Penn Station to Philly - which train?

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On the 663 Keystone Service right now. Turns out we're going to the western burbs (I thought it was central Philly) and SEPTA isn't an option on Sunday but Keystone is. Still haven't mapped out how to get back to Manhattan but I know there are options. I tried using the SEPTA website to map out a ride from the Paoli/Thorndale line with a transfer to Trenton. Seems like plenty of times but I can't figure out the pricing. The breakdown seems to be priced for one trip?

This certainly isn't deluxe transportation but it'll get us there.

It's also delayed about 15 minutes while they hook up an engine to replace one taken out of service. Just came on line now.
 
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Very soon you will be able to do Philly 30th St. to Pennsauken TC by NJT and then take the RiverLINE from Pennsauken TC to Trenton TC. That transfer will be a much less shady experience.

Alternatively you could do PATCO to Lindenwald, NJT from there to Pennsauken TC and then RiverLINE from there to Trenton TC.

NYC Subway from Penn Station to 42nd St, then to 34th St./Herald Square,
Might have taken less time to walk down 32nd St. :)
 
Conductor just made an announcement to clear all seats of personal items. Didn't see a single passenger clear any stuff on a seat.
 
On the 663 Keystone Service right now. Turns out we're going to the western burbs (I thought it was central Philly) and SEPTA isn't an option on Sunday but Keystone is. Still haven't mapped out how to get back to Manhattan but I know there are options. I tried using the SEPTA website to map out a ride from the Paoli/Thorndale line with a transfer to Trenton. Seems like plenty of times but I can't figure out the pricing. The breakdown seems to be priced for one trip?
This certainly isn't deluxe transportation but it'll get us there.

It's also delayed about 15 minutes while they hook up an engine to replace one taken out of service. Just came on line now.
If SEPTA is like NJT then you would have to pay for only the longer of the two legs when changing or passing through center city.

On NJT if you transfer at any of the designated transfer stations from an ibound route to a different outbound route (provided of course that both your origin and setination are not reachable on a single route :) ), you pay for the longer of the two legs. On NJT the TVM takes care of doing the right thing. On SEPTA it is a human agent that does it for you. :) So Paoli to Trenton, I suspect you will just pay the center city to Trenton fare.
 
On the 663 Keystone Service right now. Turns out we're going to the western burbs (I thought it was central Philly) and SEPTA isn't an option on Sunday but Keystone is. Still haven't mapped out how to get back to Manhattan but I know there are options. I tried using the SEPTA website to map out a ride from the Paoli/Thorndale line with a transfer to Trenton. Seems like plenty of times but I can't figure out the pricing. The breakdown seems to be priced for one trip?
This certainly isn't deluxe transportation but it'll get us there.

It's also delayed about 15 minutes while they hook up an engine to replace one taken out of service. Just came on line now.
If SEPTA is like NJT then you would have to pay for only the longer of the two legs when changing or passing through center city.

On NJT if you transfer at any of the designated transfer stations from an ibound route to a different outbound route (provided of course that both your origin and setination are not reachable on a single route :) ), you pay for the longer of the two legs. On NJT the TVM takes care of doing the right thing. On SEPTA it is a human agent that does it for you. :) So Paoli to Trenton, I suspect you will just pay the center city to Trenton fare.
Not quite that easy. SEPTA has "through center city" fares for travel from an outlying station to an outlying station via center city. Travel from any fare zone 3 or higher station through center city to any other zone 3 or higher costs $9.50 if bought from a ticket agent or $10.00 if bought on board.

SEPTA Regional Rail fare zones

SEPTA through center city fares
 
On the 663 Keystone Service right now. Turns out we're going to the western burbs (I thought it was central Philly) and SEPTA isn't an option on Sunday but Keystone is. Still haven't mapped out how to get back to Manhattan but I know there are options. I tried using the SEPTA website to map out a ride from the Paoli/Thorndale line with a transfer to Trenton. Seems like plenty of times but I can't figure out the pricing. The breakdown seems to be priced for one trip?

This certainly isn't deluxe transportation but it'll get us there.

It's also delayed about 15 minutes while they hook up an engine to replace one taken out of service. Just came on line now.
If SEPTA is like NJT then you would have to pay for only the longer of the two legs when changing or passing through center city.
On NJT if you transfer at any of the designated transfer stations from an ibound route to a different outbound route (provided of course that both your origin and setination are not reachable on a single route :) ), you pay for the longer of the two legs. On NJT the TVM takes care of doing the right thing. On SEPTA it is a human agent that does it for you. :) So Paoli to Trenton, I suspect you will just pay the center city to Trenton fare.
Not quite that easy. SEPTA has "through center city" fares for travel from an outlying station to an outlying station via center city. Travel from any fare zone 3 or higher station through center city to any other zone 3 or higher costs $9.50 if bought from a ticket agent or $10.00 if bought on board.

SEPTA Regional Rail fare zones

SEPTA through center city fares
The SEPTA ticket agent explained it pretty well to me even if I didn't quite understand the pricing structure. It was $9.50 from Paoli to Trenton although I ended up waiting an hour because we missed a train that aligned better with the Philly-Trenton train. I bought the Trenton-NYP tickets at the single NJ Transit machine at 30th St Philadelphia. I figured it would save time. Also I noticed a lot of passengers with NJ Transit issued tickets on the SEPTA Philly-Trenton line. Saw some weird stuff too. One conductor suggested that a passenger looking for a seat sit in an empty seat. She said "I don't know this guy" like he had cooties or something. Later she moved on but we were kind if wondering what was the deal. This was a clean cut looking college aged kid who actually moved to the outside part of the seat when he thought someone needed it.

It was also odd on the Trenton-NYP line. We kept on seeing Amtrak trains pass us on the inside rail. I overheard one passenger saying "That's the rich people train."
 
FWIW, a train-crazy kid has a LOT available to see in both NYC and Philly, with the massive supply of urban rail.
I can come up with some genuinely silly routes for fans of urban rail from NYC Penn to Philadelphia 30th St.

NYC Subway from Penn Station to 42nd St, then to 34th St./Herald Square, then PATH to Newark, NJT to Trenton, RiverLine to Camden, Patco to downtown Philadelphia, Subway-Surface Trolleys from there to 30th St...
The_traveler has probably already done something like that.

How much would the total fare be?
 
It was also odd on the Trenton-NYP line. We kept on seeing Amtrak trains pass us on the inside rail. I overheard one passenger saying "That's the rich people train."
What was odd? That Amtrak trains overtake NJT trains? Or than Amtrak trains were characterized as "Rich people train"?
AFAICT there is nothing odd about the first. That is why it is a four track railroad, so as to allow express trains to overtake local trains without either having to stop. Amtrak trains travel at 125 - 135mph, NJT travels at 80-100mph. Actually even NJT outer zone expresses often overtake NJT locals, though not on weekends since there are no real outer zone expresses on weekends.

The second one is sort of true considering that the lowest Amtrak fare for the same ride is probably more than twice the NJT fare in most if not all cases.
 
It was also odd on the Trenton-NYP line. We kept on seeing Amtrak trains pass us on the inside rail. I overheard one passenger saying "That's the rich people train."
What was odd? That Amtrak trains overtake NJT trains? Or than Amtrak trains were characterized as "Rich people train"?
AFAICT there is nothing odd about the first. That is why it is a four track railroad, so as to allow express trains to overtake local trains without either having to stop. Amtrak trains travel at 125 - 135mph, NJT travels at 80-100mph. Actually even NJT outer zone expresses often overtake NJT locals, though not on weekends since there are no real outer zone expresses on weekends.

The second one is sort of true considering that the lowest Amtrak fare for the same ride is probably more than twice the NJT fare in most if not all cases.
The comment sounded hilarious to me. I noticed the passengers on our Amtrak trip tended to be older and/or looked to be mostly business people. The regional transit trains seemed to be more working class and college-aged kids. I know - a broad outline, but it seemed to be accurate.

The times actually weren't that bad if we selected the right times. We just couldn't make one particular train, which meant waiting at 30th St for an hour since the Philly-Trenton train operated about every hour.
 
The times actually weren't that bad if we selected the right times. We just couldn't make one particular train, which meant waiting at 30th St for an hour since the Philly-Trenton train operated about every hour.
Ah yes! That is a bit if a headache and happened to me on more than one occasion too.
At least we have finally got NJT running twice an hour for significant part of the day on the NEC. Now only if we can get them to do that on the M&E upto at least Summit - which they sort of do fr part of the day on weekdays, but not on weekends.

I admit that I may sound incredibly spoilt for those who only have weekday service and that too only in the rush direction and not all day long. But hey this is NJ with a relatively dense public transport network.
 
I admit that I may sound incredibly spoilt for those who only have weekday service and that too only in the rush direction and not all day long. But hey this is NJ with a relatively dense public transport network.
Yes you do! :D At least we have SEPTA, though limited and it does run on Saturday, but not all the way to Newark (DE, not NJ). Would be nice if more trains run when they finish the transportion center in Newark and hopefully MARC comes up to meet SEPTA.
 
The times actually weren't that bad if we selected the right times. We just couldn't make one particular train, which meant waiting at 30th St for an hour since the Philly-Trenton train operated about every hour.
Ah yes! That is a bit if a headache and happened to me on more than one occasion too.
At least we have finally got NJT running twice an hour for significant part of the day on the NEC. Now only if we can get them to do that on the M&E upto at least Summit - which they sort of do fr part of the day on weekdays, but not on weekends.

I admit that I may sound incredibly spoilt for those who only have weekday service and that too only in the rush direction and not all day long. But hey this is NJ with a relatively dense public transport network.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and commute from the East Bay to Silicon Valley. There are numerous ways to get down, but timing is an issue. Amtrak California Capitol Corridor is nice and not too much if I get a 10-ride ticket, but then there's the issue that even during the morning commute time they operate about every 45 minutes and about half of them turn around in Oakland and head back to Sacramento. Additionally, the last train at night from San Jose leaves pretty early and a lot of tech workers tend to stay late.

I've got another way to do it that runs later and costs a little bit less, but it takes longer. New York just has way too many options running almost all the time.

I was sort of blown away by how big Penn Station was. I'd never seen a train station serving Amtrak that had more than 2 Quik-Trak terminals, while Penn Station seemed to have about a couple dozen on two levels. The Amtrak waiting area was also nicer since there doesn't seem to be seating areas anywhere else. We used it for LIRR, Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the subway. We also took someone's advice to take LIRR to Penn Station, but probably would have been better off taking the E train and transfering to get to our hotel near Grand Central. Once we got to Penn Station, we weren't sure what to do and wandered around before catching a cab (noticed the only legal cab stop was the Penn Station/MSG taxi stand).
 
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