What's with Northeast Regional 174?

[MARC Rider]

I'm planning on taking a ride on the Pennsylvanian in early June. My connection from Baltimore is Northeast Regional #174. This is the official connection generated by the Amtrak reservation system. It is scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia at 11:59 AM. The Pennsylvania (#43) leaves at 12:42 PM, a 40 minute connection. When I checked the Amtrak Status maps database (ASMAD - Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database - Train History Search (juckins.net) ) for the past month, I found that on Thursday, April 29 the train was 2 hours, 7 minutes late into PHL, and on April 13 the train was 1 hour 8 minutes late. On a few other days, the train was 5 to 10 minutes late. Had I been riding on April 13 or April 29, I would have missed my connection. I wonder if Amtrak would have put me up in a hotel in Philly for the night, as there is only one train a day to Pittsburgh.

What's with these delays? The is the NEC, after all, and you can't blame delays on the freight railroads. (Well, I guess you can, considering that CSX derailment in the Bronx last September that delayed my trip home from New York by 2 hours.)

Should I consider trying to change my reservation to an earlier train? Will it cost me an arm and a leg? (It was a value fare booked prior to May 5. Even though I didn't use the 50% discount offer, which would only apply for the BAL-PHL segment anyway, and booked value fares, the value fares were pretty reasonable.) Is there a wat to modify my trip that will minimize any price increases?

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

If you book an earlier train with the multi-city tool, it should have the same price buckets as booking the assigned connection. I think this is the case as long as the connection time is under 24 hours.

 

[Seaboard92]

I would do what Brian said and go on the earlier train to give yourself more time. One time I took a really early morning regional from DC to Philly just so I could ride some of the commuter rail lines around Philly before the Pennsylvanian.

 

[Anderson]

I'm planning on taking a ride on the Pennsylvanian in early June. My connection from Baltimore is Northeast Regional #174. This is the official connection generated by the Amtrak reservation system. It is scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia at 11:59 AM. The Pennsylvania (#43) leaves at 12:42 PM, a 40 minute connection. When I checked the Amtrak Status maps database (ASMAD - Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database - Train History Search (juckins.net) ) for the past month, I found that on Thursday, April 29 the train was 2 hours, 7 minutes late into PHL, and on April 13 the train was 1 hour 8 minutes late. On a few other days, the train was 5 to 10 minutes late. Had I been riding on April 13 or April 29, I would have missed my connection. I wonder if Amtrak would have put me up in a hotel in Philly for the night, as there is only one train a day to Pittsburgh.

What's with these delays? The is the NEC, after all, and you can't blame delays on the freight railroads. (Well, I guess you can, considering that CSX derailment in the Bronx last September that delayed my trip home from New York by 2 hours.)

Should I consider trying to change my reservation to an earlier train? Will it cost me an arm and a leg? (It was a value fare booked prior to May 5. Even though I didn't use the 50% discount offer, which would only apply for the BAL-PHL segment anyway, and booked value fares, the value fares were pretty reasonable.) Is there a wat to modify my trip that will minimize any price increases?

Per the January 2020 timetable, 174 originates in NPN (I had to check which train it was, since Amtrak can't be arsed to publish a timetable anymore...and so I can't guarantee that this hasn't changed).

Edit: Confirmed that it is still the NPN train. So to answer your question, freight interference is likely the issue. NGL, Amtrak might seriously want to consider renaming the trains that originate in VA, if only to avoid this sort of a situation.