COMMUTE: Tue Jan 31, 2006; #640 (on time) and #187 (on time)

My commute for Tuesday January 31, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #640 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 7:55, 0
  
• TRE 8:27, -1
  
• NWK 9:10, +5
• NYC 9:25, +2
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was half full I estimate.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #187 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 7:37, +2
  
• NWK ????
  
• TRE 8:31, +5
• PHL 8:58, +2
  

Empty seat next to me on this leg, train was about half full.

COMMUTE: Mon Jan 30, 2006; #640 (on time) and #137 (late)

My commute for Monday January 30, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #640 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 7:56, +1
  
• TRE 8:27, -1
  
• NWK 9:06, +1
  
• NYC 9:26, +3
  

Had empty seat next to me, train little more than half full.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #137 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 6:36, +16
  
• NWK 6:55, +18
  
• TRE 8:03, +49
• PHL 8:35, +51
  

Had empty seat next to me but only after Metropark stop. Train was 75% full I estimate. We left late from NYC due to some carriage issue and then we stopped after Newark I believe to pick up passengers from a disabled Amtrak train.

Amtrak to offer discounts on trains

Amtrak to offer discounts on trains
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer

Article in Business Week Online discussing the newish Amtrak ticket pricing policy. Amtrak is now practicing yield management or Revenue management "because it works" the article says; and it goes on "you might have three prices, low, medium and high, and what you want to do is can charge the highest price on those departures where you have the greatest demand."

Amtrak is to offer discounts of as much as 15 percent for some tickets on its Acela Express and Metroliner trains. The article focused on these trains but the yield management pricing is in effect for all Amtrak trains.

Playing the Amtrak pricing system will likley be important for me in keeping my commuting costs as low as possible.

Amtrak CEO Headhunter is Chosen

The Rip Track blog has a post that an Amtrak CEO Headhunter is Chosen.

We'll see if the Bush administration stacks the board and CEO with people wholly in line with their policy. There's already a high amount of cronies on Amtrak's Board, like all of them I think. I wonder whether Congress will comment on the spate of recent recess appointments.

30th St. it stays, not 'Ben' Station

30th St. it stays, not 'Ben' Station
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic

30th Street Station will continue to be known as 30th Street Station. The Pew Charitable Trusts, the philanthropy that launched a behind-the-scenes effort to rename the station in honor of Benjamin Franklin for this year's birthday bash, yesterday said it was abandoning the campaign.

I thought this was not a great idea anyway. They say Pew bowed to public objections that have persisted in Philadelphia newspapers and local airwaves since The Inquirer revealed the plan in December.

COMMUTE: Thu Jan 26, 2006; #640 (on time) and #635 (on time)

My commute for Thursday January 26, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #640 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 7:55, 0
  
• TRE 8:26, -2
  
• NWK 9:04, -1
  
• NYC 9:21, -2
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was less than half full I'd say.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #635 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 11:03, +3
  
• NWK 11:15, -2
  
• TRE 11:54, -2
  
• PHL 12:24, -1
  

Had empty seat next to me, train half full.

COMMUTE: Tue Jan 24, 2006; #642 (late) and #175 (on time)

My commute for Tuesday January 24, 2006.

Morning leg - took Amtrak Train #642 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 9:09, +25
  
• TRE 9:38, +28
  
• NWK 10:14, +32
• NYC 10:29, +29

Had an empty seat next to me, train less than half full.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #175 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 8:36, +1
• NWK 8:49, -3
  
• TRE 9:30, 0
  
• PHL 9:57, -13
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was about half full.

Amtrak Smart Pass fares will increase in February

The final installment of the huge Amtrak fare hike first announced in late October is to take effect on February 16th. The monthly unlimited pass between Philly and New York will be $1,008 (currently it's $821), a completely and totally insane price. This got some press recently as there was an AP story released last week: Amtrak Smart Pass fares will increase in February.

The pricing strategy Amtrak has in place now for monthly passes is terrible. You can find my thoughts and analysis as I break down the new Amtrak Smart Pass pricing in my blog posting here.

How can one deal with commuting regularly via Amtrak but not spend crazy amounts of money and bust your budget? I don't know yet, but read one of my posts on this matter as a start.

COMMUTE: Mon Jan 23, 2006; #130 (on time) and #193 (on time)

My commute for Monday January 23, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #130 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 8:22, 0
  
• TRE 8:48, 0
  
• NWK 9:33, +6
  
• NYC 9:50, +5
  

Seat next to me was empty, but the train was nearly full.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #193 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 5:41, +2
• NWK 5:59, +3
  
• TRE (this train doesn't stop in Trenton)
• PHL 7:02, +4

Seat next to me was taken, train was full, standing room only said the conductors though I did not see anybody standing.

COMMUTE: Thu Jan 19, 2006; #170 (on time) and #175 (on time)

My commute for Thursday January 19, 2006.

Morning leg - I took Amtrak Train #170 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 6:56, +1
  
• TRE 7:24, +4
  
• NWK 7:58, +6
• NYC 8:17, +7

Had empty seat next to me but train was nearly at capacity.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #175 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 8:36, +1
  
• NWK 8:48, -4
  
• TRE 9:31, +1
• PHL 9:59, -11
  

Had empty seat next to me on this leg, train appeared a little less than half full.

COMMUTE: Wed Jan 18, 2006; #130 (late) and and #187 (late)

My commute for Wednesday January 18, 2006. Lots of rain and wind this week which caused general problems for commuters in the Northeast Corridor.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #130 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 8:34, +12
  
• TRE 9:06, +18
  
• NWK 9:54, +24
  
• NYC 10:17, +32
  

Seat next to me was empty until Trenton, then occupied. Train was full but there were scattered empty seats.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #187 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 7:37, +2
  
• NWK 7:53, +1
  
• TRE 8:38, +12
• PHL 9:11, +15
  

Empty seat next to me on this train, but this train was less quite full. Amtrak had a lot of cars on this train but it appeared half were closed for some reason.

COMMUTE: Tue Jan 17, 2006; #130 (on time) and and #187 (on time)

My commute for Tuesday January 17, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #130 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 8:22, 0
  
• TRE 8:48, 0
  
• NWK 9:29, +2
  
• NYC 9:51, +6
  

Seat next to me was empty, but the train was nearly full.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #187 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 7:36, +1
  
• NWK 7:49, -3
  
• TRE 8:28, +2
• PHL 8:56, 0
  

Empty seat next to me on this train, train was less than half full.

COMMUTE: Mon Jan 16, 2006; #640 (on time) and #193 (on time)

My commute for Monday January 16, 2006. Generally a less harried commuting day I think as many people had the day off due to the MLK holiday.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #640 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 7:55, 0
  
• TRE 8:26, -2
  
• NWK 9:05, 0
  
• NYC 9:22, -1
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was less than half full I estimate.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #193 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 5:43, +4
• NWK 5:56, 0
  
• TRE (this train doesn't stop in Trenton)
• PHL 7:02, +4

Had empty seat next to me, train was little more than half full.

COMMUTE: Thu Jan 12, 2006; #642 (late) and #635 (on time)

My commute for Thursday January 12, 2006.

Morning leg - took Amtrak Train #642 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 9:02, +18
  
• TRE 9:32, +22
  
• NWK 10:04, +22
• NYC 10:21, +21

Had an empty seat next to me, train less than half full.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #635 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 11:00, 0
  
• NWK 11:22, +5
  
• TRE 11:59, +3
  
• PHL 12:26, +1
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was less than half full.

COMMUTE: Tue Jan 10, 2006; #642 (late) and #175 (on time)

My commute for Tuesday January 10, 2006.

Morning leg - took Amtrak Train #642 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 9:01, +17
  
• TRE 9:28, +18
  
• NWK 10:00, +18
• NYC 10:15, +15

Had an empty seat next to me, train less than half full.

Evening leg - took Amtrak Train #175 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 8:36, +1
• NWK 8:49, -3
  
• TRE 9:34, +4
  
• PHL 10:03, -7
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was well over half full.

COMMUTE: Mon Jan 9, 2006; #640 (on time) and #655 (on time)

My commute for Monday January 9, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #640 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 7:55, 0
  
• TRE 8:25, -3
  
• NWK 9:05, 0
  
• NYC 9:21, -2
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was less than half full I estimate.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #655 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 6:31, +1
  
• NWK 6:50, +3
  
• TRE 7:27, +6
  
• PHL 7:58, +5
  

Empty seat next to me on this leg, train was about half full.

COMMUTE: Fri Jan 6, 2005; #642 (late) and #187 (on time)

My commute for Friday January 6, 2006.

Morning leg - took Amtrak Train #642 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 9:06, +22
  
• TRE 9:34, +24
  
• NWK 10:06, +24
• NYC 10:24, +24

Had an empty seat next to me, train much less than half full. I learned why #642 always departs late, they say that two trains come into 30th Street at the same time. #642 comes in from Harrisburg and the locomotive needs to change from a diesel one to an electric one. Same deal with the other train that comes in at the same time apparently. They say there's not enough Amtrak engineers to work on both trains, so they work on #642 after they get done with the other train. This results in #642 always departing 20-30 minutes late. Amtrak should just schedule this instead of keeping the departure time at 8:44.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #187 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 7:36, +1
  
• NWK 7:51, -1
  
• TRE 8:31, +5
• PHL 9:01, +5
  

Empty seat next to me but the train was much more than half full. Friday night at Penn Station was quite busy.

COMMUTE: Thu Jan 5, 2006; #130 (on time) and #655 (on time)

My commute for Thursday January 5, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #130 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 8:22, 0
  
• TRE 8:48, 0
  
• NWK 9:29, +2
  
• NYC 9:47, +2
  

Seat next to me was taken, train was nearly full by my estimate.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #655 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 6:31, +1
  
• NWK 6:49, +2
  
• TRE ???
• PHL 7:59, +6
  

Empty seat next to me on this leg, train was less than half full.

COMMUTE: Wed Jan 4, 2006; #130 (on time) and #187 (on time)

My commute for Wednesday January 4, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #130 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL ???
  
• TRE ???
  
• NWK 9:36, +9
  
• NYC 9:53, +8
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was little over half full I estimate. The train departed and arrived on time, a good way to start the year.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #187 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 7:36, +1
  
• NWK 7:51, -1
  
• TRE 8:31, +5
• PHL 9:03, +7
  

Empty seat next to me on this leg, train was about half full.

COMMUTE: Tue Jan 3, 2006; #640 (on time) and #187 (on time)

My commute for Tuesday January 3, 2006.

Morning - I took Amtrak Train #640 (PHL-NYC):

• PHL 7:55, 0
  
• TRE 8:26, -2
  
• NWK 9:06, +1
• NYC 9:23, 0
  

Had empty seat next to me, train was little over half full I estimate. The train departed and arrived on time, a good way to start the year. I have a monthly pass for January.

Evening - I took Amtrak Train #187 (NYC-PHL):

• NYC 7:37, +2
  
• NWK 7:50, -2
  
• TRE 8:29, +3
• PHL 8:55, -1
  

Empty seat next to me on this leg, train was about half full.