Reservation wackiness

[sportbiker]

A couple of months ago I booked from Santa Ana (SNA, CA) to San Jose (SJC). Arrow gave me the option of a Surfliner to LAX then the CS, and that's the itinerary I booked.

Today I put in the same city pair but the CS doesn't show up. Instead I get a multi-segment trip through the [un]scenic Central Valley, a trip including two bus segments. If I submit LAX to SJC the CS appears as an option.

"Guaranteed connection issue" I hear you thinking. But, Surfliner 763 departs Santa Ana at 7:57a and arrives in LAX at 8:50; the CS doesn't leave until 10:15a. That's over an hour of padding for a segment of only one hour. Plus, as I mentioned, that itinerary appeared as recently as about two months ago.

Any thoughts?

 

[p&sr]

Today I put in the same city pair but the CS doesn't show up. Instead I get a multi-segment trip through the [un]scenic Central Valley, a trip including two bus segments. If I submit LAX to SJC the CS appears as an option.

You can still do it with Multi-City... Santa Ana to LAX, then LAX to SJC.

The Amtrak Reservation Website has definitely gotten quirkier in the last couple of weeks. A number of itineraries that it used to offer just fine, now it denies unless specifically "coaxed"... and even then it has a hard time with it.

For another example, selecting a trip from Santa Rosa to San Jose, they offer only one choice, a 4:10 PM Bus to Martinez, and Train from there. But if you ask about Santa Rosa to Oakland, they ALSO offer three Morning Busses, any one of which would get you to San Jose earlier than that afternoon choice!

Evidently the Website has a newly reduced concept of what makes a "good connection" that it can find on its own.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Amtrak trying to make us take busses?

Never!

 

[sportbiker]

You can still do it with Multi-City... Santa Ana to LAX, then LAX to SJC.
The Amtrak Reservation Website has definitely gotten quirkier in the last couple of weeks.

Its newfound wackiness abounds! If I plug in a departure from Irvine, the station immediately south of SNA, the Website offers the Surfliner/CS combo. Replace IRV with SNA (they're all of seven minutes apart) and whoops! there goes the CS. Sorta like your bus options.

I could do the multi-city thing, but it's my 80-yr-old parents who are wanting to book, and I want to keep this as simple for them as possible. Maybe I'll tell them to book from Irvine.

I hate to think of how many newbies become discouraged when they falsely find they can't get from A to B easily using Amtrak?

 

[AlanB]

Watch the departure time that you put in as it can affect what itineraries you are shown. They try to give you the trains departing closest to the departure time you've requested. So that can sometimes knock certain trains out of the block.

 

[sportbiker]

Watch the departure time that you put in as it can affect what itineraries you are shown. They try to give you the trains departing closest to the departure time you've requested. So that can sometimes knock certain trains out of the block.

My departure time is "anytime," so I don't think that's an issue. In fact, if look at the national timetable that I just happen to have received the other day it has Surfliner 763 listed as the connecting northbound train to the CS, yet that's the train that doesn't appear if I depart SNA but does appear if I depart IRV, which is the adjacent station.

 

[AlanB]

Watch the departure time that you put in as it can affect what itineraries you are shown. They try to give you the trains departing closest to the departure time you've requested. So that can sometimes knock certain trains out of the block.

My departure time is "anytime," so I don't think that's an issue. In fact, if look at the national timetable that I just happen to have received the other day it has Surfliner 763 listed as the connecting northbound train to the CS, yet that's the train that doesn't appear if I depart SNA but does appear if I depart IRV, which is the adjacent station.

If you leave it set as anytime, then it looks for the first one or two trains out. That's it.

You need to put in a time that is close to the CS's departure time and see what happens. I'd try it myself, but my internet connction onboard #4 is iffy at times, so I use what time I have just to check out the board and look at emails.