Amtrak Tracking for My Commute Between New York City and Philadelphia

Monday, July 29, 2013

"Amtrak Boarding Madness" from The Economist

A story from The Economist about why Amtrak does not allow people to stand on the platform at Penn Station before trains pull-in. The reasons provided by Amtrak as noted in the story are quite tepid. You can stand on the platform at 30th Street Station and at any subway stop in any city you stand on the platform waiting for the train, so why not at Penn Station for Amtrak. The Amtrak Blog implies it is "illegal" to stand on the platform but did not note a specific law. 

My guess is that probably for Penn Station Amtrak just wants to make sure everybody has a ticket before they get on the train. This was never too big a deal for me. As a commuter I knew where to board with minimal lines and how to avoid those tourists with huge bags who were always slow, so I never had an issue getting on sufficiently quick.