The End for the Clockers

[Ray L. Nutz]

NJT is taking over all Clockers at end of month.

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/b...coll=5#continue

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

By MICHAEL LAVITT

Amtrak's Clocker trains will be riding into history at the end of this month, marking the end of a service that started in the heyday of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Clockers, which offered wider, more comfortable seats than NJ Transit in rail cars that were designed for intercity rather than local rail service, will make their last run on Oct. 28.

"NJ Transit will be adding four express trains beginning with the Oct. 30 schedule change to replace the discontinued Amtrak trains," said NJ Transit spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett. The change will be officially announced at NJ Transit's board meeting tomorrow. A number of other schedule changes will be announced later in the week.

etc etc etc.

 

[Guest_Amtrak OBS Employee]

Here it is! It is already starting, folks! I assure you CHANGE is coming at Amtrak (all of it in some respect) this FY06 and on! OBS... <_<

 

[AlanB]

Here it is! It is already starting, folks! I assure you CHANGE is coming at Amtrak (all of it in some respect) this FY06 and on! OBS... <_<

I'm not doubting what you say OBS, but this particular move has been in the cards for two years. This is an expected move, even though it is happening a few months earlier than originally planned.

NJT however, as part of the plan has been providing the power for the Clockers for well over a year now. It actually confuses some people to see an NJT ALP-46 hauling Amfleets up the corridor.

 

[Superliner Diner]

I don't know what percentage of the Clocker ridership came from Pennsylvania, but it seems to me that they are the losers here. While New Jerseyans at least retain service in the form of NJ TRANSIT express trains (albeit without reclining seats, armrests, and other amenities they may have been used to), the passengers who commuted to New York from Cornwells Heights, North Philadelphia, and 30th Street Philadelphia will now have to crowd onto the Regionals, or take SEPTA MU's (which is a worse downgrade than NJ TRANSIT equipment) and then do the Trenton Shuffle, hoping to make their connecting train.