Passenger Trains > 3x Per Week Results in More Lost Potential Business

Here's an example of how unworkable Amtrak's new 3x per week schedules are. My friend Laurie wants me to come to Florida to help her drive back to MI. She can't do it until after Sept 30 when the condo she sold closes. I'd like to take Amtrak down from Waterloo, IN connecting in DC. So with Amtrak's brilliant new 3x per week schedule, that only works if I arrive to DC on Tuesday as that's the only day the connection can be made with the Meteor. I don't trust the connection time with the Star available on other days. Not to mention not enough time for a decent meal in between trains. So what was back in a the day a daily option, it first became 4x per week and is now only 1x per week Capitol to Meteor connection. So unless an Oct. 7 arrival to Florida works for her, it's hello Delta. (anything later than the 14th won't work given other conflicts). And to figure this all out, I had to do multiple searches on Amtrak web sites to see what days the connection I needed would work. Most would have probably given up.  What a joke of  a way to run a company. By comparison, Delta offers at least 3x daily DTW to Tampa and some Ft.Myers direct options as well. Why anyone other than people like us who love train travel would consider this option is beyond me. 

Need some cheese to go with that whine, Sir?

Amtrak guarantees the connection. It's your choice not to rely on the connection, not Amtrak's.

Food is offered on all Amtrak long distance trains. That hasn't changed.

Amtrak still provides the service.

Quite frankly even if trains are daily, few people even consider going from Indiana to Florida by train.  During a pandemic there's even less demand.  Sorry you will probably have to fly, hope Oct 7 works..  Most of us would rather take the train.  It's 2020. 

Try some Night Train Bruce, it may help.

Right on, Bruce!

As Paul Reistrup, ex-Amtrak president, said in a recent Railway Age article, "Now, when you catch a train, you need a calendar instead of a watch.”

I sincerely hope that Amtrak did not do this to mess up your plans.  I'm sure no one else was or will be inconvenienced!

Bruce's posts are always good for plenty of entertainment.  Please keep 'em coming!

DevalDragon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Need some cheese to go with that whine, Sir?
>
> Amtrak guarantees the connection. It's your choice
> not to rely on the connection, not Amtrak's.
>
> Food is offered on all Amtrak long distance
> trains. That hasn't changed.
>
> Amtrak still provides the service.

That's a terrible mindset. What happens to someone who misses their connection on the Star and the Star doesn't run again until 4 days later? Amtrak will absolutely miss out on ridership because of the 3x weekly schedule and it's not whining to point this out. 

4489 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I sincerely hope that Amtrak did not do this to mess up your plans.

Yep. Amtrak is cutting back to tri-weekly service specifically to foil the plans of one particular passenger.

chrsjrcj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------


>
> That's a terrible mindset. What happens to someone who misses their connection on the Star and the Star doesn't run again until 4 days later? Amtrak will absolutely miss out on ridership because of the 3x weekly schedule and it's not whining to point this out. 

And how many people during the pandemic need to make that connection?  3? 5?  Not a whole lot of folks doing that now. 

Tominde Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And how many people during the pandemic need to
> make that connection?  3? 5?  Not a whole lot of
> folks doing that now.

But today is not tomorrow, nor after October 1st. How Amtrak put strict conditions on resuming daily service is suspicious to me, and even if not malicious, it shows their lack of desire to run LD trains.

I've been flying for several months now, and I've known that folks locked up at home claiming "no one is flying" have been wrong for at least 3 months. So you can understand how I'm skeptical of "pandemic arguments."

cchan006 Wrote:
So you can understand how I'm skeptical of
> "pandemic arguments."

Before the pandemic:

• Multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts starting September 2019
• Malls/brick and morter sales going down, even big box stores.
• Migration from high cost of living areas to lower ones.
• Companies cutting office sizes and trying out work from home (not necessarily in conjunction with each other).
• Lots more!

After the pandemic began:
- More of the same,

And by more, I mean the same picked up an accelerated pace.

You can fly even cheaper with Alegant Air to Florida out of Fort Wayne.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com