NEC and Long Distance Trains

[railiner]

Back in the glory days, of multiple long distance trains over various routes, the restrictions were much 'stricter'...at one time, if you were boarding PRR No. 29, the all-private room, Broadway Limited at Pennsylvania Station, New York....the first stop you could book was Englewood (Illinois)!

 

[jis]

In India they has a system whereby you could get a confirmed reservation as long as you were within quota for that intermediate stop. If the quota was exhausted they'd give you a waitlisted reservation (read standby). If there was availability within the last 24 hours for that segment you would be bumped from waitlist confirmed. Same would happen if you were at the top of the waitlist and there was a cancellation from the quota, as soon as such cancellation happened. Seemed to work great, and that was carried over into the new massive computerized reservation system that is used now. They have two categories WL (Waitlist) and RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation). naturally the latter has higher priority than the former and is charged a higher service charge for the privilege, if the reservation comes through.

 

[PaulM]

If asleeper or coach is booked south of WASH then why not sell a ticket to some one else NYP <> WASH ? Granted some seats should be saved out in case a south of WASH passenger cancelles.

I'm not sure the reservation system is sharp enough to put the short in the right room in the case of sleepers. If someone books room 1 from WAS to NOL, but the system puts a short in room 2, now 2 rooms are tied up NYP to NOL.

Another example is someone booking room 1 on the CZ from Galesburg to anywhere west (CB&Q's slogan). Room 1 becomes virtually worthless CHI - GBB, but the pricing scheme still acts as if booking CHI - GBB would prevent CHI-EMY.

 

[zethya]

I'm certain everyone remembers when Amtrak attempted NYC-WAS Acela non-stop, bypassing 30th Street altogether. Didn't last too long though. I vaguely recall it was an attempt to compete with the airlines LGA-DCA shuttle services.

 

[railiner]

I'm certain everyone remembers when Amtrak attempted NYC-WAS Acela non-stop, bypassing 30th Street altogether. Didn't last too long though. I vaguely recall it was an attempt to compete with the airlines LGA-DCA shuttle services.

Long before the Acela's, They ran MU Metroliner's nonstop from New York to Washington in 2:30. That didn't last long either...

 

[Skyline]

The idea was to keep the long distance trains reserved for long distance passengers. You can’t sell anyone a ticket from New York to Atlanta if the train has already sold out with New York to Washington DC passengers.

I always assumed this was the MAIN reason for not permitting short distance NEC-only travel on the LD trains. It should be even more of a reason these days since rolling stock is in short supply (can't easily add more cars to accommodate last minute demand). So it's puzzling why the restrictions are lifted.

 

[jis]

I'm certain everyone remembers when Amtrak attempted NYC-WAS Acela non-stop, bypassing 30th Street altogether. Didn't last too long though. I vaguely recall it was an attempt to compete with the airlines LGA-DCA shuttle services.

Long before the Acela's, They ran MU Metroliner's nonstop from New York to Washington in 2:30. That didn't last long either...

The issue in general has been that the difference between 2:30 and 2:45 is not large enough to attract enough of the targeted airline passengers to offset the loss of large ridership from Philadelphia and Wilmington, and even New Jersey locations. That is why they have tended to not succeed. They basically could not fill those trains with airline passengers as they had hoped.

 

[Seaboard92]

Well the airlines also have another large advantage. They are originating from hubs and terminating at hubs and have traffic coming in from all over the map. Whereas amtraks hubs are microscopic compared to what the airlines have.

You have Washington with service south to Florida (won't really pull air shuttle passengers), service to Virginia points, and the Capitol Limited again not really pulling passengers from the shuttle.

Next down the line you have Philly which has the keystone trains into Harrisburg and the Pennsylvanian. Not super likely to pull a lot of passengers from shuttles. But likely better than DC.

Next up we have New York which has the empire corridor, and the Lake Shore to upstate points. Likely this does draw some traffic and provide decent connecting traffic.

The last hub you have is Boston and that's just he poorly timed for hub and spoke Lake Shore. And the Downeaster aside from the main trunk.

While LGA, JFK, EWR, BOS, PHL, BWI, IAD, DCA all have connecting service from the world wide. You can fill those planes even if Amtrak took all of the Shuttle passengers just off of connecting passengers.