Passenger Trains > Amtrak 100 departing Roanoke moments ago

Amtrak Northeast Regional 176 departs Roanoke OT at 0620 led by Genesis #100 celebrating 50 years of connecting America.

What's that oddball reddish car in front of it? ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/21 03:32 by JPB.

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In the early 80's my new bride and I stayed at a large old hotel next to NW tracks, it that it barely seen on the right?

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> In the early 80's my new bride and I stayed at a
> large old hotel next to NW tracks, it that it
> barely seen on the right?

The Hotel Roanoke is behind the camera.  The building on the right is the former N&W GOB (General Office Building) South, now apartments.

The consist is still seven cars, the normal since the pandemic.  Before it was usually eight.

Jim

I hadn't realized there was Amtrak service to Roanoke (guess I've been busy elsewhere).  So I went to the Amtrak site to look into it.  Absolutely could not navigate the site in any reasonable way to find information.  Tried for a schedule RNK-WAS for next month... Nothing found.  Nor the month after that.  Looked it up by status of 176.  Other than "left on time" could not find a schedule/timetable to tell me where that train went or terminated.  

Amtrak must not actually be trying to sell tickets at this point.  Ridiculous.

Rustys6004 wrote: "I hadn't realized there was Amtrak service to Roanoke (guess I've been busy elsewhere).  So I went to the Amtrak site to look into it.  Absolutely could not navigate the site in any reasonable way to find information.  Tried for a schedule RNK-WAS for next month... Nothing found.  Nor the month after that.  Looked it up by status of 176.  Other than "left on time" could not find a schedule/timetable to tell me where that train went or terminated.  Amtrak must not actually be trying to sell tickets at this point.  Ridiculous."

Agreed.  I tried to do a one way from the NEC to Little Rock in March despite the inconvenience of the tri weekly LDT's.  System tried to tell me I couldn't get there from here.  I could piece it together on my own but couldn't believe how unfriendly it was to a seasoned traveler (using Amtrak for almost its entire existence, several trascontinental trips in years past, current AGR points balance > 117,000).  I completely can see how someone less experienced than you or me would give up trying to book a trip.  In the end I did a one way car rental. 

JPB Wrote:
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> Amtrak Northeast Regional 176 departs Roanoke OT
> at 0620 led by Genesis #100 celebrating 50 years
> of connecting America.
>
> What's that oddball reddish car in front of it?

EX N&W caboose used as a shoving platform.
Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

rustys6004 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hadn't realized there was Amtrak service to
> Roanoke (guess I've been busy elsewhere).  So I
> went to the Amtrak site to look into it.
>  Absolutely could not navigate the site in any
> reasonable way to find information.  Tried for a
> schedule RNK-WAS for next month... Nothing found.
>  Nor the month after that.  Looked it up by
> status of 176.  Other than "left on time" could
> not find a schedule/timetable to tell me where
> that train went or terminated.  
>
> Amtrak must not actually be trying to sell tickets
> at this point.  Ridiculous.

Hmm.  I went and checked out Amtrak.com and did a mock booking from Roanoke to DC.  No real navigation was needed, the boxes to fill out are on the first page.  The random Monday in July resulted in a $29 coach fare on train 176.  Easy as pie.  I am not sure why someone who could figure out how to post on this board could not figure out the Amtrak site, unless it is just another timetable rant.  Anyone who has ever bought an airline ticket on a Orbitz type OTA site should have no issue figuring it out.  

Of course, this post might not be credible to some, since I refuse to disclose my mass transit history to a certain poster....

I just used the Amtrak Android app to look for a trip next Monday.

Bingo. No problems whatsoever. Train 171 leaving Philadelphia at 2:10 PM arriving Roanoke at 9:55 PM. Four coach seats left at $ 135.

YMMV

Brian

What's this newfangled contraption called internet? Apps? Huh? I asked my 14 year old niece to book me a round trip NWK-Roanoke on the Amtrak app. She had it up and was asking me specifics in less than 15 seconds...Not hard people...

Typhoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rustys6004 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > I hadn't realized there was Amtrak service to
> > Roanoke (guess I've been busy elsewhere).  So I
> > went to the Amtrak site to look into it.
> >  Absolutely could not navigate the site in any
> > reasonable way to find information.  Tried for a
> > schedule RNK-WAS for next month... Nothing found.
> >  Nor the month after that.  Looked it up by
> > status of 176.  Other than "left on time" could
> > not find a schedule/timetable to tell me where
> > that train went or terminated.  
> >
> > Amtrak must not actually be trying to sell tickets
> > at this point.  Ridiculous.
>
> Hmm.  I went and checked out Amtrak.com and did a
> mock booking from Roanoke to DC.  No real
> navigation was needed, the boxes to fill out are
> on the first page.  The random Monday in July
> resulted in a $29 coach fare on train 176.  Easy
> as pie.  I am not sure why someone who could
> figure out how to post on this board could not
> figure out the Amtrak site, unless it is just
> another timetable rant.  Anyone who has ever
> bought an airline ticket on a Orbitz type OTA site
> should have no issue figuring it out.  

> Of course, this post might not be credible to
> some, since I refuse to disclose my mass transit
> history to a certain poster....

You miss an important point, Typhoon. It's not just figuring out the schedule and fare when you know the start and end points of the service you're interested in. Sure, that can be easy, and similar to many other travel websites that operate almost exclusively on a start-and-destination-point basis (mainly for airline travel), and if you know those two points.

But maybe you're a new potential Amtrak customer in the Roanoke area.

• You hear that there's relatively new Amtrak service, and you have some travel planned.
• The friend who told you about Amtrak took the train from Roanoke to Washington DC.
• But you wish to travel from Roanoke to either Charlottesville, VA, Waynesboro, VA or Stanton, VA, because you are going to visit family members in Waynesboro, VA, and they easily can come pick you up in either Charlottesville or Stanton. And maybe the train from Roanoke goes through Waynesboro -- and you can get off right there. You've seen Amtrak trains going through Waynesboro during past visits.

Does the train go through any of those three towns on the way to Washington? Or what route does it take?

• You don't want to drive because it's going to be a stay of several days, and other family members in your household need the car those days that you're away.
• And they are not available to drive you to Waynesboro and pick you up there.
• You know from past trips that there's no bus service, and a car rental (especially post-pandemic) is expensive. So, the train is an attractive option. 

So, you ask your friend who told you about the Amtrak service. He doesn't recall the route. Wasn't paying attention, reading on his phone, taking a nap, or perhaps chatting with a seatmate. So you have to find out.

Here's where the value of the timetable comes into play.

• In one easy view, it tells you the general route of the train and stations served. You don't have to enter a query for Roanoke and Charlottesville, another for Roanoke and Stanton, and a third for Roanoke and Waynesboro, and so forth for other possible origin-destination pairs to find out that the service does or doesn't go through or stop at some of those points.
  
  • Yes, you could enter Roanoke and Charlottesville, see that it works and stop right there, but what if for some reason you'd prefer Stanton or Waynesboro as your destination? For example, if someone in the household you're visiting regularly goes to Stanton, making it easy for them to pick you up there? 
  • And you could keep entering queries for different origin - destination pairs until you finally figure out (maybe) that the service goes north from Roanoke through Lynchburg and Charlottesville, but that Stanton and Waynesboro are on a different route (the Cardinal route), and it's not daily. Or that there's no stop even on that route at Waynesboro.

Yes, you can do all of that. And yes, you could call Amtrak. And yes, you could use a smartphone travel app (and they are very good).  But why should you have to do any of those? Why can't the Schedules link on the Amtrak.com landing page / portal give you access to searching by origin - destination, or give you the option to readily look at a timetable? And allow you to see the full context of your trip's route -- at a single glance.

The timetable gives context to a service which is not only origin-destination, but which has intermediate stops. You're a railroader, Typhoon, and you know the importance of the context that a timetable gives.

• And for a new customer. it tells them where the service goes from initial origin to final destination, and also lists the intermediate stops -- which are important to customers, and to Amtrak. Whether the service is on the NEC, in a regional corridor, or long-distance.
  
  • Outside of Southwest Airlines and its somewhat unique (at least today) point-to-point network, knowing a routing and any intermediate points served isn't particularly important for airline services, except for plane changes at hubs. That's why airline web sites and travel aggregator sites like Travelocity work fine for most airline travel on an origin - destination basis.
  • But Amtrak travel is different, and routing and intermediate points matter.

I understand from your post that you have worked in transit. Good for you. But there too the problem is different, I think (and I was a heavy user of rail, bus and commuter transit when I lived in Chicago for some years, and a daily CTA and IC Electric commuter).

• The intermediate stop and route coverage issue is mainly handled by schematic maps, which are pretty readily available. Timings at intermediate stations are somewhat less important -- it's the route and station stops that you need to know.
  
  • Say, I need to get to Irving Park Rd. and Rockwell St. on the north side. I go there to visit a friend occasionally, but not often enough to know for sure on the "El" if the Brown Line or the Blue Line is a better choice. Looking at the CTA rapid transit map, Rockwell St. is about equidistant from either line on the #152 bus I'll connect to.
  • But I'm starting my trip from Michigan and Randolph (I came into the Loop on the Metra Electric from Homewood to the Randolph St. / Millennium Park station). So it's the Brown Line on the Loop Elevated I choose -- it's closer to the start of my trip. I'd have to walk a few blocks farther to the Dearborn subway for the Blue Line.

The map that helped me figure this out, quickly, easily, at a single glance.. It gave me the at-a-glance context I needed to make my travel choice -- just as a timetable can do.

• That's what's important -- especially for a brand-new, first-time Amtrak customer.
  
  • Yes, I can enter query after query, and maybe I'll figure it out. And yes I can use one of the travel apps -- and yes they're great, right down to telling you when, where, how and time of connections, now far to walk, etc.
  • But for whatever reason -- and there can be many -- the passenger chooses to look at the choices another way. And they want to see them contextually, not serially, as in origin-destination queries, or in an app.

I don't know if you have done any marketing work in your career. I have done a considerable amount of it in my career. And two principles any good marketer knows are 1) respect the customer when they indicate their needs and wants, and 2) give the customer multiple, easy-to-adopt entry points to your product or service -- and for damn sure, don't throw up hurdles.

The folks here on TO who have indicated their frustrations at Amtrak's recent apparent complete lack of, or lack of up-to-date timetables, aren't carrying on "just another timetable rant", to use your words.

• They're potential customers --  and some of them, like Chessie, appear in fact to have been excellent customers.
• So what if they're railfans and they could figure it out some other way? Why should they -- or any potential customer -- have to do so?
• So what if my scenario about a traveler from Roanoke is a hypothetical? I can think of dozens of such hypotheticals, and what's more, I have actually done them in the process of booking Amtrak travel in the past. (I've done the Chicago - St. Louis route particularly many times, and in many ways as far as origin and destination points). And a timetable really helped in doing so.
• And so what if airline sites and travel websites are easy to use for A-to-B point-to-point travel -- and so are the wonderful travel apps on your smartphone. Sometimes -- a lot of times, in my experience -- a customer has good reason to consider and plan their travel by looking at various options in context. The way a timetable allows them to do. And especially if they have no knowledge of the available service.

It's not another rant -- It's practical marketing. Meet the customer where they are. Let them evaluate your product according to their needs -- not yours. Give them multiple options to understand your product or service -- like Amazon does (maybe that's why they're so darn successful, ya think?). Give the context they need to make the buy decision. And close the sale.

Amtrak can do better. And it should. And, very honestly, some (if not most or all of us) say it because we care. Really.

MC



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/21 21:03 by ironmtn.

And by the way, JPB, that is a fine image of the Roanoke train with the anniversary unit on the point. Should have said this first and foremost, and not "by the way." My bad manners getting swept up into the scheduling discussion, and doing my part to unfortunately sorta hijack your thread. My apologies. Thanks again for a neat image.Glad to see that the train has a healthy consist.

MC

Wish they had it in May 17 when I was over there, nice shot!