I am now in Washington Dc after leaving New York's Penn Station earlier today on the 147 Regional. My first experience of Amtrak after a few days in NY.
Thanks to kind people on here I managed to get my tickets from the Quik Tickets machine the day before and knew what to look out for in Penn Station.
All seemed to be going well until the 195 Regional train was first delayed by 35 minutes, then cancelled and they said everyone could go onto the 147 Regional. So of course when the 147 was called there was this enormous rush of people with masses of cases.
So we got down the escalator and get onto the train and it's already packed. Obviously there were a lot of people already on the train and then eveyone else piled on blocking every bit of the train. Utter madness.
I was in a vestibule with a couple of other people but was then told to get out of it into one of the carriages and so had to squash into the end of one of the carriages. Only once the train was already 10 minutes late and we were all jammed in they made the anouncement that anyone that wanted to could get out and wait for the next train which was about 50 minutes later. Now if they'd said that at the start I think there would have been more takers but physically getting out would have been impossible for some people by that point.
We left and I ended up standing from Penn Station to Philadelphia which was a bit over 2 hours. When I eventually sat down I was very impressed with how big the seats are and how comfy it was, nice big windows as well so generally I was happy from that point (when I was standing I was watching Big Bang Theory and listening to an audiobook on my ipod so I was occupied.) but I know there were a lot of people on the train and others who didn't/couldn't get on at different stations who were exceptionally annoyed at the situation.
The announcements over the speakers were generally so quiet youcouldn't hear them either. I actually heard it better when I was stood in the vestibule!
Got into Union Station at about 4.25, so an hour late.
I think with any trip just sat in coach normally I'd be very happy, Amtrak coach seats are great, so much bigger and better than the trains in the UK but I am happy that I will have a bedroom for the next 2 trips I'm taking (Capitol Limitedand California Zephyr).
Thanks to kind people on here I managed to get my tickets from the Quik Tickets machine the day before and knew what to look out for in Penn Station.
All seemed to be going well until the 195 Regional train was first delayed by 35 minutes, then cancelled and they said everyone could go onto the 147 Regional. So of course when the 147 was called there was this enormous rush of people with masses of cases.
So we got down the escalator and get onto the train and it's already packed. Obviously there were a lot of people already on the train and then eveyone else piled on blocking every bit of the train. Utter madness.
I was in a vestibule with a couple of other people but was then told to get out of it into one of the carriages and so had to squash into the end of one of the carriages. Only once the train was already 10 minutes late and we were all jammed in they made the anouncement that anyone that wanted to could get out and wait for the next train which was about 50 minutes later. Now if they'd said that at the start I think there would have been more takers but physically getting out would have been impossible for some people by that point.
We left and I ended up standing from Penn Station to Philadelphia which was a bit over 2 hours. When I eventually sat down I was very impressed with how big the seats are and how comfy it was, nice big windows as well so generally I was happy from that point (when I was standing I was watching Big Bang Theory and listening to an audiobook on my ipod so I was occupied.) but I know there were a lot of people on the train and others who didn't/couldn't get on at different stations who were exceptionally annoyed at the situation.
The announcements over the speakers were generally so quiet youcouldn't hear them either. I actually heard it better when I was stood in the vestibule!
Got into Union Station at about 4.25, so an hour late.
I think with any trip just sat in coach normally I'd be very happy, Amtrak coach seats are great, so much bigger and better than the trains in the UK but I am happy that I will have a bedroom for the next 2 trips I'm taking (Capitol Limitedand California Zephyr).
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