No more printed system timetables

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

I saw this way back in 1972: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19721029&item=0028

Maybe for a large city like PHL they can "print" or make an online file of the various destinations you can get from one city to others and what connections you make (if any). In this timetable, they had separate charts for the NEC and for national trains so they probably could do the same.

 

[Cina]

Amish riders could be inconvenienced by this, it's true. The Amish who live in our community hire drivers, ask neighbors to charge their buggy headlights in their garages, etc. So I'm sure they could ask someone to print a timetable for them if absolutely necessary. I'm still of the opinion that the benefits outweigh the costs on this.

 

[niemi24s]

And the reason you can't print the online copy yourself to show them is...?

There's always something, isn't there? How about my printer is lousy, broken or I don't even have a printer - is that good enough for you? Or maybe the main attraction is the big fold-out route map behind the front cover. Sheesh!! If all else fails, I guess I could always hire a scribe.

Sorry I even brought it up.

 

[jis]

There's always the likes of Staples who will gladly let you part with some money and print out something for you.

 

[JoeBas]

How much are these worth to you disappointed folks? 'Cause I'll gladly set up an account to print them out and put them in a nice spiral binder with a quality cover for y'all, for the low low low low price of about $20 an issue... PM now, operators are standing by...

 

[FriskyFL]

Bummer. The hardcopy system timetable makes for great bathroom reading material.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

And the reason you can't print the online copy yourself to show them is...?

There's always something, isn't there? How about my printer is lousy, broken or I don't even have a printer - is that good enough for you? Or maybe the main attraction is the big fold-out route map behind the front cover. Sheesh!! If all else fails, I guess I could always hire a scribe. Sorry I even brought it up.

It's a perfectly legitimate question in my view. You didn't acknowledge this possibility in your post so I asked. If Amtrak was failing to provide digital versions that were easily printed at home, or at any nearby commercial printing service, I could better understand the complaining. But as currently implemented this decision would seem to save money for Amtrak while still allowing folks to print their own as needed. This change seems completely reasonable to me and I'm not the kind of person who glosses over mistakes or sweeps things under the rug if I think Amtrak did something wrong.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I'm going to miss the printed versions of the timetables. They always made great reading. Quite frankly clinking around on Amtrak's site for various routes just isn't the same. But the handwriting has been on the wall for sometime, it was bound to happen. I'll guess I'll take the "kind" advice of the various cranks that hang out here and print my own.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Bummer. The hardcopy system timetable makes for great bathroom reading material.

Get with the times. Phones & tablets are the new bathroom reading material.

 

[Carolina Special]

If you don't drop the phone or tablet into the water.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Bummer. The hardcopy system timetable makes for great bathroom reading material.

Get with the times. Phones & tablets are the new bathroom reading material.

I still prefer my "hard" morning newspaper, and I also keep a backup supply of mags and catalogs on the tank lid for when I have longer court reigning over the Kingdom

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Bummer. The hardcopy system timetable makes for great bathroom reading material.

Get with the times. Phones & tablets are the new bathroom reading material.

I still prefer my "hard" morning newspaper, and I also keep a backup supply of mags and catalogs on the tank lid for when I have longer court reigning over the Kingdom

I used to have Reader's Digests in my bathroom but now get them electronically. I'm so far behind in reading them now because their on my iPad and I only take my iPhone with me.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I too keep a supply of paper reading materials in the throne room, and make calls on my rotary dial phone ( What's that Grandpa?) while reigning over the kingdom!

 

[jis]

I too keep a supply of paper reading materials in the throne room, and make calls on my rotary dial phone ( What's that Grandpa?) while reigning over the kingdom!

You mean you have already given up your special preserved manual exchange four party line? Tut tut

 

[A Voice]

There's always the likes of Staples who will gladly let you part with some money and print out something for you.

Staples will indeed print something for you, but how much for having it bound in a format similar to the now defunct system timetable (as opposed to a bunch of loose-leaf sheets of paper to get lost and out of correct order)?

 

[niemi24s]

Now that this thread has degenerated into a mindless quibble over digital versus printed forms of text, methinks it's time to bow out with a

<yawn!>

 

[NS VIA Fan]

There's always the likes of Staples who will gladly let you part with some money and print out something for you.

Staples will indeed print something for you, but how much for having it bound in a format similar to the now defunct system timetable (as opposed to a bunch of loose-leaf sheets of paper to get lost and out of correct order)?

Staples also sells 2" or 3"....3 holes binders and will also punch the pages for you. Now stand it up on your shelf and it's good for 2 or 3 years worth of timetables!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

There's always the likes of Staples who will gladly let you part with some money and print out something for you.

Staples will indeed print something for you, but how much for having it bound in a format similar to the now defunct system timetable (as opposed to a bunch of loose-leaf sheets of paper to get lost and out of correct order)?

Staples also sells 2" or 3"....3 holes binders and will also punch the pages for you. Now stand it up on your shelf and it's good for 2 or 3 years worth of timetables!

They'll even bind it for you.

https://www.staplescopyandprint.ca/Services/Finishing.aspx

 

[Gulfwind2]

I'm far more concerned about what this does to the Amish/Senior citizen contingency of Amtrak riders than I am about what this does to affect me. I've always been a fan of the printed system timetable, and I'm not even 20 years old (many would think that younger frequent riders unanimously favor the smartphone solution to the matter). I also feel that this hurts Amtrak's ability to market long distance trains to new riders. As some posters have already noted, many NEC riders are oblivious to the existence of long distance trains. The idea that they will all simply "look it up" or take the time to go to Kinkos when they want to deliver a "hold it in your hand" timetable to a friend/relative who is interested in train travel seems somewhat far-fetched when compared to the convenience of picking up a system timetable hanging on the literature rack at your home station.

 

[neroden]

This is a bit thoughtless. Issuing the full-bulk timetables in large numbers every 6 months was overkill. But they'll want to be issuing system timetables again.

I would anticipate it'll eventually come back in some form. Perhaps a smaller format (omitting 20 pages of station addresses would make it a lot smaller, and there are entire pages of advertisements, and 10 pages of policies in the back), and a lower print run, and it'll probably only be issued when there's a major timetable change such as a new service or a schedule shift of 4+ hours (not every six months). But the printed timetable is a valuable quick-reference for where you can go; the website is definitely not a substitute. I suspect once the current bout of fiscal lunacy is over, an occasional paper issuance, when there are major service changes, will happen.

 

[jphjaxfl]

National timetables will still be created and posted online as .pdf files as they are now. If a paper copy is desired, one can print at home or place the .pdf on a USB thumb drive and take it down to Staples copy and print center or a local print shop and have it printed. This change is long overdue. It's time that limited financial resources go to things like actually operating trains and not pet obsessions such as archaic printed system timetables.

I agree 100%. I rarely ever use a published printed National Timetable because I can get all the information I need on line and its often more up to date than the last published timetable. I will add that I do have a collection of Railroad passenger train timetables dating to the 1930s and Official Guides dating to 1901. I have a collection of Amtrak timetables from the 70s, 80s, 90s and more recent, but I have stopped asking for the National Timetable over the last 5 years because I can use my smart phone, tablet or laptop to get the information I need, buy tickets or anything else. Actually, I found the National Timetable had become mundane because any changes except for the NEC seemed to minimal. When I compared Amtrak's National Timetable compared to some of the better Railroad Timetables such as the Pennsylvania Railroads System Timetable which included lots of interesting information, I become depressed that Amtrak's is such a skeletal system. I am happy that Amtrak has found a sensible way to save money besides targeting food service.

 

[niemi24s]

. . .the convenience of picking up a system timetable hanging on the literature rack at your home station.

Perhaps convenient for you and most others but for the rest of us, maybe not so convenient. My closest station is 215 miles away as the crow flies and for some its probably farther. That's why this... https://www.amtrak.com/order-contact-amtrak-publications ...made it so convenient to get one to any interested party. I live so far out in the sticks there are many up here who aren't aware of passenger train service in the US except for subways in the big cities and commuter trains between the close ones.

The possibility of having Amtrak simply mailing a System Timetable to them was, in my opinion, an effective way of spreading the word. And for those who intimated I should print one myself or have it done for me - kindly remove your heads from your respective... [oh, never mind].

 

[ScouseAndy]

Last trip I booked Amtrak sent me a copy of the national timetable by post free of charge to England, it was invaluable in not only planning my trip but also cross referencing with a ticket agent in the UK who naturally wasn't up to speed with the details of booking a transcontinental train journey. Having to do sit there on my tablet in the travel agent rather than having a paper version to reference to is going to make it a hell of a lot harder.

(Yes I know I could print out and bind together, but Id be scared of losing a page or putting it in the wrong order and then making a major error with my booking (yes I am that dozy)

If they wanted to cut costs they could have started charging for postage or even for the publication it self. I would certainly buy it

 

[AmtrakBlue]

. . .the convenience of picking up a system timetable hanging on the literature rack at your home station.

Perhaps convenient for you and most others but for the rest of us, maybe not so convenient. My closest station is 215 miles away as the crow flies and for some its probably farther. That's why this... https://www.amtrak.com/order-contact-amtrak-publications ...made it so convenient to get one to any interested party. I live so far out in the sticks there are many up here who aren't aware of passenger train service in the US except for subways in the big cities and commuter trains between the close ones.

The possibility of having Amtrak simply mailing a System Timetable to them was, in my opinion, an effective way of spreading the word. And for those who intimated I should print one myself or have it done for me - kindly remove your heads from your respective... [oh, never mind].

Well, now you can email them the PDF and they can print it out if they want a paper copy.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

At railroad.net ...

"george o'keefe wrote (and I've chopped it down):… 1 million copies … implies a cost probably in 7 figures (if not 8). ... for this size, with some full color pages and the rest three-color process, u[SIZE=.95em]nit costs [/SIZE][SIZE=.95em]could go well above $1, possibly close to $10. Throw in shipping costs [and postage]... pretty substantial savings for Amtrak."[/SIZE]

And I replied (slightly edited)

A very helpful calculation. Suppose it's somehow off by twice the maximum savings. Not printing the System Timetable would then actually save just $5 million a year.

In perspective, cutting the diner from the Star may save $5 or $6 million a year, iirc. Boardman's recent memo said ridership was off system-wide, causing the operating deficit to run above budget by at least $30 million, iirc. Cost cutting is urgent.

If dropping printed System Schedules saves $5 million or only a mere $1 million, well then, it must be done.