points posted. I got the stub back. I believe it had to be processed before the points posted.

I'm still trying to figure out how it worked. The current Amtrak ticket stock can have up to two segments that don't need to be lifted. So it had only one segment per ticket? I don't think they were like old airline tickets where they used red carbon copies, maybe 4 segments displayed, and only one was highlighted per ticket sheet. More recent versions seem to be printed and are more like Amtrak ticket stock.

As far as massive amounts of scanning goes, I heard about one AU Gathering in the San Francisco Bay Area where a bunch of gatherers went on the same ride together (I'm pretty sure it was Emeryville-Berkeley) to get 100 points each. They had to track down a conductor to scan them.
 
Brian Battuello said:
Good thing the CZ doesn't stop at Berkeley. Youse guys could have emptied the train all the way to Chicago :)

(and yes, I know about the "R" code on long distance trains)
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Richmond is the next station. I don' t think EMY-RIC can be booked on the CZ though. I don't see an R on the schedule, but EMY-SAC is the first stop that I can seem to book.

I've never taken the CZ but planned to once (just to Reno with a Greyhound ride back home) but had to cancel due to illness. I did take the Coast Starlight from RIC-SJC once just for a fun trip with my kid. RIC-EMY took a long, long time. I had taken my seat, put away a stroller, and gotten to the dining car with coffee well before we got to EMY.
 
jis said:
Yes. It was Emeryville to Berkeley to get to the restaurant for the gathering dinner.
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Was that Brennan's (which is now gone) at the old Southern Pacific station building? If it was then that place is now occupied by a business called Augie's Montreal Deli.

But back when I was riding regularly on Capitol Corridor, a few conductors told me that if I wasn't making an effort to avoid them and somehow my ticket didn't get scanned, feel free to use the "unreserved" ticket (or an additional ride on a multi-ride ticket) at a later time.
 
The old Berkeley Southern Pacific station was for many years an okay Chinese restaurant called China Station. Brennans was in a separate building across the parking lot. My Berkeley sailing club were regulars at Brennans until they closed, and then we moved to the old Spenger's until it got fancy.

For a long time, Amtrak didn't stop at Berkeley, but started again as part of the San Joaquín expansion. Someone built a tiny bus shelter immediately dubbed the Amshack. When they installed it, the single bench seat was installed upside down, making it unusable, and it stayed that way for several years. We now return to our regular thread, already in progress...
 
Brian Battuello said:
The old Berkeley Southern Pacific station was for many years an okay Chinese restaurant called China Station. Brennans was in a separate building across the parking lot. My Berkeley sailing club were regulars at Brennans until they closed, and then we moved to the old Spenger's until it got fancy.

For a long time, Amtrak didn't stop at Berkeley, but started again as part of the San Joaquín expansion. Someone built a tiny bus shelter immediately dubbed the Amshack. When they installed it, the single bench seat was installed upside down, making it unusable, and it stayed that way for several years. We now return to our regular thread, already in progress...
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I remember China Station only because they had a pretty prominent billboard that was visible from the University Ave overpass over the tracks I think it might have even been visible from the freeway.

I don't remember that much about it, but the history seems to be of some restaurant called Xanadu between China Station and Brennan's. Apparently sat empty for years. This article was well before Brennan's moved in around 2008.

Saturday July 27, 2002​
A new train station could be added to the city’s vision of a new transit hub in west Berkeley and be a depot for bus, ferry, train and taxi services.​
​
Proponents of the project hope to purchase and restore the defunct Southern Pacific Station, built in 1913 at the intersection of University Avenue and the train tracks. Part of the plan is to add a cafe, murals and plaques detailing the history and cultural resources of the area.​
​
The 90-year-old station is privately-owned, but city officials have been talking with the owner about buying it.​
​
The station would be a centerpiece for west Berkeley’s revitalization, city planners say, and could link transit to the redeveloped Fourth Street shopping corridor and other parts of the city.​
​
Now vacant, the station was most recently home to two restaurants, China Station then Xanadu.​

I wasn't a huge user of the Berkeley station since they didn't have free parking and I wasn't going to take my chances. But occasionally I did use it with a ride there in the morning and back home. I could justify a beer if my wife was driving me home, even though she hates driving. I think once I decided I was hungry enough to try Brennan's and ordered a turkey leg from the steam tray.

You mention Spenger's, but was that before the sale to McCormick & Schmick's? I remember under Landry's (which bought M&S) they had some pretty good happy hour specials including a killer $5 deal for a burger and fries that was normally about $14 on the regular menu. The menu said that a beverage order was required, but the server said that was never enforced. I mentioned that once to an employee at the 4th Street Apple Store, and he said everyone there knew about it as a way to get a cheap and frankly decent meal.
 
This was in the 80's. The Cal Sailing Club had a keelboat class every Wednesday evening year round. We would take out 2 or 3 Ensigns with a total of about 15 students. Around 9:30pm, when we were very wet and cold, almost all of us headed for Brennan's for food and Irish coffee. You were served from the aforementioned steam tables. If you said "Turkey leg..." by the time you said "with stuffing" the "slop lady", as we called her, had already put mashed potatoes on your plate. She would glare at you, push the potatoes off with her bare hand and slop some stuffing. We learned to say "I would like stuffing with my turkey leg". I never saw any cocaine, but more than a few bar fights. It was that sort of place.

For some reason we stopped going there. Maybe they cut off food service too early. So we tried China Station once, and they were polite but we weren't really their crowd. Then we decided to try the "big fancy place", Spenger's. This was long before M&S fixed it up. We were adopted by a surly waiter named Louie who saw the chance for one more tip before closing. If you asked Louie for a recommendation, he would say "I recommend you eat somewhere else". If you asked if he could suggest a wine, he'd say "No". But he would hit our table with at least three full loaves of fresh sourdough. The financially challenged among us would order a bowl of chowder and dip bread in it. The bread would keep coming, so we'd hide it under the table and take it home later. I think our long time instructor slipped Louie a $20 to make up for our chintzy tips.

I never tried the M&S Spenger's, because I wanted to remember it as it was. And now it too is history.

https://www.berkeleyside.org/2018/1...t-spengers-fish-grotto-has-permanently-closed
128 years? That's practically geologic in California!
 
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Brian Battuello said:
Mea culpa!

The no-scan cancelled return problem is why I always buy my tickets in separate segments. To the best of my knowledge, Amtrak has never offered a round trip discount, so no reason not to.
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Likewise. I buy multiple segments under the same PNR only when connections are involved between the segments, that could get close or missed because of delays en route.

And as I said before, I have been known to chase down Conductors down the platform to get tickets scanned too.

One major wild card though, is when the SCA says the Conductor has been told, and the Conductor does not come by at all and also does not lift the segment. No way to know for sure.

The converse has happened to me too, when I forgot to cancel a segment or did not since the charges involved in doing so made it not worth my while, and the Conductor for some reason probably did a mass lift and I got the AGR points while I was nowhere near the train!.

Truth be told, before reading this thread I had not paid enough attention to notice whether the iPhone scan was being done using the attached device or the iPhone camera. Learn something every day.
 
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Brian Battuello said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the conductor just marks all the sleeping car passengers present from the comfort of his spacious office in the cafe car. Easier than actually checking.
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Last several trips we did have the conductor come by our bedroom to scan our ticket. I have had times where that hasn't happened but, I was indeed checked in (the SCA told the conductor who came aboard?).
 
jis said:
Likewise. I buy multiple segments under the same PNR only when connections are involved between the segments, that could get close or missed because of delays en route.
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There might be some reasons to do that, including using an AGR companion coupon since that can be used one-way or round-trip. I didn't think about it on one trip I booked with AGR points. I missed the train, and then ended up eating the 10% points penalty for cancelling and rebooking the entire trip with the same return ride but a different departure ride. I think it only cost me about 200 points though.
 

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