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Oldsmoboi

Oldsmoboi

OBS Chief
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
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589
Why can't the Amtrak website figure out that if I want to travel from Pittsburgh, PA to Princeton Junction NJ, that I should take either the PAer to Harrisburg and switch to Keystone (2 hour layover) or take the PAer to Trenton and switch to Keystone or NER?

Yet to get me PGH to Trenton NJ, it's perfectly capable of sending me on the Cap. Ltd to WAS to pick up a NEC to Trenton.
 
Amtrak's website will offer the two most direct ways. Which are the Penny from PGH to TRE connect to NJT and the Cap from PGH to WAS and connect with a NER or I believe the 6pm AE stops at TRE and connect with NJT. To get the type of trip you want you need to use the Multi-City Trip Planner. Putting in codes. PGH-HAR, HAR-PJC. That should make it work.
 
It looks like Amtrak doesn't have much confidence in their ability to maintain their own schedule.

2.5 hours between trains is too close for me to make a connection?

 
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Oldsmoboi said:
It looks like Amtrak doesn't have much confidence in their ability to maintain their own schedule.

2.5 hours between trains is too close for me to make a connection?

Click to expand...

You have the second leg of the trip taking place a day before the first leg. Might want to try that agian.
 
OK, all fixed.... I thought I had the dates in correctly, but must have clicked wrong.



Still, I go back to my original point about the Amtrak site not being able to figure out the connection for me. If I just type in PGH to PJC, it says that trip is not available. To a complete newbie, that would be dissuading to travel.

If I was completely unfamiliar to Amtrak service, how would I know that I could connect in Harrisburg or Trenton when all I want to do is go to Princeton Junction?

Edit: I guess I don't understand why it can figure out to send me to WAS to get to Trenton, but it can't figure out to send me to HAR to get me to Princeton Jct.
 
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Something you might want to consider is to go through to Philadelphia. Harrisburg is a boring little city. Unless you can store your luggage at the station and get a tour of the capitol building there's nothing else to do. HAR is a small station too. Just a ticket office and a small store similar to a 7-11. At PHL there is a food court and a bar where you can eat a meal! :) At PHL if you want to explore the city a little bit you can store your bags at the baggage claim area for a small fee. I think it's under $5. (Correct me if I'm wrong) I have never done this as I'm from PHL and when I start my trip from PHL I store my bags at the ClubAcela or have my parents or girlfriend watch them. If you do leave your bags at PHL the "rentacops" will snatch them up fast!

But just a suggestion...
 
Connections have to be manually built into Arrow for them to show up automatically for an itinerary. I don't know the exact steps involved, but do know that it can be a tedious process that involves programming connections for each city pair and train connection. That's the way the system was designed 30 years ago, and it would cost millions to replace it with a more modern system.

So, Arrow doesn't "look for" connection opportunities and give them to you. They are preprogrammed in. The consequence of this is that a city pair may make a perfectly valid connection, but won't show up unless you manually build your itinerary.
 
It'll be just me and my backpack, but yeah, I'm sure it would be a more interesting change over in PHL than HAR.

But still, my point remains, why can't the Amtrak website figure out ANY connection... even if its "take the PAer to Trenton then see NJT for the further service"?

If you do a search for PGH to PJC, you just get an error, no alternatives, no suggestions... just... error - you can't get there from here. Which as you guys all know isn't true.

The US Airways website has no problem laying me over in Fargo overnight if that's what it take to get me where I want to go.
 
GG-1 said:
Acela150 said:
Harrisburg is a boring little city.
Click to expand...
Aloha

But there is a GG-1 in the station :)
Click to expand...
Sadly that GG1 isn't in Sunlight at that point of the day.... :( Last time I was in Harrisburg it was looking shabby. In need of a cleaning and paint job. But the state won't pay for it. :eek: They should at least spring for a cleaning.. At least at PHL you can go over to the parking garage and take shots of trains coming and going north of Philadelphia. :D Plus at that hour the Septa Push-Pull trains will be running... :D
 
I just think that having an incomplete ability to route really hinders potential customers. Imagine if I knew nothing about Amtrak and tried that routing? I'd have to suck it up and fly because the website told me so.
 
Oldsmoboi said:
I just think that having an incomplete ability to route really hinders potential customers. Imagine if I knew nothing about Amtrak and tried that routing? I'd have to suck it up and fly because the website told me so.
Click to expand...
I'll repeat myself. You're dealing with a 30-year-old computer system.

Arrow (or, as you call it, "the website") does not "figure out" any connections. They are manually programmed in.
 
And I'm saying there's a way to increase ridership on routes outside the NEC right there.

Hire an intern and start getting some more of those connections plugged in.
 
The feds are way ahead here. Amtrak got funding under ARRA to create the replacement for arrow. Too bad they also said it would take 3 years to create the replacement.
 
gosh.... that's government for you....

Google has off the shelf solutions that require relatively little development.
 
Oldsmoboi said:
gosh.... that's government for you....

Google has off the shelf solutions that require relatively little development.
Click to expand...
Really? Google has an intercity passenger railroad reservation system? What's the web address?
 
If you can do the job better, then why don't you join them and do it? ;)
 
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Trogdor said:
Oldsmoboi said:
gosh.... that's government for you....

Google has off the shelf solutions that require relatively little development.
Click to expand...
Really? Google has an intercity passenger railroad reservation system? What's the web address?
Click to expand...
They have the routing system based on their google maps product.

In fact, Amtrak can export a flat file to Google of the time tables. As long as the physical address of each station is there, google maps can figure out the connections. It doesn't matter if it's inter-city or intra-city. It's all just a time and distance problem.

Using that as a basis, a reservation system can be built.

Even if that setup wouldn't work for Amtrak, there are other software out there that could be modified to suit for Amtrak. Hell, just see if DeutcheBahn would allow their software to be licensed. It doesn't need to take 3 years.

Thanks for the snark though, way to treat a newbie to the site.
 
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Well, airlines took years too for development of their systems. Delta's latest system is the product of 5 years of building the new computer system. The problem is that every airline/train company likes building their own proprietary systems, so they take forever to create and refuse to use on the shelf technology.
 
For one, Amtrak already works with Google Transit on many short-distance routes (I don't know the full list, but the list does grow by the day). Second, that's a long ways away from an actual reservations system.

Now, if the airlines (private companies always on the lookout for ways to save a penny) take a long time and spend a lot of money on their reservations systems, then it should tell you that perhaps that's just what it takes.
 
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