NEC overnight and late evening service

[Septa9739]

This hasn’t gotten a ton of attention, but Southbound service out of NYP still ends at around 8:00 most nights (I think Saturday still has later.) This seems really early and fouls connections from the Canada trains. Does anybody have any idea when those late night runs might be restored?

 

[demonizedwater]

This hasn’t gotten a ton of attention, but Southbound service out of NYP still ends at around 8:00 most nights (I think Saturday still has later.) This seems really early and fouls connections from the Canada trains. Does anybody have any idea when those late night runs might be restored?

Sunday is later and Friday has an 11pm to Philly. Saturday is actually even more screwed up - service ends 7:01 pm out of NYC. That's right! Last train to DC leaves at 7 damn o'clock. Do they think that only little old grannies use their system?

 

[ashleyryan15]

I'd also like to know the answer to this. The late night options out of NYP would be absurdly limiting anywhere, but in New York City!? Yes I know that on Friday nights 639 is an option, but that's still not enough.

 

[MARC Rider]

In the NEC, it looks like 2 new evening trains out of DC - An 8 pm Acela and NER 186 at 830 PM (186 used to be at 710 pm) Now all they need to do is revive some more early morning northbound trains, like Acela 2150. that left DC at 5 Am.

 

[ashleyryan15]

Haven’t those been around for a while?

 

[demonizedwater]

I travel NYC-DC regularly due to family in DC. I was looking at the train schedules over Passover week, 2023 (i.e. first week of April), and it looks like the last departure out of NYC to DC is now 11:11pm on Fridays (was 7:40pm for Regional and 8:13pm for Acela). Saturday service also runs until 11:05pm as well (used to end with the Vermonter at 7:01pm).

Friday service - increased from 33 trains/day to 40 southbound. Added an Acela at 9:05pm, Regionals at 9:10, 10:05, and 11:11pm. Also looks like a new early-morning regional at 5:15am!

Saturday service - increased from 22 trains/day to 27 southbound. Added Regionals at 8:01, 9:05, and 11:05pm.

This is something approaching a normal late-night/early morning schedule. I've seen this before on the site, but I think they're planning to actually do it this time around. Reason being is that this is NOT the pre-COVID schedule of 43 trains per day (visible if you look in 2024), and the late-night trains weren't listed until recently, so they actually added them back.

Good job, Amtrak! I was kind of assuming that late-night service in the Corridor was never coming back after the COVID-era staffing and service cuts. Now please bring back the Adirondack to Montréal!

 

[daybeers]

Yayyy!! Late night & early morning service is something the NEC was missing! Now do NEC north!

 

[demonizedwater]

Yayyy!! Late night & early morning service is something the NEC was missing! Now do NEC north!

Yeah, but that sucked even prior to COVID. IIRC, the last weekday evening train leaving NYP for Boston South was in the 7:30-8:00pm range and got to Boston just after midnight. This is basically the same.

The plus side is that there seem to be more Regional trains running through from Boston to DC starting in April, similar to the pre-COVID quantity. The 10pm and 11pm ish trains from NYC to DC actually originate in Boston.

 

[demonizedwater]

Looks like they're no longer running 65/66/67 from NYP to/from Boston after beginning of April, though it runs NYP to/from DC. So they added late night service to/from DC, but they cut the 9:30pm out of Boston to NYC. Horrible that the last departure is 6:45pm from Boston. Way too early.

 

[fdaley]

Looks like they're no longer running 65/66/67 from NYP to/from Boston after beginning of April, though it runs NYP to/from DC. So they added late night service to/from DC, but they cut the 9:30pm out of Boston to NYC. Horrible that the last departure is 6:45pm from Boston. Way too early.

Very distressed to see this. I have used 66 a lot over the years; it has long been the only train that gets to Boston from the south or west before 9 a.m. from anywhere beyond commuter territory. It was in the system for departures this summer as of a couple of days ago but now appears to be gone after the night of April 2.

 

[demonizedwater]

Rumor has it that it has to do with work on the Hell Gate Bridge or the CT River Bridge replacement project. (Makes sense since it's still running between NYP and DC, not entirely cancelled.) If they need an overnight period to do work, it's unfortunate that they can't split the difference and run the 6:45pm (179) out of Boston an hour or so later, since it was extended to DC in the current schedule. Leave Boston 7:45, arrive in NYC midnight, get to DC around 3:30 or 4 am.

What's also interesting is 179 didn't run the full Boston to DC route (it ended in NYC on weekdays) every day of the week even during pre-COVID times, and now it does.

They're obviously committed to restoring full service in DC (new schedule has first train out at 3:15am and last train at 10:00pm) and NYC (first train at 3am, last at 11ish pm), so I assume that Boston isn't getting the short end of the stick permanently. 10-12 hr service gap is a bit insane on a permanent basis.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Yes, it’s track work on the Hells Gate Bridge. Reconfiguring the catenary to enable getting the Mets into Penn Station. So long power outages.

67 shows as cancelled on the schedules so it has not been permanently removed.

 

[Amtrak25]

I suppose a New Haven - Boston stub train is not worth their while.

Do many people get on DC or New Carrollton at 3:15/3:30am ?

 

[MARC Rider]

I suppose a New Haven - Boston stub train is not worth their while.

Do many people get on DC or New Carrollton at 3:15/3:30am ?

Back in 2019, I took Northeast Regional 190 that left Baltimore at 3:50 AM to ride to New London in order to catch a ferry and make my return train in Greenport. I was pretty impressed at how full the train was that early in the morning.

 

[fdaley]

Glad to learn hear that 66 to Boston is canceled only temporarily. On my phone, it doesn't show up as canceled, it's just gone -- and throughout the summer at least. It did get a fair number of Boston-bound riders at the some of the local stops east of New Haven, so I'm surprised there is no temporary accommodation for them.

 

[Bob Dylan]

When the Adirondack was running to Montreal, I left DC at that hour to make the connection at NYP.

I used to ride 66 ( mostly in BC)and 190 regularly out of DC, and it was mostly Full on most legs, especially WAS to NYP and NYP to BOS.

 

[MARC Rider]

I used to ride 66 ( mostly in BC)and 190 regularly out of DC, and it was mostly Full on most legs, especially WAS to NYP and NYP to BOS.

I rode 67 quite a lot from Baltimore to Washington. In fact, I did it a couple of times last month. Very handy for me if I missed the 5:55AM MARC train, even if I did have to pay more.

I would imagine that there are people who ride 66 the same way between Providence and Boston. Obviously, during the period when 66 isn't running to Boston, they'll have to take MTBA, but at least there's alternative train service.

 

[demonizedwater]

I suppose a New Haven - Boston stub train is not worth their while.

Do many people get on DC or New Carrollton at 3:15/3:30am ?

Why a stub? Borrow/rent/steal a dual-mode diesel from MNRR, run the thing into Grand Central, skip Hell Gate entirely.

 

[Amtrak25]

Why a stub? Borrow/rent/steal a dual-mode diesel from MNRR, run the thing into Grand Central, skip Hell Gate entirely.

GCT is closed 2am to 5:15am.
During those hours, LIRR will not run to Grand Central Madison either.

 

[demonizedwater]

I suppose a New Haven - Boston stub train is not worth their while.

Do many people get on DC or New Carrollton at 3:15/3:30am ?

I'd imagine there's a market since the new train they added gets to NYC around 7am, so in time for work or a meeting in the morning. Plus a 3:30am train from DC is a 5:30am train from Philly to NYC, which is a pretty reasonable time to leave.

 

[demonizedwater]

Hmmmm .... looking into 3rd week of January '24 (19th and 20th), 65/67 don't show up even as a NYC-DC trains, though 66 still shows up as a Roanoke-DC-NYC train. Probably too far ahead in time to assume that this is planned, but still worrisome.

 

[daybeers]

While I understand the need for overnight track work on the Hell Gate Bridge, I don't understand why they can't run a NHV-BOS train. East of NHV, 66 is popular with commuters and will be noticeably absent.

 

[demonizedwater]

They're still not back to pre-COVID schedules and equipment (though getting closer), so likely short staffing/equipment shortages.

I wonder if MBTA and Short Line East could make nice and make it happen, though. They could use coaches behind a diesel, or is there anything preventing a string of M8 cars from running across the RI border and through to Boston?

The other issue is that if they're going to have nighttime outages, they may be using them to fix other issues between New Haven and Boston.

 

[Acela150]

While I understand the need for overnight track work on the Hell Gate Bridge, I don't understand why they can't run a NHV-BOS train. East of NHV, 66 is popular with commuters and will be noticeably absent.

Not as popular as you’d think these days. The majority of stops between NYP and PVD have 3 or 4 people on and off.

 

[demonizedwater]

It's really sad and awful how Americans have been frightened away from public transportation after COVID