wayman
Engineer
Today I took an AGR run on the Keystone out to Paoli and back with a friend, and he let me in on an even better--very peculiar--deal than my typical $5.40/100 AGR PAO-PHL or ARD-PHL runs.
PAO-CRH. As in, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
When Amtrak handed over the Atlantic City Line to New Jersey Transit, they left the ACL stations in the system, such that you can ticket them as "thruway train" connections on a single Amtrak itinerary. Which means, in theory (and according to folks on railroad.net), that a $9.25 PAO-CRH one-way itinerary gets 200 AGR (two separate legs, each on Amtrak ticket stock).
Yes, I could just ticket PHL-CRH through Amtrak for $3.25, but that might not result in any AGR--NJT conductors might not send the Amtrak ticket to the right place, I'm told. But by doing a two-leg itinerary (with a PAO-PHL leg), there should be an Amtrak itinerary number in the AGR system when the Amtrak leg posts, and AGR can look that up, see that there was a second leg on that itinerary, and credit accordingly. Or so the theory at railroad.net goes; neither my friend nor I has tried it yet, though he is tomorrow.
It's a full day, with a *lot* of dead time (three hours of layovers at PHL for reading on the comfy benches, plus shorter layovers in Paoli), but
dep. PHL 9:00 am, arr. PAO 9:23 am (100 AGR, $5.40)
dep. PAO 10:16 am, arr. CRH 12:06 pm (200 AGR, $9.25)
dep. CRH 1:21 pm, arr. PAO 4:09 pm (200 AGR, $9.25)
dep. PAO 4:37 pm, arr. PHL 5:05 pm (100 AGR, $5.40)
costs $29.30 for 600 AGR--750 since I'm Select now!--or 3.9 cents per point. And in my theme of "use these AGR trips for grocery shopping", the Cherry Hill Wegman's is two-tenths of a mile from CRH--that gives me about 40 minutes to shop
(I'm also saving $3.30 in gas and $3 in tolls by not driving from Philly to Cherry Hill and back.)
PAO-CRH. As in, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
When Amtrak handed over the Atlantic City Line to New Jersey Transit, they left the ACL stations in the system, such that you can ticket them as "thruway train" connections on a single Amtrak itinerary. Which means, in theory (and according to folks on railroad.net), that a $9.25 PAO-CRH one-way itinerary gets 200 AGR (two separate legs, each on Amtrak ticket stock).
Yes, I could just ticket PHL-CRH through Amtrak for $3.25, but that might not result in any AGR--NJT conductors might not send the Amtrak ticket to the right place, I'm told. But by doing a two-leg itinerary (with a PAO-PHL leg), there should be an Amtrak itinerary number in the AGR system when the Amtrak leg posts, and AGR can look that up, see that there was a second leg on that itinerary, and credit accordingly. Or so the theory at railroad.net goes; neither my friend nor I has tried it yet, though he is tomorrow.
It's a full day, with a *lot* of dead time (three hours of layovers at PHL for reading on the comfy benches, plus shorter layovers in Paoli), but
dep. PHL 9:00 am, arr. PAO 9:23 am (100 AGR, $5.40)
dep. PAO 10:16 am, arr. CRH 12:06 pm (200 AGR, $9.25)
dep. CRH 1:21 pm, arr. PAO 4:09 pm (200 AGR, $9.25)
dep. PAO 4:37 pm, arr. PHL 5:05 pm (100 AGR, $5.40)
costs $29.30 for 600 AGR--750 since I'm Select now!--or 3.9 cents per point. And in my theme of "use these AGR trips for grocery shopping", the Cherry Hill Wegman's is two-tenths of a mile from CRH--that gives me about 40 minutes to shop
(I'm also saving $3.30 in gas and $3 in tolls by not driving from Philly to Cherry Hill and back.)
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