I am looking at planning a trip with a transfer at NY Penn Station on a Saturday. Southbound 2255 (from Boston)terminates at 2:42pm, and Southbound 219 (to Wash DC) leaves at 3:00pm. If the trains are on time, is the 18 minute gap enough time to walk from one to the other?
Posted by Steve Dunham (Member # 924) on :
If the trains are on time and you know where you're going, 18 minutes is plenty. I would not schedule a connection so close, though, if it mattered a lot whether I missed the connection and had to take a later train. As for knowing where you're going, when you arrive on a platform at Penn Station, some stairways lead up only to the Long Island concourse. If you emerge in an area with a low ceiling, you have to find some stairs and go up one more flight to the Amtrak and NJ Transit level (these are concourses--all the tracks are on one level), then discover what track your train is on, and then proceed to that gate.
------------------ Steve Dunham Literalman@aol.com http://www.stevedunham.50megs.com/
Posted by MPALMER (Member # 125) on :
Thanks for the tip. There is another southbound train an hour later, so I'm not too concerned if it runs late.
Posted by Kent Loudon (Member # 902) on :
Supplimental to Steve's reply, when you reach the main concourse in NYP, there is a large departure board in the center which will direct you to the departure track.
Amtrak will usually not book connections of less than 1 hour. Their online reservation system would not even allow for the 4PM connection, but insisted on putting me on Acela Regional # 87. You may have to book each segment separately.
If you then miss the 3PM Metroliner, there may be an additional charge to change it, or they may claim that you were a no-show and not entitled to an exchange! I would book for the 4PM train, and if you get on the earlier one hope the conductor doesn't kick you off! Play dumb. "Gee, they didn't tell me there was an earlier train, but they're both Metroliners, so what's the difference?"
Posted by MPALMER (Member # 125) on :
Thanks for all the advice. I was able to buy the tickets at the window in New Carrollton; nobody said anything. (I had never heard of that 1-hour guideline).
All went ok anyway. The Acela train was about 5 mins late getting into Penn Station (partly due to trackwork in the New Rochelle area). That was just enough time to get up the stairs to read the departure board, then go back down to the Metroliner. It was right across the platform; they could have announced something!! There were several folks transferring from the Acela to the Metroliner.
That's what I like about the NEC; trains are USUALLY pretty close to the schedule. Plus the fast running.
But they still don't have Acela fully included. It was not even listed on the Stamford, CT departure screen, but the ticket agent verified its arrival track (I had already checked its timeliness with the 800 number anyway).
Posted by daisybumble (Member # 855) on :
A few weeks ago, my husband and I travelled round trip, Trenton-Washington-Chicago. For the outbound trip, we took a train from Trenton to WAS in the morning, spent some time in DC, then got on the Capitol Limited at 4:00. For the return trip, we didn't want to spend time in DC...just get off the CL and get the next train to Trenton. We booked all tickets in advance. I asked on several different occasions what would happen if the CL was late and we missed the train we had bought the ticket for. I got the same answer each time--we would be able to get on the next train with no penalty or ticket exchange. Sure enough, the CL was 2 hours late getting into WAS. By the time we got our luggage, the train we held our ticket for had left. I went to customer service, and was again given the same answer before. We got on the next train, and there were no problems. We even got to use the Metro lounge while we waited! I had been told that there would be no problems as long as the ticket was for an unreserved (NorthEast Direct) train. Metroliners are different.