What Makes Some Train Station Waits Better Than Others?

[CHamilton]

What Makes Some Train Station Waits Better Than Others?

Penn Station in New York is as busy as it is cramped. The crowding gets particularly awful once track numbers are announced and everyone scrambles to form a line to board. ...People wait for a track number to be announced, then jam toward the gate in a chaotic line that's easy to cut and hard to bear.

Everyone handles waiting on lines with varying degrees of composure, or lack thereof, but there are some universal rules for what we hate about them. The M.I.T. professor Richard Larson, sometimes known as Dr. Queue, described three of them in his famous treatise on the subject from 1987. As Larson's "queueing theory" makes clear, it's not the length of the wait that bothers us so much — it's what might be called the personality of it.

 

[the_traveler]

I'll let you in on a "secret" way to know the track number of your departing train before the "rest of the herd"!

In the Amtrak waiting area, thee are IIRC 2 sets of airport displays. One says the departures and the other list the arriving trains. If your train is a train from BOS to WAS and it posts that it will arrive on track 11, there's a very good chance it will depart on track 11 also!

The departure screen will still have "TBD" or "TBA", but you know it will be on track 11. I'm usually at the east gate, or down the escalator, while "the herd" is still looking up at the board for the track to post!

 

[Tumbleweed]

You know, it's hard to put the cat back in the bag once it's out....

 

[the_traveler]

But you know that "Nobody rides trains anymore" and "Nobody reads AU"!

 

[AnthonyM]

But you know that "Nobody rides trains anymore" and "Nobody reads AU"!

I read it......

 

[BOS-T-Time]

UGHHH!

Now everyone will know why I have always been leaning against the monitors staring at the arrivals in NYP, and happen to be first in line, more times than not. Yes I wasn't waiting for someone to arrive, but just trying to be first in line to get my favorite seat.

---a lonely train rider with a good seat!

 

[MattW]

I'll let you in on a "secret" way to know the track number of your departing train before the "rest of the herd"!

In the Amtrak waiting area, thee are IIRC 2 sets of airport displays. One says the departures and the other list the arriving trains. If your train is a train from BOS to WAS and it posts that it will arrive on track 11, there's a very good chance it will depart on track 11 also!

The departure screen will still have "TBD" or "TBA", but you know it will be on track 11. I'm usually at the east gate, or down the escalator, while "the herd" is still looking up at the board for the track to post!

I'm not sure that would work 100% of the time. When we were riding New York to Boston on 86, it was about 30 minutes late, and didn't have a track posted for its arrival until the departure track was posted, by which time there was a mob forming.

 

[SubwayNut]

My main Penn Station trick is just to avoid the mob at all. I was getting on the Maple Leaf on Tuesday got of the A train at 6:58am. Walked down to the main lobby beneath the big board for the 7:15am departure with a mob forming around Track 7. I didn't bother to stand with the mob instead going downstairs one level to the "Exit Corridor" and took one of the nice historic staircases down to the platform and was settling into a nice window seat at 7:06.

Do I think I'm gilty of cutting the line, no. I think I'm helping Amtrak by boarding the train much more efficiently, one less passenger to go the same way down a narrow escalator.

 

[NE933]

Another "secret" is sort of dependant on your hearing. I know the unique machine sounds, as well as the heavy brakes, of an Acela. Ditto for Amfleets, when they move over the tracks, there's a certain cadence and pitch to their unique vibration as they respond to rail joints or square wheel situations. I am also very good with sense of direction if my senses are working properly, so that a train going to Boston, when arriving into Penn Station, will have it's bells and track clank-clank moving from the west side of the set-up to the east, not the other way around. Some pitfalls are AEM7's now have two or three unique sounds since the AC and DC rebuilds ten years ago, but if it's that locomotive is the last sound on a string of rolling stock, that means it's pushing, and only Keystones operate in push mode thru NYC.

Dual mode Genesis for the Empire line I'm not very familiar with them because I don't go on that line often, but knowing that they can only use certain lower tracks in order to access the 3rd rail and the connecting tunnel is usually enough.

 

[me_little_me]

But you know that "Nobody rides trains anymore" and "Nobody reads AU"!

I read it......

That's not nice. At least you could have done what I did - I covered my eyes so I couldn't see what was written! Courtesy is a thing of the past, it seems. :giggle:

As to the tip I didn't read, this is similar to what I do for airline flights to see if they are going to be late. Since airlines lie about departure, ask an agent or check the board for the info on the incoming plane. Your flight can't leave before the plane arrives.

 

[Ispolkom]

To get back to the original question, "what makes some train station waits better than others?" I have a simple answer: gin.

 

[NW cannonball]

To get back to the original question, "what makes some train station waits better than others?" I have a simple answer: gin.

To get back to the original question - Washington Union Station has really good food places, including the lower-level food court - helps to pass the time.

NYP is crowded and stressful. SEA has a really good neighborhood where if delayed you can feast in the "ID" or buy "to-go" at Uwajimaya - or visit the Pike place market if you have more time

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'll let you in on a "secret" way to know the track number of your departing train before the "rest of the herd"! In the Amtrak waiting area, thee are IIRC 2 sets of airport displays. One says the departures and the other list the arriving trains.

&

Another "secret" is sort of dependant on your hearing. I know the unique machine sounds, as well as the heavy brakes, of an Acela. Ditto for Amfleets, when they move over the tracks, there's a certain cadence and pitch to their unique vibration as they respond to rail joints or square wheel situations.

That's good advice for the uninitiated. Then again, any station that requires this much effort and devotion to compensate for its inherent shortcomings seems likely to benefit from a serious rethinking and possibly a substantial redesign.

To get back to the original question, "what makes some train station waits better than others?" I have a simple answer: gin.

Is there a suitable location where you would be provided such libations or otherwise allowed to imbibe? Or is this yet another secret suggestion in the form of a concealed flask or the like?

 

[Ispolkom]

Is there a suitable location where you would be provided such libations or otherwise allowed to imbibe? Or is this yet another secret suggestion in the form of a concealed flask or the like?

While I can neither confirm nor deny any such activity, I will point out that Penn Station, for example, has Tracks, which can manufacture a quite acceptable martini (Tanqueray gin, Noilly Prat vermouth, olive) and has a good raw bar. Alas, the Snuggery, in Chicago Union Station, is not a place I'd order a mixed drink of any kind. If I have to wait in DC, I've always been at the Capitol City Brewing Company, across the street, though that's now closed.

Of course the ne plus ultra of train station bars is, and always has been, the Grand Central Oyster Bar, but Amtrak no longer serves that station.

 

[NW cannonball]

Is there a suitable location where you would be provided such libations or otherwise allowed to imbibe? Or is this yet another secret suggestion in the form of a concealed flask or the like?

While I can neither confirm nor deny any such activity, I will point out that Penn Station, for example, has Tracks, which can manufacture a quite acceptable martini (Tanqueray gin, Noilly Prat vermouth, olive) and has a good raw bar. Alas, the Snuggery, in Chicago Union Station, is not a place I'd order a mixed drink of any kind. If I have to wait in DC, I've always been at the Capitol City Brewing Company, across the street, though that's now closed.

Of course the ne plus ultra of train station bars is, and always has been, the Grand Central Oyster Bar, but Amtrak no longer serves that station.

About 20 years ago with my then 4 yo son - did the Oyster Bar - not the (then) smoky bar nor the overpriced restaurant - the two small formica-topped tables in between. The two of us ate 24 oysters - and he still remembers the "Moonstones" as being the best oysters he ever et. He lives in Seattle now and still remembers those as the best oysters he ever et. including the West Coast yummies he can have any time.

 

[AlanB]

Is there a suitable location where you would be provided such libations or otherwise allowed to imbibe? Or is this yet another secret suggestion in the form of a concealed flask or the like?

While I can neither confirm nor deny any such activity, I will point out that Penn Station, for example, has Tracks, which can manufacture a quite acceptable martini (Tanqueray gin, Noilly Prat vermouth, olive) and has a good raw bar.

During the evening rush hour at Penn one can even go to the LIRR track level and buy booze.

 

[dlagrua]

Q: What makes the wait better at some train stations?

A: They are located closer to the station of departure.