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I do remember those, at least after seeing them and having the memory jogged.

This is the best part:

"This site is best viewed with Netscape Navigator."
 
I worked for Netscape during those years and they likely were the ones to create the ability to make reservations. I remember seeing the first "shopping cart" on the internet when I worked there....was a great exciting time!
 
Thanks for posting those websites, but I couldn't find a key to decode the route colors on the National Route Map.

Is there one?
 
Ah :p a nice clean website. Not cluttered with hundreds of things trying to distract you from the information you are looking for or the function you wish to perform.
 
Thanks for posting those websites, but I couldn't find a key to decode the route colors on the National Route Map.

Is there one?
I wonder if it is red=daily service or better, orange=less than daily service, and purple and yellow seem to be bus service.

But was there a daily train to Minneapolis/St. Paul back then when the EB didn't run every day? But I thought the EB ran every day by the time the website came out (it was once not daily, right? Or am I remembering wrong?), so I'm not sure.
 
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I think the split is probably "contracted Thruway" versus partner buses. Blue is connecting rail service (e.g. VIA, NJT, and somewhat painfully NdeM and BCR).
 
Thanks for posting those websites, but I couldn't find a key to decode the route colors on the National Route Map.

Is there one?
I wonder if it is red=daily service or better, orange=less than daily service, and purple and yellow seem to be bus service.

But was there a daily train to Minneapolis/St. Paul back then when the EB didn't run every day? But I thought the EB ran every day by the time the website came out (it was once not daily, right? Or am I remembering wrong?), so I'm not sure.
The route map being referred to: https://web.archive.org/web/19970305085117/http://www.amtrak.com/amtrak/travel/images/natlmap.gif

Plenty of non daily trains in the 90's (the cutback era):

April 1996:

Crescent: 4 days/week ATL-NOL: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0020

CONO: 6 days/week (Illini served CHI-Carbondale daily): http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0028

California Zephyr: 4 days/week and Desert Wind: 3 days/week: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0030(Daily service between CHI and SLC)

Texas Eagle: 3 days/week: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0033

Pioneer: 3 days/week: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0031

Empire Builder: 4 days/week MSP-SEA/PDX (Daily CHI-MSP to answer Deni's question): http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0034

I'm not sure how much money you gain running not running the CONO one day/week. The CONO arrived in CHI Tuesday morning and had to stay there until Wednesday night.

I think the CZ not being daily was a problem since you couldn't go CHI-Bay Area 3 days/week (although technically you could do SWC/CS).

I could see the EB/Pioneer alternating working if you can cycle the two trains between CHI-SEA. An Empire Builder could arrive in CHI and leave the next day as a Pioneer with the same thing happening on the West Coast and staff wouldn't have to be stranded overnight waiting for the next train to return.

Assuming the EB and Pioneer cycled the same schedule today, you'd still have daily service between CHI and SEA/PDX (it would just be a different train and route depending on day of the week). Assuming you did run CHI-MSP daily then you'd be trading three days of Shelby and Cut Bank for three days of Boise and Ogden. I'm sure Montana and North Dakota will hate losing service 3 days/week but Idaho and Wyoming will love 3 days/week service compared to what they have now. Maybe today you could do EB 4 days/week and NCH 3 days/week and CHI-MSP (along with CHI-SEA/PDX and Spokane-SEA/PDX will still be 7 days/week (the NCH is close to the EB's runtime while the Pioneer is a bit longer).

If only there was a CHI-NYP train you could run on the other 4 days/week...
 
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Ah :p a nice clean website. Not cluttered with hundreds of things trying to distract you from the information you are looking for or the function you wish to perform.
Amen to that. I don't visit web sites for entertainment; I visit for information. Pretty colors, motion, a "new look and feel" update, and an "enhanced experience" are useless when they obscure information. Too often, the "upgraded" web site simply omits useful information and tells me how wonderful my experience will be. Bah.
 
Ah :p a nice clean website. Not cluttered with hundreds of things trying to distract you from the information you are looking for or the function you wish to perform.
Amen to that. I don't visit web sites for entertainment; I visit for information. Pretty colors, motion, a "new look and feel" update, and an "enhanced experience" are useless when they obscure information. Too often, the "upgraded" web site simply omits useful information and tells me how wonderful my experience will be. Bah.
Here, I thought I was a minority of one. You said it a lot better than I could.
 
I'm digging the cheesy .gif of scenery passing the window (in the second link).

I had an Angelfire page back then, with equally cheesy .gifs, and a Netscape browser.
 
Ah :p a nice clean website. Not cluttered with hundreds of things trying to distract you from the information you are looking for or the function you wish to perform.
Amen to that. I don't visit web sites for entertainment; I visit for information. Pretty colors, motion, a "new look and feel" update, and an "enhanced experience" are useless when they obscure information. Too often, the "upgraded" web site simply omits useful information and tells me how wonderful my experience will be. Bah.
Here, I thought I was a minority of one. You said it a lot better than I could.
Put me in this group as well. Then again, I basically want to take an axe to most computer developments this side of about 2005. There are many times I would prefer a straight DOS-based system where I could input strings of code and get a response I could decipher over the "sleek" apps (and indeed, I've come to deeply loathe the existence of smartphone apps and the like).
 
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Thanks, PaulM and Anderson, for your support.

It was about 25 years ago, when a friend and I were both competent with Macintosh computers and Unix, that he said something like, "The Macintosh is really cute and fun, but sometimes I just want a command line and to get some work done."

Too often, the graphical user interfaces obscure useful information that would enable the knowledgeable user to figure out why something is not performing as expected. The attitude of Apple, Microsoft, and developers seems to be that the users should not worry their pretty little heads about details (or privacy, but that's a different discussion). I would be in favor of this philosophy if the things worked. Unfortunately, it appears that every developer (including developers of operating system components) assumes that each bit of software exists in a pristine environment with nothing that could possibly interfere with its function. Bah.
 
Thanks for posting those websites, but I couldn't find a key to decode the route colors on the National Route Map.

Is there one?
I wonder if it is red=daily service or better, orange=less than daily service, and purple and yellow seem to be bus service.

But was there a daily train to Minneapolis/St. Paul back then when the EB didn't run every day? But I thought the EB ran every day by the time the website came out (it was once not daily, right? Or am I remembering wrong?), so I'm not sure.
The route map being referred to: https://web.archive.org/web/19970305085117/http://www.amtrak.com/amtrak/travel/images/natlmap.gif

Plenty of non daily trains in the 90's (the cutback era):

April 1996:

Crescent: 4 days/week ATL-NOL: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0020

CONO: 6 days/week (Illini served CHI-Carbondale daily): http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0028

California Zephyr: 4 days/week and Desert Wind: 3 days/week: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0030(Daily service between CHI and SLC)

Texas Eagle: 3 days/week: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0033

Pioneer: 3 days/week: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0031

Empire Builder: 4 days/week MSP-SEA/PDX (Daily CHI-MSP to answer Deni's question): http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19960414n&item=0034

I'm not sure how much money you gain running not running the CONO one day/week. The CONO arrived in CHI Tuesday morning and had to stay there until Wednesday night.

I think the CZ not being daily was a problem since you couldn't go CHI-Bay Area 3 days/week (although technically you could do SWC/CS).

I could see the EB/Pioneer alternating working if you can cycle the two trains between CHI-SEA. An Empire Builder could arrive in CHI and leave the next day as a Pioneer with the same thing happening on the West Coast and staff wouldn't have to be stranded overnight waiting for the next train to return.

Assuming the EB and Pioneer cycled the same schedule today, you'd still have daily service between CHI and SEA/PDX (it would just be a different train and route depending on day of the week). Assuming you did run CHI-MSP daily then you'd be trading three days of Shelby and Cut Bank for three days of Boise and Ogden. I'm sure Montana and North Dakota will hate losing service 3 days/week but Idaho and Wyoming will love 3 days/week service compared to what they have now. Maybe today you could do EB 4 days/week and NCH 3 days/week and CHI-MSP (along with CHI-SEA/PDX and Spokane-SEA/PDX will still be 7 days/week (the NCH is close to the EB's runtime while the Pioneer is a bit longer).

If only there was a CHI-NYP train you could run on the other 4 days/week...
The sad part is that is sure a more robust route map than today.
 
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