Long Train Runnin'
Engineer
In early November I was looking at buying 10,000 points to top off my AGR balance and take a nice 3 zone in the summer. Then of course I started to take a closer look at the take 10 trips promotion, and my current rail points balance, and my head was quickly filled with some very interesting ideas. I realized that for “a little more” then the price of the points I could reach select plus, and get the 10,000 bonus points. I later made the reservations, and today finally I was beginning my trip that would net me 14,500 AGR points in 48 hours, and qualify me for Select Plus for 2011.
I woke up around 6:30 and got ready. I drove to the Little Silver train station, and caught a New Jersey Transit North Jersey Coastline Train. I chose this particular train because by the timetable it’s the fastest trip possible into New York. We made good time over the NJ transit part of the route, but when came on to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor we had a few slowdowns, and a couple stops that ended up delaying us 10 minutes. I arrived on track 9 at 9:10 AM.
As soon as I made my to the Amtrak concourse I saw that my train was already 50 minutes late. I decided to not ask why, and simply headed up the street, and for the first time in a few months took a nice stroll around Manhattan. I turned around after reaching the Empire State Building. When I returned to Penn Station I got a bagel and orange juice, and had a seat in the Acela seating area. Where I began to investigate the delay according to a couple posts on AU MARC had some equipment trouble down in Maryland that was impacting the NEC. I then saw that my train had only just left Wilmington, DE and knew that my train was going to be much later then the advertised 50 minutes. At around 10:40 I left the Acela seating area, and decided it would be best to board from another part of Penn Station to try and get a window seat on the right hand side of the train.
I followed a red cap down to track 9 and was told rather sternly from an Amtrak employee that I should not have boarded the train this way. I just showed her my ticket and shrugged. Even though the red cap didn’t actually take anything down for me I gave him a couple dollars since I was now standing on the platform before the train even arrived. The train pulled up at 11:06 and I had no trouble getting my desired seat.
We departed at 11:14 one hour and fourteen minutes behind schedule. We made good time to Stamford and arrived there 40 minutes later. I noticed that Amtrak Connect Wi-Fi was much slower the last time I tried it out in May, and decided to disconnect from it and used my phones connection. On my way to New Haven I responded to a couple emails, and tracked our progress with my GPS. I was looking forward to getting out of Metro North commuter rail territory, and starting some high speed running through the rest of CT and RI.
We made decent time into New Haven, and after we pulled out of New Haven we made pretty decent time. Somewhere before Old Saybrook we met with a Providence and Worchester freight train. That was certainly unexpected. We weren’t going to fast I was hoping our engineer would really push the throttle and try and make up some of this lost time, but that didn’t seem to be the case. (I’m not sure what kept us going so slow I didn’t have my scanner.) We went through a few work zones and I started to get a little nervous about making it to South Station and catching the 3:15 Acela back to New York.
We weren’t really go fast much at this entire trip. After we crossed the RI border I expected us to open up a little bit more, but we were averaging around 65 and finally as we approached West Kingston I felt the engineer open it up. We started picking up speed, but the fastest my GPS ever recorded was 142 MPH. Oh well. The lack of speed certainly wasn’t helping our time keeping. We pulled into Providence, RI at 2:15. I was quite torn conservative me was saying Steve just get off here, go walk to the capitol then head back on your scheduled train. I however elected to stay on the train since if didn’t experience any other delays it shouldn’t take an hour to arrive in Boston. Plus I figured I still had 2 safety stops if things got even tighter I could just jump off at Route 128.
As we crossed into Massachusetts we started to really pick up some speed, and kept up at a good clip. I was starting to feel a little better about my choice to stay onboard. I decided as we pulled into Back Bay just to stick with this train and go all the way to South Station. I was a little nervous as I looked down at the time, and we were crawling forward toward the station. We came to a stop at 2:55 I had 20 minutes until my train back would be departing.
I was in the first car, so I had a quick walk to the end of the platforms where I saw another Acela set sitting a couple tracks away, and a small line of people waiting to board. I walked into the station just so I could say I made I was in South Station today, and then joined the line to board train 2171.
8 minutes later I was seated on another Acela and ready to go back to New York. A few minutes later at exactly 3:15 train 2171 departed South Station with me onboard. As well pulled away I laughed to myself, and thought well at least I’ll be back tomorrow!
We made the other 2 Boston stops, and then made our way to Providence. After we pulled out I headed to the Bistro Car which I guess has now been renamed the Café Acela. There new partnership with Panache provided several options that are not available on other trains. I got a wrap and bowl of clam chowder. After all I was in Boston today even it was only for 8 minutes :lol: . I have never sat in the Acela café car, but since I understand the seating area may be converted into more Business Class seating I figured I might as well eat in there once. The stools are as uncomfortable as they look, but the view was quite nice since there were several windows you could look out of creating a nice panorama of the passing scenery. Once I finished my meal I felt no need to linger, and returned to my seat, and began writing the second half of this report.
The sun went down soon after I began writing, and I spent pretty much the rest of the train ride reading various things online. We were running on time the whole way. Before I knew it I was heading over the Hell’s Gate Bridge and very soon Penn Station. Where I would be meeting AU’s own AlanB to trade him my upgrade coupons for a Club Acela pass. It was nice to see him again, and was glad he could put my upgrade coupons to good use. We went into the Club Acela in New York and talked about recent trips, as well as a problem on the Long Island Railroad. After a few minutes we said our good-byes, and I found my way to the 7:22 coastline departure back home.
The NJ Transit train back home was quite hectic as it was standing room only most of the way on the NEC. We made ALL local stops (19) before arriving at Little Silver. I then drove home knowing I would get to do it all again tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
Look out for part 2!
I woke up around 6:30 and got ready. I drove to the Little Silver train station, and caught a New Jersey Transit North Jersey Coastline Train. I chose this particular train because by the timetable it’s the fastest trip possible into New York. We made good time over the NJ transit part of the route, but when came on to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor we had a few slowdowns, and a couple stops that ended up delaying us 10 minutes. I arrived on track 9 at 9:10 AM.
As soon as I made my to the Amtrak concourse I saw that my train was already 50 minutes late. I decided to not ask why, and simply headed up the street, and for the first time in a few months took a nice stroll around Manhattan. I turned around after reaching the Empire State Building. When I returned to Penn Station I got a bagel and orange juice, and had a seat in the Acela seating area. Where I began to investigate the delay according to a couple posts on AU MARC had some equipment trouble down in Maryland that was impacting the NEC. I then saw that my train had only just left Wilmington, DE and knew that my train was going to be much later then the advertised 50 minutes. At around 10:40 I left the Acela seating area, and decided it would be best to board from another part of Penn Station to try and get a window seat on the right hand side of the train.
I followed a red cap down to track 9 and was told rather sternly from an Amtrak employee that I should not have boarded the train this way. I just showed her my ticket and shrugged. Even though the red cap didn’t actually take anything down for me I gave him a couple dollars since I was now standing on the platform before the train even arrived. The train pulled up at 11:06 and I had no trouble getting my desired seat.
We departed at 11:14 one hour and fourteen minutes behind schedule. We made good time to Stamford and arrived there 40 minutes later. I noticed that Amtrak Connect Wi-Fi was much slower the last time I tried it out in May, and decided to disconnect from it and used my phones connection. On my way to New Haven I responded to a couple emails, and tracked our progress with my GPS. I was looking forward to getting out of Metro North commuter rail territory, and starting some high speed running through the rest of CT and RI.
We made decent time into New Haven, and after we pulled out of New Haven we made pretty decent time. Somewhere before Old Saybrook we met with a Providence and Worchester freight train. That was certainly unexpected. We weren’t going to fast I was hoping our engineer would really push the throttle and try and make up some of this lost time, but that didn’t seem to be the case. (I’m not sure what kept us going so slow I didn’t have my scanner.) We went through a few work zones and I started to get a little nervous about making it to South Station and catching the 3:15 Acela back to New York.
We weren’t really go fast much at this entire trip. After we crossed the RI border I expected us to open up a little bit more, but we were averaging around 65 and finally as we approached West Kingston I felt the engineer open it up. We started picking up speed, but the fastest my GPS ever recorded was 142 MPH. Oh well. The lack of speed certainly wasn’t helping our time keeping. We pulled into Providence, RI at 2:15. I was quite torn conservative me was saying Steve just get off here, go walk to the capitol then head back on your scheduled train. I however elected to stay on the train since if didn’t experience any other delays it shouldn’t take an hour to arrive in Boston. Plus I figured I still had 2 safety stops if things got even tighter I could just jump off at Route 128.
As we crossed into Massachusetts we started to really pick up some speed, and kept up at a good clip. I was starting to feel a little better about my choice to stay onboard. I decided as we pulled into Back Bay just to stick with this train and go all the way to South Station. I was a little nervous as I looked down at the time, and we were crawling forward toward the station. We came to a stop at 2:55 I had 20 minutes until my train back would be departing.
I was in the first car, so I had a quick walk to the end of the platforms where I saw another Acela set sitting a couple tracks away, and a small line of people waiting to board. I walked into the station just so I could say I made I was in South Station today, and then joined the line to board train 2171.
8 minutes later I was seated on another Acela and ready to go back to New York. A few minutes later at exactly 3:15 train 2171 departed South Station with me onboard. As well pulled away I laughed to myself, and thought well at least I’ll be back tomorrow!
We made the other 2 Boston stops, and then made our way to Providence. After we pulled out I headed to the Bistro Car which I guess has now been renamed the Café Acela. There new partnership with Panache provided several options that are not available on other trains. I got a wrap and bowl of clam chowder. After all I was in Boston today even it was only for 8 minutes :lol: . I have never sat in the Acela café car, but since I understand the seating area may be converted into more Business Class seating I figured I might as well eat in there once. The stools are as uncomfortable as they look, but the view was quite nice since there were several windows you could look out of creating a nice panorama of the passing scenery. Once I finished my meal I felt no need to linger, and returned to my seat, and began writing the second half of this report.
The sun went down soon after I began writing, and I spent pretty much the rest of the train ride reading various things online. We were running on time the whole way. Before I knew it I was heading over the Hell’s Gate Bridge and very soon Penn Station. Where I would be meeting AU’s own AlanB to trade him my upgrade coupons for a Club Acela pass. It was nice to see him again, and was glad he could put my upgrade coupons to good use. We went into the Club Acela in New York and talked about recent trips, as well as a problem on the Long Island Railroad. After a few minutes we said our good-byes, and I found my way to the 7:22 coastline departure back home.
The NJ Transit train back home was quite hectic as it was standing room only most of the way on the NEC. We made ALL local stops (19) before arriving at Little Silver. I then drove home knowing I would get to do it all again tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
Look out for part 2!
