Busy Day for Amtrak Tomorrow

[The Metropolitan]

Had a little bored spell, so I thought I'd see how business was looking for Amtrak this weekend. The summary certainly counters the phrase that "No one rides those trains."

For Friday 9/1/06 (as of these evening at 9pm ET)

Southwest Chief #5 departure from LA is sold out of coach - only Fam Bedroom available

Crescents #19 & #20 are sold out - #19 is completely sold out, while #20 has limited seats for shorter hauls.

Texas Eagle #21 from Chicago is sold out of coach - only roomettes remain.

Both Capitol Limiteds (29 & 30) are sold out of coach - roomettes only on 30, roomettes and bedrooms only on 29

Pennsylvanian #43 from NY is ENTIRELY sold out.

Lake Shore Limiteds #48/49 are both sold out of coach - roomette only on 49, and 48 only has a bedroom at $768! :blink:

City of New Orleans #58 and #59 are both completely sold out.

Maple Leafs #63 and #64 are completely sold out.

Northbound Empire Service trains 255, 283, 285, and Ethan Allan Express #293 are sold out.

State House #305 from Chicago is sold out.

Ann Rutledge #324 from St. Louis is sold out.

Illinois Zephyr #347 from Chicago is sold out.

Wolverine #355 from Lansing is sold out.

Pere Marquette #370 from Chicago is sold out.

Both Illinii #391 and #392 to/from Carbondale are sold out.

*EDIT - Both Blue Waters are sold out.

I didn't check the Silver Service trains due to the cancellation situations - also the Carolinian would not show in any reservations.

For most of these, I checked end point to end point - I'm sure some will muster some availability if you check intermediate points, but by and large, it looks like a busy holiday Friday for the NRPC!

 

[EmpireBuilderFan1976]

Looks like the West Bound Cardinal #51, departing NYP tomorrow is completely sold out of coach seats from NYP to CHI. It appears sleepers are still available though.

 

[RailFanLNK]

I'm leaving on the CZ in 4 hours. All the sleeping accomodations are sold out. When I booked this trip, coach was $71.00 apiece both ways. Its now $110.00 westbound and $88.00 eastbound. I'm glad I booked when I did. I'm really getting "jazzed" for another ride on Amtrak!

 

[Sam Damon]

I just have to wonder to what extent Amtrak overbooks seats.

Overbooking seats is common in the airline business, but I'm not quite sure how common it is on Amtrak. I have heard a few horror stories of overbooked trains on the NEC, though. I would think with all the reserved train stuff, that Amtrak should know how popular a given line is.

(Compare and contrast this to Germany, where the vast majority of trains run with unreserved seats, and somehow, people like riding trains.)

 

[EmpireBuilderFan1976]

A couple of years ago I was on the EB from CHI back to PDX and I had a chance to chat with the coach car attendant. He told me that during the summer months Amtrak consistantly overbooks trains by a small percentage. Forgot what that exact percentage was. But he said some people end up sitting in the lounge/sightseer car for a small portion of their journey. He didnt' seem pleased with this practice at all.

I do remember years ago I my parents and I were on the Broadway Limited from Johnstown PA to CHI. The train was PACKED and we had to sit in the cafe/lounge car for about an hour or two until some seats became available. I do miss that train!

 

[Everydaymatters]

Where do you find this information?

 

[frj1983]

And Norman Mineta(speaking for the Administration) says no-one rides the LD trains. Hah!

I'm glad to see, that despite bad timekeeping, many of them are packed. I only wish I were going out on one of them

 

[AmtrakWPK]

For EverydayMatters - you use the Amtrak online rservation system, and pick a train and a pair of stations (from - to) and ask for a seat between those two stations on a particular day. If that train is sold out for that day between those two stations, the system will tell you that, otherwise it will give you a fare quote, and so forth. If you are really interested, you can also ask it for multiple seats, and that way by trial and error you may be able to determine just how many seats are left for that train for that city pair for that day. You can do the same thing for sleepers, of course. It takes some time to accumulate all that data, but if you have the time and a fast internet connection, you can get a reasonable idea of whether the trains are running at close to capacity that way. Of course, you don't actually reserve, or purchase, any of those seats, because you don't go that far into the reservations process, so you don't foul up their reservation system, or keep someone else from actually buying a seat or a sleeper.

While this may seem an idle waste of time for some, there are times when someone will pop up on the board and ask what the load factor is for a particular train between a particular pair of stations because they are interested in taking that trip, and we may just have a member that has been looking at that information recently on line, or perhaps we may have a member that has recently been on that train between those city pairs, and then we will have an accurate and reasonably timely answer for whoever asked the question. And, really, that's one of the primary reasons we exist - as an information resource for rail passengers, and to have the information to give, you have to gather, or research it, beforehand.

And for those who are afraid to ask a question because they think it will show ignorance - ask away. I have proven conclusively that I have way more dumb answers than you have dumb questions :lol: .

 

[The Metropolitan]

For EverydayMatters - you use the Amtrak online rservation system, and pick a train and a pair of stations (from - to) and ask for a seat between those two stations on a particular day. If that train is sold out for that day between those two stations, the system will tell you that, otherwise it will give you a fare quote, and so forth.

That's essentially what I do - Just search for availability of trains for the next day - it simply tells me what's sold out - some may say "SEATS SOLD OUT, SELECT OTHER OPTION," others "COACH SEAT, ALL OTHER OPTIONS SOLD OUT," and when it gets really bad, it simply says "TRAIN SOLD OUT," (even if it's a Thruway bus!). I don't check the NEC as it's a bit much, nor do I check unreserved trains.

I personally like to get an idea of what's going on out there sometimes - since our core group doesn't have the chance to ride every train every day to give an up to the date feel of ridership of certain services. I may try to keep up with this on certain weekends to illustrate what some of Amtrak's solid performers are!

Tomorrow's sell outs are not nearly as encompassing, but still do show some interesting results:

Crescents 19 & 20 are again sold out of all coach seats - some sleepers available.

Lake Shore Limited 48 Chicago to New York sold out of coach.

Maple Leaf 63 New York to Albany entirely Sold Out.

Empire Service 281 New York to Albany entirely Sold Out.

State House 300 St. Louis to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Illinois Zephyr 348 Quincy to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Wolverine 351 Detroit to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Blue Water 365 Port Huron to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Pere Marquette 371 Grand Rapids to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

*edit* - and a bonus - All Sleepers on Capitol Limited 30 CHI to WAS - SOLD!

 

[MrFSS]

Tomorrow's sell outs are not nearly as encompassing, but still do show some interesting results:
Crescents 19 & 20 are again sold out of all coach seats - some sleepers available.

Lake Shore Limited 48 Chicago to New York sold out of coach.

Maple Leaf 63 New York to Albany entirely Sold Out.

Empire Service 281 New York to Albany entirely Sold Out.

State House 300 St. Louis to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Illinois Zephyr 348 Quincy to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Wolverine 351 Detroit to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Blue Water 365 Port Huron to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

Pere Marquette 371 Grand Rapids to Chicago entirely Sold Out.

All Sleepers on Capitol Limited 30 CHI to WAS - SOLD!

Labor Day Weekend!

 

[saxman]

Since I started riding Amtrak regularly in 2001, I have noticed a huge increase in full trains. Even in the middle of like Feb. the train is packed where its hard to get two seats to yourself. And this is on the long distance trains in the middle of North Dakota and Montana. I've rarely ridden a corridor train.

 

[rmgreenesq]

This is quite an interesting thread. I didn't think that many people would hop a train for labor day weekend.

What is also interesing is the steep drop off in ridership that occurs on Wednesday. I'm not sure how empty the sleeping car needs to be for Amtrak to start making phone calls to create some demand, but I got one for the Silver Service on Wednesday and next Saturday.

Rick

 

[coronado]

On a whim, I canceled my return plane ticket from LA to Dallas for Monday and booked a roomette on the Sunset leaving LA tomorrow (9/3/06). Not only was I surprised I could get a roomette with barely 24 hours notice, but there must be quite a few roomettes available on this train... the price was the cheapest I've ever seen it.

 

[Guest]

yes 392 "Illini" was very much uh....crowded yesterday. I think we had up to 218 on board at one point. Three or four had to sit in the Lounge until some seats became available.

Bring on the "Saluki"!!!!

 

[DaveKCMO]

What is also interesing is the steep drop off in ridership that occurs on Wednesday.

same kind of mid-week drop-off for air travel.

 

[1702]

On a whim, I canceled my return plane ticket from LA to Dallas for Monday and booked a roomette on the Sunset leaving LA tomorrow (9/3/06). Not only was I surprised I could get a roomette with barely 24 hours notice, but there must be quite a few roomettes available on this train... the price was the cheapest I've ever seen it.

Though I'm a Sunset refugee.....I mean retiree......my conductor friend tells me that the suspension of service east of NOL plus the abysmal timekeeping has run off a lot of sleeping car business. One sleeping car was dropped from the consist, so the train normally has one LAX-NOL sleeper plus some rooms in the transition sleeper are sold.

Are you in the Texas Eagle sleeper (car 2230) from LAX to DAL? That car was almost always sold out.....perhaps business on it has dropped off also.

 

[coronado]

On a whim, I canceled my return plane ticket from LA to Dallas for Monday and booked a roomette on the Sunset leaving LA tomorrow (9/3/06). Not only was I surprised I could get a roomette with barely 24 hours notice, but there must be quite a few roomettes available on this train... the price was the cheapest I've ever seen it.

Though I'm a Sunset refugee.....I mean retiree......my conductor friend tells me that the suspension of service east of NOL plus the abysmal timekeeping has run off a lot of sleeping car business. One sleeping car was dropped from the consist, so the train normally has one LAX-NOL sleeper plus some rooms in the transition sleeper are sold.

Are you in the Texas Eagle sleeper (car 2230) from LAX to DAL? That car was almost always sold out.....perhaps business on it has dropped off also.

Yes, I'll be in the 422 portion of the train (car 2230)... these rooms are usually hard to come by so close to the departure date, that's why I was so surprised at the availability just 1 day before departure. It'll be interesting to see how full the 422 sleeper is.

 

[Guest_cee_*]

i got that exact lone bedroom you spoke of on the 48 eastbound out of chi yesterday when i asked about upgrading from my roomette! we boarded early & were served dinner sitting in CUS when i got the chance to switch...for free! today upon arriving in nyc i properly "thanked" the attendant!

 

[AlanB]

i got that exact lone bedroom you spoke of on the 48 eastbound out of chi yesterday when i asked about upgrading from my roomette! we boarded early & were served dinner sitting in CUS when i got the chance to switch...for free! today upon arriving in nyc i properly "thanked" the attendant!

Cool! B)

 

[cee]

i got that exact lone bedroom you spoke of on the 48 eastbound out of chi yesterday when i asked about upgrading from my roomette! we boarded early & were served dinner sitting in CUS when i got the chance to switch...for free! today upon arriving in nyc i properly "thanked" the attendant!

Cool! B)

oops--i had forgotten to log in--anyway, "cool" is what i thought too! i had been in superliner & viewliner roomettes & superliner bedroom, but never viewliner bedroom, so i was anxious to try one...the moment we pulled out & they had a no-show on their hands, my attendant said "let's go" basically...in every other way, this guy was the best attendant i ever had--i would love to send a compliment to those in charge--how do i?--by the way i discovered 2 little tips this time around: i was distracted by the room light button near the sink, glowing in the darkness, so i deconstructed one of those mini paper cups, tore & folded it & created a diffuser which i tucked into the area around the button--it softened the light (couldn't sleep anyway)...also, as a "big gal" who has gotten even bigger since 8/05, i was embarassed to find that with the easy chair open, i could only enter the toilet with great difficulty (maybe superliner vs viewliner bedroom dimensions differ? i haven't checked yet)--anyway i folded the chair down, propped the toilet door open & then reopened the chair, basically having it hold the door open the whole trip--then, no problem entering toilet...looked goofy but was very practical

 

[The Metropolitan]

Sunday looks to be the quiet between the storms. Only 7 sellouts that I could find:

20 Crescent NOL to NYP (out of coach)

30 Capitol Limited CHI to WAS (out of coach)

48 Lake Shore Limited CHI to NYP (out of coach)

68 Adirondack ALB to NYP (complete)

354 Wolverine CHI to LAN (complete)

90 Palmetto from Savannah to NYP (complete)

92 Silver Star from Savannah to NYP (complete)

Meanwhile

80 Carolinian Charlotte to NYP *ONLY* has Business Class.

Monday may be the big mamma jamma - especially looking at all the people bound for Chicago a few days back!

 

[AmtrakFan]

4(31) had a 4th Coach Today. Must have been added for people getting back to Chicago.

 

[EmpireBuilderFan1976]

Glad to hear you had a good trip Cee! It's always refreshing when an Amtrak gives us outstanding service on a trip. Everytime I ride Amtrak I try to find something positive about the service I receive. Usually it is not that hard. And each time I write Amtrak an email, and if possible give them names, dates, etc and describe the great service. If you click on the following link, you will be taken to the page on the Amtrak website that allows you to leave feedback. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServe...mtrak/ContactUs

Towards the bottom of the page there will be a box titled "subject". From the drop down menu choose "trip feedback". Depending on the time of day, you will usually get a response from Amtrak, thanking you for the feedback, usually within an hour or less.

 

[Guest]

I worked on the captiol limited as LSA in the diner and we left out on 9/1 and yet we only left with 130 in the coaches and 45 in the sleeper

Had a little bored spell, so I thought I'd see how business was looking for Amtrak this weekend. The summary certainly counters the phrase that "No one rides those trains."
For Friday 9/1/06 (as of these evening at 9pm ET)

Southwest Chief #5 departure from LA is sold out of coach - only Fam Bedroom available

Crescents #19 & #20 are sold out - #19 is completely sold out, while #20 has limited seats for shorter hauls.

Texas Eagle #21 from Chicago is sold out of coach - only roomettes remain.

Both Capitol Limiteds (29 & 30) are sold out of coach - roomettes only on 30, roomettes and bedrooms only on 29

Pennsylvanian #43 from NY is ENTIRELY sold out.

Lake Shore Limiteds #48/49 are both sold out of coach - roomette only on 49, and 48 only has a bedroom at $768! :blink:

City of New Orleans #58 and #59 are both completely sold out.

Maple Leafs #63 and #64 are completely sold out.

Northbound Empire Service trains 255, 283, 285, and Ethan Allan Express #293 are sold out.

State House #305 from Chicago is sold out.

Ann Rutledge #324 from St. Louis is sold out.

Illinois Zephyr #347 from Chicago is sold out.

Wolverine #355 from Lansing is sold out.

Pere Marquette #370 from Chicago is sold out.

Both Illinii #391 and #392 to/from Carbondale are sold out.

*EDIT - Both Blue Waters are sold out.

I didn't check the Silver Service trains due to the cancellation situations - also the Carolinian would not show in any reservations.

For most of these, I checked end point to end point - I'm sure some will muster some availability if you check intermediate points, but by and large, it looks like a busy holiday Friday for the NRPC!

 

[The Metropolitan]

For Monday - Labor Day - September 4th:

First, SWC #3 and EB #27 only have LOWER levels in coach, so they may likely sell out.

Otherwise...

Crescent 20 NOL to NYP all sold out.

Capitol Limited 30 CHI to WAS out of sleepers.

City of New Orleans 59 CHI to NOL out of seats.

Maple Leaf 64 ALB to NYP all sold out.

Adirondack 68 ALB to NYP all sold out.

Carolinian 80 CLT to NYP has Business only.

Palmetto 90 SAV to NYP all sold out.

Silver Star 92 SAV to NYP out of seats.

Silver Meteor 98 SAV to NYP all sold out.

Empire Services 242 and 258 ALB to NYP all sold out.

State House 305 CHI to STL all sold out.

Ann Rutledge 323 CHI to STL all sold out.

Illinois Zephyr CHI to QCY all sold out.

ALL Wolverines 350, 352, and 354 CHI to DET all sold out.

Blue Water 364 CHI to PTH all sold out.

Illini 391 CHI to CDL all sold out.

Looks like CUS will be one busy place tomorrow!