Distance between stations

[R Johnson]

Is there a website that shows mileage between stations? I'm sure I have seen something like this in the past, but I can't find it now.

The reason for asking, is that last night a taxi fare calculator for Charlottesville, VA showed the fare for a 21 mile ride, 95% or more on I-64, to be almost as much as Amtrak business class from Connersville to Charlottesville. I realize that the apples and oranges thing enters here, but in the past I've used a shuttle system to get to the AT, and even the highest I ever paid never came close to over four bucks a mile. I just want the train mileage to compare the costs of the two modes of transportation for the journal I will be keeping.

From this, I have learned that:

Compared to some methods of getting from point A to point B, Amtrak is a helluva deal.

Having my own car, and living in a small town with no taxi service, I'm totally out of touch with 21st century taxi rates.

And, last but not least, I had better pack a white pasteboard sign that has ROCKFISH GAP written on it for the stand near the onramp to I-64.

 

[PRR 60]

Is there a website that shows mileage between stations? I'm sure I have seen something like this in the past, but I can't find it now.

The reason for asking, is that last night a taxi fare calculator for Charlottesville, VA showed the fare for a 21 mile ride, 95% or more on I-64, to be almost as much as Amtrak business class from Connersville to Charlottesville. I realize that the apples and oranges thing enters here, but in the past I've used a shuttle system to get to the AT, and even the highest I ever paid never came close to over four bucks a mile. I just want the train mileage to compare the costs of the two modes of transportation for the journal I will be keeping.

From this, I have learned that:

Compared to some methods of getting from point A to point B, Amtrak is a helluva deal.

Having my own car, and living in a small town with no taxi service, I'm totally out of touch with 21st century taxi rates.

And, last but not least, I had better pack a white pasteboard sign that has ROCKFISH GAP written on it for the stand near the onramp to I-64.

You can go to Schedules page on Amtrak.com and pull up the PDF timetable for the Cardinal. The station mileages are there. To save you the trouble, the mileage for the Cardinal between Connersville IN and Charlottesville VA is 553 miles.

 

[R Johnson]

Thank you.

 

[rrdude]

I'm surprised that no one, or at least I cannot find it on the web, that no one has created a table/spreadsheet that allows one to enter the origin and destination station, and it will display the Amtrak route mileage between those two points. With all the "mileage collectors" out there I would have thought someone (retiree, railfan, stats-junkie, etc., etc.) would have done this already. But I can't find it....

I know it's shown on the printed timetable, but it's pretty onerous to calculate when trying to go back and add up all one's mileage over the past 50 years.....

 

[John Bobinyec]

You can go to Schedules page on Amtrak.com and pull up the PDF timetable for the Cardinal. The station mileages are there. To save you the trouble, the mileage for the Cardinal between Connersville IN and Charlottesville VA is 553 miles.

Don't really see how you find any schedules from the Schedules link you gave. This one's more direct: Amtrak Timetable Archives - Home

jb

 

[EchoSierra]

I'm sure that the original link is now 5 years out of date, seeing as that's how long ago it was posted.

 

[John Bobinyec]

Yep. Missed that. The one I gave is still good, though.

jb

 

[niemi24s]

But subtracting the mileages on a timetable requires a knowledge of differential and integral calculus, doesn't it?

Who does Amtrak think we are? Anyway??

 

[me_little_me]

But subtracting the mileages on a timetable requires a knowledge of differential and integral calculus, doesn't it?

Who does Amtrak think we are? Anyway??

We know that's not the case because, not only does Amtrak managementnot even know the meaning of differential and integral calculus, they don't know how to do basic 3rd grade math.

 

[HammerJack]

I wonder what the longest distance is between two consecutive stations on the network is. Auto Train doesn’t count. I’d guess something on the Sunset Limited. Maybe Houston to San Antonio, or somewhere east of El Paso.

 

[JayPea]

I wonder what the longest distance is between two consecutive stations on the network is. Auto Train doesn’t count. I’d guess something on the Sunset Limited. Maybe Houston to San Antonio, or somewhere east of El Paso.

I believe that distinction belongs to Salt Lake City to Elko on the California Zephyr, at 263 miles.

 

[niemi24s]

Here's a few for ya:
• How many pairs of stations are there on all the LD routes?
• On all the other routes?
• Total of both of those not counting any duplicates?

 

[TinCan782]

I believe that distinction belongs to Salt Lake City to Elko on the California Zephyr, at 263 miles.

I was gonna guess Alpine, TX to El Paso..."only" 219 miles!

 

[Cal]

I was gonna guess Alpine, TX to El Paso..."only" 219 miles!

Del Rio is between them

 

[railiner]

But subtracting the mileages on a timetable requires a knowledge of differential and integral calculus, doesn't it?

Who does Amtrak think we are? Anyway??

What gets more complicated is calculating the distance between Richmond and Miami on the different routes of the Meteor and the Star...

 

[niemi24s]

What gets more complicated is calculating the distance between Richmond and Miami on the different routes of the Meteor and the Star...

It's not complicated, just very tedious. Used Google Earth a few years ago and found the Star's total route length posted by RPA (1480 miles, logically inferred from the timetable) and others (1521 or 1522 miles) were a bit off the measured distance of 1513 miles.

All of the errors in the Star's route miles were found in Florida. Details were posted here in another thread. I've got a modified timetable somewhere but my eyes are too tired to find it. Maybe later, eh?

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

Del Rio is between them

Del Rio is between San Antonio and Sanderson, further east than both Alpine and El Paso.

 

[Cal]

Del Rio is between San Antonio and Sanderson, further east than both Alpine and El Paso.

I see my mistake. For some reason I read "El Paso" as "San Antonio" Whoops..

 

[rrdude]

Still, it'd be awful nice, (but not too practical except to mileage collectors) to be able to enter the 3 letter Amtrak station code as START TRIP, and the 3 letter Amtrak station code as END TRIP, and have the mileage calculated out for you. (BONUS: One could design it with a "via" 3 letter station code too, so one could enter: START = CHI. VIA = DEN. END = LAX. (of course in that example, it could be via the San Joaquin's or the Starlight.....ugh)

 

[TinCan782]

Still, it'd be awful nice, (but not too practical except to mileage collectors) to be able to enter the 3 letter Amtrak station code as START TRIP, and the 3 letter Amtrak station code as END TRIP, and have the mileage calculated out for you. (BONUS: One could design it with a "via" 3 letter station code too, so one could enter: START = CHI. VIA = DEN. END = LAX. (of course in that example, it could be via the San Joaquin's or the Starlight.....ugh)

I would be nice to be able to do that on Amtrak's website to explore trip options even before you get concerned with dates, prices and type of accommodations ... just a quick and easy way to learn about the different routes. Dream on!

 

[JontyMort]

Still, it'd be awful nice, (but not too practical except to mileage collectors)...

There’s the rub. You can just imagine... “Those figures aren’t right. On full moons the eastbound takes the Stinkville Cutoff, which is three miles shorter, unless it’s a Saturday, when it reverses at Backendofbeyond Siding, where there’s a well-known milepost error...”.

 

[niemi24s]

Here's the modified version of the second page of the Star & Meteor timetable showing what I believe to be the actual mileages from NYP:

The Star's mileage includes (right or wrong) the wye maneuver just prior to backing into TPA. This was posted in some thread during August, 2015.

 

[daybeers]

It's not complicated, just very tedious. Used Google Earth a few years ago and found the Star's total route length posted by RPA (1480 miles, logically inferred from the timetable) and others (1521 or 1522 miles) were a bit off the measured distance of 1513 miles.

All of the errors in the Star's route miles were found in Florida. Details were posted here in another thread. I've got a modified timetable somewhere but my eyes are too tired to find it. Maybe later, eh?

I don’t know if I’d trust measuring distance on Google Earth over mileage from RPA. Not saying it can’t be wrong, but I feel like that tool isn’t all that accurate.

 

[niemi24s]

I don’t know if I’d trust measuring distance on Google Earth over mileage from RPA. Not saying it can’t be wrong, but I feel like that tool isn’t all that accurate.

So you think the RPA mileage is truer than that measured using Google Earth (not Google Maps)? You must have missed the part of Post #16 stating RPA's mileage of 1480 was derived from the Amtrak timetable. In addition to that likely error source, the old version of Google Earth was capable of measuring the length of ground paths by accounting for differences in elevation. Neither current version of Google Earth or Google Maps can do that, and that's how highway measured miles and runway lengths are measured. Anyway, the following data was gleaned about five years ago using that older and more accurate version of Google Earth:

• The measured mile on CR 628 North of Mt. Holly, NJ measured 5279.18' or within 0.016%
• Several dozen different commercial and military runway lengths (as measured between the centers of their threshold bars) were, on the average, within about 0.012% of their posted lengths.

All that leads me to believe my Google Earth measurement of the SS route South of Savannah (643 miles) is accurate to within about 400 feet or 0.08 mile. No significant error was found North of Savannah.

Don't believe any of this? Why not fire up your favorite online distance measuring tool and see what you come up with?

[edit] Just took the new Google Maps measuring tool for a spin down the longer runway at Westover AFB and it came within 0.77' (9") of its posted 11,598' length for an error of 0.007%.