NYP - WAS - Silver Star or NER

[williamn]

Hi

I'm travelling from New York to Washington and the train that most closely matches my schedule is the Silver Star. However I wonder - is this likely to be a very busy train? (On Friday 23 August). I'd rather travel a bit later on a less crowded NER if that were the case...

 

[pennyk]

The Silver Star is a long distance train and does not accept passengers for trips from NYP to WAS. Your options are NE Regionals or Acela.

 

[williamn]

Well the Amtrak booking engine was quite happily booking me onto it just now (with a voucher).

 

[the_traveler]

If you can, and if it's about the same fare, I'd chose the Star! The seats have MUCH more room and you also have a Dining Car. However, if it costs like 3 or 4 times as much and/or if cost is a factor, I'd chose either a Regional or Acela.

 

[FriskyFL]

Or book NYP-ALX and hop on the Metro. That is certainly a valid city pair.

 

[afigg]

The Silver Star is a long distance train and does not accept passengers for trips from NYP to WAS. Your options are NE Regionals or Acela.

That is currently not the case. Amtrak is selling seats on the southbound Silver Star, Crescent, Palmetto between NYP to WAS through September 30 as an experiment. The LD trains, however, start at a high bucket price, so if one is buying tickets a few weeks in advance, odds are that the NE Regionals will be notably less expensive.
Hard to say how crowded a late morning departure from NYP would be on a Friday, but it should be less crowded than the late afternoon trains.

 

[fairviewroad]

The Silver Star is a long distance train and does not accept passengers for trips from NYP to WAS. Your options are NE Regionals or Acela.

Normally this would be true but see this thread for why this is (temporarily, at least) not the case anymore:

http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/56003-amtrak-selling-intra-nec-seats-on-sb-ld-trains/

To the OP: You're more likely to find the Star a less-crowded train than a NER, I'd guess. That's because

people along the NEC aren't used to having LD trains as an option. And there would also be the perception

that a LD train would be slower, which is hardly true when comparing it to a NER.

I'd say just choose whichever works best in terms of cost and timing.

 

[pennyk]

The Silver Star is a long distance train and does not accept passengers for trips from NYP to WAS. Your options are NE Regionals or Acela.

That is currently not the case. Amtrak is selling seats on the southbound Silver Star, Crescent, Palmetto between NYP to WAS through September 30 as an experiment. The LD trains, however, start at a high bucket price, so if one is buying tickets a few weeks in advance, odds are that the NE Regionals will be notably less expensive.
Hard to say how crowded a late morning departure from NYP would be on a Friday, but it should be less crowded than the late afternoon trains.

I stand corrected. Thank you. I would choose a Silver over a NER if the price was not too high. A lot of people travel from NYP to Florida on the Silvers, but my guess it may be more comfortable than a NER.

 

[williamn]

Would I be assigned a seat on the Silver Star, I like selecting a seat myself, and on my own, if possible!

(why Amtrak persists in manually assigning seats is beyond me, as an aside!)

 

[Anderson]

Without question, I'd take the Star as long as the fare was roughly the same as (or less than) BC on a Regional. Once it gets to be a bit more...well, I'd still take it. You can get a full lunch on board on your way to Washington (I recommend the meatloaf if it's on the menu for that trip, btw), which beats Amcafe food.

 

[the_traveler]

Starting in NYP, I do not believe so.

Part of the reason why Amtrak does not assign seats like airlines do is that no all train cars have seating the same. At least an airline you know that a 737-500 is the same as another 737-500 on the same airline. On Amtrak, they may have to substitute one car out of the 8 on the train. And the seating may be different. The seat you chose with a window may turn out not to have a window. (Yes there are some like that.)

And on Acela, they do not turn the train at the destination, so 1/2 the seats face one direction and 1/2 face the other direction. You may discover that the seat you chose has you riding backwards, which you may not like.

 

[Bus Nut]

You can get a seat assignment with a small upcharge on European premium trains. See no reason why Amtrak couldn't do the same. Acela trainsets actually are technically capable of displaying reservations over seats but Amtrak does not use this capability.

Would be really nice if travelers wish to sit together on a crowded train. It's not like the 1990s when Amtrak couldn't give away seats on some routes. For example, I had a good old time in coach on the LSL in the 1990s with a special teaser fare and it absolutely kills me what it costs to ride now!!

 

[williamn]

At the risk of getting off topic (and thank you for the advice everyone), I really don't see why Amtrak can't have seat reservations like Europe. Sure, sometimes you get different stock substituted, but one the whole you get what you ask for. On many routes you can even select your own seat now, including whether you want to face forward or backwards, have an 'airline' seat or a table, be in the quiet car or not. It seems really archaic to have someone sticking labels on your tickets (as was the case at Seattle recently) to allocate seats.

 

[jis]

Part of the reason why Amtrak does not assign seats like airlines do is that no all train cars have seating the same. At least an airline you know that a 737-500 is the same as another 737-500 on the same airline. On Amtrak, they may have to substitute one car out of the 8 on the train. And the seating may be different. The seat you chose with a window may turn out not to have a window. (Yes there are some like that.)

Look these are all desperate and well meaning attempt to defend the indefensible in Amtrak.
The same airline often has multiple different seat layouts in the same type of plane, and they actually are able to keep track of which specific plane is going to be used on a flight and sell seats accordingly with specific seat assignments. It does happen sometimes that they have to substitute equipment, and when that happens they simply deal with it on a case by case basis. Very often the number of seat differences are at most a dozen or two. The rest get to keep the original seat assignment. At other times the entire flight might get canceled in which case people have to accommodated on other flights. But none of these is a good reason to not assign seats.

And on Acela, they do not turn the train at the destination, so 1/2 the seats face one direction and 1/2 face the other direction. You may discover that the seat you chose has you riding backwards, which you may not like.

Somehow I have difficulty believing that. I believe Acela seats are turnable and they are turned at the ends even though the train is not turned. but I am happy to be corrected, but I don;t recall ever seeing an Acela with equal number of seats facing forward and back, and I rode some just the other day, both in First Class first and First Class last orientation.

 

[PRR 60]

Part of the reason why Amtrak does not assign seats like airlines do is that no all train cars have seating the same. At least an airline you know that a 737-500 is the same as another 737-500 on the same airline. On Amtrak, they may have to substitute one car out of the 8 on the train. And the seating may be different. The seat you chose with a window may turn out not to have a window. (Yes there are some like that.)

Look these are all desperate and well meaning attempt to defend the indefensible in Amtrak.
The same airline often has multiple different seat layouts in the same type of plane, and they actually are able to keep track of which specific plane is going to be used on a flight and sell seats accordingly with specific seat assignments. It does happen sometimes that they have to substitute equipment, and when that happens they simply deal with it on a case by case basis. Very often the number of seat differences are at most a dozen or two. The rest get to keep the original seat assignment. At other times the entire flight might get canceled in which case people have to accommodated on other flights. But none of these is a good reason to not assign seats.

And on Acela, they do not turn the train at the destination, so 1/2 the seats face one direction and 1/2 face the other direction. You may discover that the seat you chose has you riding backwards, which you may not like.

Somehow I have difficulty believing that. I believe Acela seats are turnable and they are turned at the ends even though the train is not turned. but I am happy to be corrected, but I don;t recall ever seeing an Acela with equal number of seats facing forward and back, and I rode some just the other day, both in First Class first and First Class last orientation.

Most Acela seats are turned. The exceptions are the seats facing tables.

 

[Guest]

I think Acela orginally assigned seats in First Class, but passengers refused to sit in their assigned seats.

The Silver Star would have more comfortable seating than NER, but remember that it does have checked baggage and longer dwell times. So, your trip length would be longer than NER, if that is a concern.

 

[Ryan]

The same airline often has multiple different seat layouts in the same type of plane, and they actually are able to keep track of which specific plane is going to be used on a flight and sell seats accordingly with specific seat assignments. It does happen sometimes that they have to substitute equipment, and when that happens they simply deal with it on a case by case basis.

Seems to happen quite a lot with me, maybe I'm just unlucky or something.

My current favorite is our trip planned to Hawaii this Christmas. Started out with a 767-400 seat map. United swapped seat maps for a 777 with a 3-3-3 configuration in the back, scattering the 4 of us all over the plane (including seating both kids solo far from both of us). Called up and got that straight, but the latest word is that the 777 Hawaii conversions aren't going to move the back of the plane into a 3-3-3, but keep the 2-5-2 config. I'm not hopeful that when the seat map gets switched that we'll still be together without having to make another phone call.

All that said, I'd much rather do it this way than depend on the luck of the draw when I board. I'm sure it'll take a little more work to implement with a train that has hundreds of possible station combinations on a single train when compared to an airplane that goes from point to point, but I'm sure that smart people with computers can solve that problem.

 

[June the Coach Rider]

One reason I am sure they do not have the same type of seating plans available for trains as airplanes is that with all the stops, there can perceivably be two or three people sitting in the same seat from start to end of the train trip, with people getting off and on during the trip.

 

[jebr]

If European trains can do it, I don't see why American trains can't.

Heck, even if only part of the train is reserved, and/or the system allows one to book a non-reserved reservation (so if there's capacity from two points but not an open seat the entire way it can still be booked) I see no issue with it. Not every seat has to be reserved, but there's no logistical reason why some can't be reserved.

 

[Acela150]

I think Acela orginally assigned seats in First Class, but passengers refused to sit in their assigned seats

I was on the very first run of AE on December 11, 2000. From Philly to Boston my Dad and I were in BC. That was a free for all.. We rode FC on the return. Seats were assigned. But it wasn't long before passengers complained.

 

[Bus Nut]

I think Acela orginally assigned seats in First Class, but passengers refused to sit in their assigned seats.

If that is true then they should try to European model. Many if not most patrons did not choose to buy a seat assignment, but those that did paid $3-6 upcharge (IIRC that was about what it cost). If you paid extra for a seat reservation you are not going to forget that. The unreserved seats are marked as open. The old trains use paper tickets much like seat checks but the new trains use LED sign that auto-magically removes assignments when ticketed passengers get off.

 

[battalion51]

Here we go down the rabbit hole again...the big difference on an LD train versus European trains is that passengers are loaded and sat based on their destination. When trains are running in the middle of the night through cities like Little Rock, AR, Carbondale, IL, Lincoln, NE, and numerous others, there is only going to be an attendant and a Conductor working the stop, most likely from one door. This isn't the type of service where all doors open, and passengers will get themselves off the train. Spreading people out over multiple cars for small towns with small platforms in the middle of the night does not work. As for the on corridor trains, they've tried assigned seating, it didn't work. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[williamn]

A reservation system could cope with assigning people to particular cars based on their destination. It IS broke when you wait for a man to go through printed sheets of seat labels for the ENTIRE train, peeling one off and sticking it onto your ticket - a rather laborious process when boarding your train. Plus, I'd rather choose my seating preference for myself.

Reservations on the NEC would also help groups sit together. When I travelled NYP to WAS with my family there was an unseemly scramble for seats (not just on our part I hasten to add), with all our luggage in tow, in order for us to get 3 together. I can't believe that passengers couldn't get used to a reservation system - we're all used to flying and being allocated seats on planes.

 

[Acela150]

Part of the problem with assigning seat on a train is (more so in the NEC), that the train could sellout the BC car. But coach could be 6 cars or 7 or 5. No one ever knows how many Coach cars will be on the train. Typically there is a BC car, Cafe, and 6 coaches. And one thing that might set off some folks is reserving a seat in the QC. Then someone wants to move from one coach to the QC. But to be told. Oh sorry your seat is this one from WAS-BOS.

 

[jebr]

Again, this could be solved by only assigning some of the seats on a train, and maybe charging a premium for an assigned seat. If half of the seats in each car (for example) are available to be assigned, that still leaves half in each car unassigned for those who don't want to pay a premium or aren't sure if they want to be in the quiet car or regular coach.

There's nothing requiring assigned seating to become all-assigned seating. Give passengers a choice so that both people who want assigned seating and those who don't can both be satisfied.