Insane routings

[Ispolkom]

I think that you would lose that bet. San Diego-Portland-St. Paul (a perfectly legitimate routing) wasn't restored, for instance.

 

[jebr]

I think that you would lose that bet. San Diego-Portland-St. Paul (a perfectly legitimate routing) wasn't restored, for instance.

Did they restore it in the reverse (St. Paul - Portland - San Diego)? I guess I've only seen the crazy routings on the westbound Builder, not the eastbound.

 

[Ispolkom]

No, no joy MSP-SAN, even though there's a 10:10 p.m. Surfliner that would connect with a Coast Starlight arriving at 9 p.m.

 

[jebr]

Bizarre.

Well, there goes my fictitious money. :help:

 

[Ispolkom]

The latest oddity I discovered was when planning an AGR redemption trip from Oklahoma City to Davis. The only itinerary allowed between these two cities is Oklahoma City-Fort Worth-Los Angeles-Dallas. If you start the trip in Fort Worth, though, you can either use the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited/Coast Starlight itinerary, or you go Fort Worth-Springfield-Galesburg-Davis.

Even odder, you can go from OKC-FTW-SPI-GBB-Roseville, two stops east of Davis.

I ended up booking that routing, and buying coach tickets from Roseville to Davis.

 

[willem]

It does seem like AGR's requirement for a "published route" is out of place in the world of Amtrak's published routes.

 

[PaulM]

It does seem like AGR's requirement for a "published route" is out of place in the world of Amtrak's published routes.

+1

That's a polite way of putting it.

 

[willem]

I was looking at legs of the discontinued routing, and guess what showed up for getting from Portland to New Orleans: Portland-11-Sacramento-6-Chicago-50-Charlottesville-19-New Orleans.

With apologies to Mike Myers, talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. Which routing is more insane?

 

[SteveSFL]

How about New Orleans to Hammond, La. via WAS and CHI. Of course that would violate the AGR circle trip rule but it comes up as first option on the iPhone app.

 

[willem]

It appears there is a new leader in the insane routing sweepstakes. Congratulations SteveSTX for unearthing this gem!

In my mind, this calls into question the assertion that all routings are entered manually. As the saying goes, to err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer.