Google Flights-like interface for searching Amtrak travel

[phoenix]

A developer recently built this hobby project that allows you to view a "calendar" of Amtrak fares like on Google Flights (or most airline websites) for flights: Rail for Less

I believe a similar service existed a while back, but broke after Amtrak website upgrades. This one can be a bit slow because of how it's implemented, it seems, but it does save some time vs. manually checking date after date in the normal Amtrak interface.

 

[joelkfla]

A developer recently built this hobby project that allows you to view a "calendar" of Amtrak fares like on Google Flights (or most airline websites) for flights: Rail for Less

I believe a similar service existed a while back, but broke after Amtrak website upgrades. This one can be a bit slow because of how it's implemented, it seems, but it does save some time vs. manually checking date after date in the normal Amtrak interface.

Doesn't appear to be working. Stops after searching the first date, and says "No trains found."

 

[Ryan]

Doesn't appear to be working. Stops after searching the first date, and says "No trains found."

Same here. Looks promising. Station code don't work either, despite the prompt that they will.

 

[phoenix]

Looks like you're both right. Used it a week ago to see the best time for some long distance trains, but it's giving the same behavior y'all described now.

I'll send a message to the developer, maybe they'll know what's changed.

 

[Ryan]

So it appears to be work, but I'm not sure of the utility. Here's what I get:


Granted, the ongoing track work make NOL-WAS perhaps not the nest test case... But, I wish one could click on those details and get more information. Going from memory/basic Amtrak knowledge, I'll assume that the cheapest "Multiple Trains" option is the CONO to the CL? And the Mixed Service on the 19th is because of a bus bridge?

It says that rooms only work on direct routes, so you'll have to piece these together for longer trips?

Impressive that someone was able to get something working. Hopefully some of the kinks can get worked out.

 

[Rizla Ronnie]

Call me old-fashioned but it should not be beyond the ability of a modern 21st Century transportation system to be able to offer this service free to its customers.
Even the cheapest, no-frills airline offers you an instant guide to when their prices are cheapest - as a marketing tool to fill capacity at quiet times it's a no-brainer.

 

[zephyr17]

Call me old-fashioned but it should not be beyond the ability of a modern 21st Century transportation system to be able to offer this service free to its customers.
Even the cheapest, no-frills airline offers you an instant guide to when their prices are cheapest - as a marketing tool to fill capacity at quiet times it's a no-brainer.

They probably have a reservation system underneath that wasn't written in Sanskrit on clay tablets.

 

[trimetbusfan]

I just tried it. It kind of takes a while to load up, but (at least with the city/date pair I used) it worked! I feel like this will come in handy.

 

[zephyr17]

I just tried it. It kind of takes a while to load up, but (at least with the city/date pair I used) it worked! I feel like this will come in handy.

I kept getting server busy messages.

 

[niemi24s]

Poked in for a weeks worth of Roomette fares between CHI and NYP. After about 3½ minutes it showed fares for the first date and then went dead. In about that same amount of time perhaps 8-10 fares could be coaxed directly out of Amtrak.

RailForLess may be a work in progress.

 

[trimetbusfan]

I kept getting server busy messages.

Tried it on my phone first, no luck. Then tried it on my computer. The first city pair (PDX-CHI), although valid, didn’t work. Said there was no trains available.

Then I tried the coast starlight route and got results for train 11 (though it did take several minutes).

Since I am very familiar with to quickly check fares, I could easy check the 8 dates much faster using the Amtrak app. But for those who don’t know how to do that, I think it would save them some time.

 

[Ryan]

Selecting the first departure of the day is a key limitation that should get some love. I guess you could check CHI-BAL if you want an idea of Cardinal fares if you'd rather do that than the Cap.

 

[MccfamschoolMom]

A developer recently built this hobby project that allows you to view a "calendar" of Amtrak fares like on Google Flights (or most airline websites) for flights: Rail for Less

I believe a similar service existed a while back, but broke after Amtrak website upgrades. This one can be a bit slow because of how it's implemented, it seems, but it does save some time vs. manually checking date after date in the normal Amtrak interface.

Trying this for the first time this morning, using the route and approximate dates of a trip I've already booked to compare. The search went from "1 of 9" to "7 of 9" while I played through the Daily Challenges in Microsoft Solitaire (approx. 10 minutes or so, since I only played 4 of 5 challenges). Didn't attempt to filter by type of room or number of travellers (yet), Got coach fares for 1 person for the entirety of the route (2 trains in my case, transferring in Chicago). To get sleeping car fares, I had to change the search to just the Chicago-to-destination portion. Searching that bit now. A bit glitzier look than the old Amsnag, but just 1 week's worth of searches instead of 1 month's worth. Seems to be running a smidge faster with the single-segment search.

 

[Jay Aitchsee]

I've used Rail for Less several times to search roomette fares on the Empire Builder between Chicago and Portland with 5-to-7-day windows. It has worked pretty well for me. It seems to take about the same amount of time as doing it manually on the Amtrak site (which I believe, according to the developer, is in essence how it works), but it is a lot less tedious and presents a nice tabular result.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Looking for a trip in early Dec from Galesburg to Fullerton for one of kids birthdays the APP worked well and reminded me how expensive Amtrak has gotten. I was excited to see the family room listed for $900 on Dec 9th that price isn’t that much more than it was 3 years ago. Unfortunately when I put in 2 adults and 2 kids (rail fare) it went up to close to $1400. Still a great deal these days as it usually defaults most days to a outrageous $2200 one way fare. Hopefully Amtrak doesn’t take legal action against Rail for Less. It works! see my results attached

 

[1976steve]

I gave up searching Amtrak for trips because its too tedious so am interested in anything new for searches. Just did a few different searches of 4 to 6 calendar dates for sleeper fares and although not real quick it did provide results in a few minutes. Easy to read, Station codes not automatic yet, could use a button between stations to flip direction of travel, seems to be working on color coding pricing which will be nice. Overall I'm happy to see this work in progress keep it up Sean.

 

[johnmiller]

Thank you for posting this!