How much time to allow between arrive and depart?

[TB6201]

Hello, thanks for any guidance.

I'm booked from Chicago to Washington on train #30 July 12/13, arriving 1:05 pm.
then from WAS to Providence (PRV) #2170, leaving at 3pm.

After doing some research, I'm concerned. What are the odds that I can make this connection?
Will Amtrak take care of me if they make me miss?

On the return trip I go from PRV to NYP on #93 to arrive at 1:47 pm,
then from NYP to CHI on #49 leaving at 3:40pm

Thanks,
Thomas

 

[Jay Aitchsee]

Hi, Thomas. I think you'll be ok, especially if you are booked thru on a multi city ticket. I didn't check your return, but going out there appears to be a couple more trains after the one you booked.
My experience is limited, but on one where I was going to miss my next outbound train due to the delay of my inbound, I called from the inbound prior to arrival and had them reserve a place on a later outbound for me. No problem. On another, when there was no later outbound, Amtrak provided lodging and put us on a train the next day. With our flexible schedule at the time, that worked out OK for us.
Good luck.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

You should be fine both directions. Enjoy.

 

[zephyr17]

As long as it is on reservation number you'll be fine.

 

[Trollopian]

Hello, thanks for any guidance.

I'm booked from Chicago to Washington on train #30 July 12/13, arriving 1:05 pm.
then from WAS to Providence (PRV) #2170, leaving at 3pm.

After doing some research, I'm concerned. What are the odds that I can make this connection?
Will Amtrak take care of me if they make me miss?

On the return trip I go from PRV to NYP on #93 to arrive at 1:47 pm,
then from NYP to CHI on #49 leaving at 3:40pm

Thanks,
Thomas

Given the Capitol Limited's craptastic on-time performance lately, the bad news is that I think you do have reason to worry about making that first connection (1:05 scheduled arrival, 3:00 departure). The good news is that there's another Providence-bound train leaving an hour later so that it shouldn't be hard for Amtrak to accommodate you. It certainly wouldn't hold the connection.

I'd be less worried about the 2-hour stopover on the return trip. NEC on-time performance is better.

Enjoy your Capitol Limited trip! It's my usual train and, I think, an underrated one, specifically the beautiful stretch between Harper's Ferry and Pittsburgh.

 

[TB6201]

Thanks everybody.
Each leg is booked separately, as the Amtrak web site would frequently freeze when I tried to do multi legs. In addition, the web site did not make available all the possibilities.

Is there a better side of each train to sit for the best views?
Thanks again.

 

[pennyk]

Each leg is booked separately, as the Amtrak web site would frequently freeze when I tried to do multi legs. In addition, the web site did not make available all the possibilities.

I would call Amtrak and, at the very least, have both your outbound reservations linked and inbound reservations linked.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Thanks everybody.
Is there a better side of each train to sit for the best views?
Thanks again.

Going from Washington to Providence, I would sit on the right side.

The views are equally nice on both sides at first (lots of rivers and a bay). But starting at Wilmington, Delaware, there’s more on the right side. You’ll see the pretty Wilmington station building and the lovely
Philadelphia skyline.

Then it doesn’t matter again—both sides equal—til you get into CT. Then the real treats start on the right side: a beach near Old Saybrook right next to the tracks, ferries at New London, and boats, boats, and more boats almost to Providence!

By the way, I’m assuming you mean Providence, Rhode Island. The station code for that is PVD.

Your posts have PRV, which seems to be someplace out in California.

 

[zephyr17]

I would call Amtrak and, at the very least, have both your outbound reservations linked and inbound reservations linked.

My understanding is that "linking" separate reservations is a manual note which will not come up when the system spits out reaccommodation plans for a late train like it will on transfers on one reservation. It also won't prevent being marked as a no show for a missed train. While the OP would still likely be reaccommodated on a missed connection by having such a note in the record, it would likely involve more work with agents and more hassle on his part than a nearly automatic reaccommodation from being on a missed connection list.

The OP should call and try to get combined into a single reservation if at all possible. This might mean having to pay current buckets, but is the best solution unless there is a significant increase in costs. BTW, 30-2170 is an available connection brought up using CHI-PVD as a single entered segment, so it would be guaranteed if were booked on the same reservation, so there is no basic issue in combining it into one reservation. 93-49 for the return PVD-CHI is, too. I'd try to combine the outbound trip into one reservation and the return trip into another one. No reason to combine to combine everything into one round trip and it is usually better not to.

TB6201, in the future, never separate a same day connection into two reservations. It is begging for trouble in case anything happens. Always enter your ultimate endpoints on your first try, and only break it up if you have to and even then do it using Multi-City on one reservation, not separate ones. Also, using Multi-City, even for a single trip segment (such as CHI-PVD) is usually a good idea. Multi-City is often a more sturdy interface and has fewer glitches those aces at Amtrak IT introduced when they tried to streamline the reservation experience (like hanging if different accommodation types are selected for two separate connecting trains).