COMMUTE: December Wrap Up

Due to the MTA strike and the holidays I will not be going up to NYC for the rest of the year. A review of my Philly-NYC commuting patterns in December:

Trains Taken

• Morning trains taken: 130, 172, 180, 642
• Evening trains taken: 175, 187, 193, 635

Quick Commute Stats

• I took a total of 10 one way trips on Amtrak In December.
• I had a 10 trip ticket good from good through mid December ($394 - bought this before the fare increase).
• I cashed in Amtrak Guest Rewards tickets for 3 tickets in December; 7,500 points total.
• My plan is to achieve my commute for Nov and Dec by cashing in AGR points and the purchase of a single 10 trip ticket. I achieved this.
  

On Time Performance and Analysis

• Only one of the 5 morning legs was on time; which was actually better than November. On time performance was pretty good on the evening trains, 4 out of 5 were on time.
• Average travel time in the mornings: Generally the morning trains took just over 1 hour and 20 minutes, one did make it in under 1 hour 15 minutes. Trains may leave 30th Street late but once rolling the total travel time is fairly consistent. There were a couple cases where it took nearly 1 hr 30 min; but a couple times a month I can deal with.
• Average travel time in the evenings: Evening trains on average took just under 1 hour and 30 minutes. I do take trains that stop variously at Liberty Airport, Metropark, Cornwells Heights, and North Philly - more stops when compared to the morning trains, which means longer travel times.
• Travel times in December seemed a couple minutes longer on average than in prior months. Not sure if this is an anomaly or a more permanent change. I haven't compared the most recent schedules to past ones to see if the time has lengthened.