Passenger Trains > Has Amtrak Disappeared at Thanksgiving?

Watching Philadelphia TV stations pre Thanksgiving always included reports of traffic, reporters at the airport and 30th Street Station. There are no reports about Amtrak. I haven’t seen any mention of extra trains or additional coaches to handle the Thanksgiving rush. Has Amtrak disappeared? Sad.

Posted from iPhone

Railroads are being mentioned on the Colorado news stations - for upcoming December strike.  Passenger service - what's that-?!?  Amtrak train 6 through Denver, CO, on Tuesday, 22 November 2022 was 9-hours late - no TV reporters were hanging around Denver Union Station between midnight and 6:00 AM.

I think for the general population, Amtrak has disappeared all year round, if it has ever even existed at all.

We have gone from Nothing Else Counts to Nothing Counts.

Sad to see 16 brand new venture cars sitting at Beech Grove plus 100 other cars not being used to transport a record number of holiday travelers

No extra cars and staffing shortages seem to be the reason this season is not what it use to be

Posted from iPhone

Amtrak has NOT disappeared for Thanskgiving!

Amtrak travel is being mentioned near the top of each hour after the CBS network news, if not as the lead story each new hour and after the 30 minute break on WBBM News Radio 780 AM and 105.9 FM in Chicago. WBBM is Chicago's all-news station, a longtime prominent and powerhouse CBS News lead station, and widely listened to in the Chicago market.

The AM station is a 50,000 watt clear channel station that covers a large swath of the Midwest daytime, and a huge portion of the nation at night. They have a top-notch news reporting organization, and wide listenership across a broad demographic not only in the Chicago market, but in a large adjacent area. I live three hours away in western Michigan, and I listen regularly on the excellent signal, and I know many other people who do as well.

The heavy ridership through Chicago Union Station today and through the holiday period is being mentioned, and Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari is getting a 30- to 45-second recorded spot each time the story runs. And it's not the same recording either. I had WBBM on the car radio during errands today, and heard the story and Marc three times, and the recorded cut they played was different each time. That doesn't happen a lot - it's usually the same cut over and over. That shows a story that has "legs", and is getting top billing. Marc sounded really good, and effectively and capably talked numbers, flows through Union Station, how Amtrak is working to rebuild its staffing and services, and how passenger numbers are way up and approaching pre-pandemic level. All very well done.

And in those three broadcast segments that the Amtrak story led or was close to the top, I did not hear a single airline spokesperson. Not one. Airline traffic and passenger flows through O'Hare and Midway were mentioned as part of the larger holiday travel story, but there was not one recorded interview segment with an airline spokesperson. Not one.

This is NOT run-of-the-mill, chopped liver coverage. And it probably happened because Amtrak had reached out to WBBM and other media organizations, gave them info for a story, and indicated availability for recorded interview segments. You have to do some leg work to get prominent placement like that, and it's obvious that Amtrak had done so. Kudos to Marc Magliari and his team for a job well done.

Amtrak has NOT disappeared at Thanksgiving, either on the media radar screen, nor in actuality with the many thousands of travelers riding today. Despite what some of the naysayer trolls here on TO claim. They need a reality check.

MC
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/22 14:04 by ironmtn.

Amtrak's version of PSR, on steroids. We'll run where we want, when we want, the way we want.   If you don't like it, take the alternative

IRONMTN -  Yes, well I'm sure the folks at WBBM 780 & 105.9 appreciate your most
enthusiastic and ebullient endorsement of their All News format and the station itself !
The original comment from RDG630 deals with the absence of TV coverage in Philadelphia
and he is right. I just looked at WPVI, WCAU & KYW and NO reports from 30th Street
about Amtrak, but plenty of "holiday travel" reports from Philadelphia International Airport.

 

Not long ago Amtrak borrowed equipment from on-line commuter operators to run Thanksgiving extras. Not this year?

The news folks don't come to your place if there's no news happening. The lack of stories about Amtrak just tells you that nothing of note, good or bad, is happening.
 

CPR_4000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not long ago Amtrak borrowed equipment from
> on-line commuter operators to run Thanksgiving
> extras. Not this year?

Nope! No equipment borrowed from what can be determined at this time.......

People who pay Amtrak ticket prices want to ride in Amtrak equipment, not commuter rail equipment. There will not be any MARC or NJT trains in foreign states. Amtrak still has a crew shortage so the Tgiving schedule before covid-19 isn't happening this year.

CPMorris Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IRONMTN -  Yes, well I'm sure the folks at WBBM
> 780 & 105.9 appreciate your most
> enthusiastic and ebullient endorsement of their
> All News format and the station itself !
> The original comment from RDG630 deals with the
> absence of TV coverage in Philadelphia
> and he is right. I just looked at WPVI, WCAU & KYW
> and NO reports from 30th Street
> about Amtrak, but plenty of "holiday travel"
> reports from Philadelphia International Airport.

The title of the thread was universal - Has Amtrak Disappeared at Thanksgiving? It was not, "Has Amtrak Disappeared at Thanksgiving in Philadelphia". Nor was it specific to Amtrak's alleged disappearance in any other city.

Both Chicago and Philadelphia are two of the most important points, and hubs for many important services, on the Amtrak system. Maybe the title would have been appropriate if there was no coverage in Chicago. But there was, and it was on one of the most prominent news outlets in that city.

KYW is a comparable all-news format radio station in Philadelphia to WBBM, and also a major clear-channel CBS network station. I've listened to it many times. If they had failed to cover what was happening at 30th Street Station, which I am sure was every bit as busy as Union Station in Chicago, and had just as many packed and sold out trains if not more because of the traffic density on the NEC, then that's a failure on their part. And I would be surprised. They have always been a better news organization than that. It would be a big miss on their part.

And for the Philadelphia TV stations it was a big reporting miss, like a herd of elephants only going to the airport - especially in Philadelphia with its extensive rail service, including Amtrak. Talk about herd journalism myopia. Their miss, big time, not Amtrak's.

RDG630 may be right about no TV news coverage for Amtrak in Philadelphia. But he's not right about the alleged "disappearance" elsewhere, and in one of the most important cities on the Amtrak network. And by the way, read more carefully - my comments were really about the excellent job that Marc Magliari did in the interview cuts that were played, in prominent positions, each hour. WBBM was just the vehicle, and my remarks on the station were only for the benefit of the many non-Chicagoans on this board who might not of know it -- that this is not some little 5,000-watt local station that goes off the air at sunset. Marc carried the day for Amtrak on a major media outlet in the nation's third largest city with a smoothly delivered, well crafted message. Credit where credit is due. And I'm fair enough to give it. Are you?

MC

Nope, Amtrak did not disappear at all for Thanksgiving.

As for Philadelphia area media coverage of Amtrak Thanskgiving travel, CBS did not forget:

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/live/video/20221124020236-thousands-of-passengers-expected-to-pass-through-30th-street-station-today-for-thanksgiving/


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/22 20:16 by RuleG.

ironmtn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amtrak has NOT disappeared for Thanskgiving!
>
> Amtrak travel is being mentioned near the top of
> each hour after the CBS network news, if not as
> the lead story each new hour and after the 30
> minute break on WBBM News Radio 780 AM and 105.9
> FM in Chicago. WBBM is Chicago's all-news station,
> a longtime prominent and powerhouse CBS News lead
> station, and widely listened to in the Chicago
> market.
>
> The AM station is a 50,000 watt clear channel
> station that covers a large swath of the Midwest
> daytime, and a huge portion of the nation at
> night. They have a top-notch news reporting
> organization, and wide listenership across a broad
> demographic not only in the Chicago market, but in
> a large adjacent area. I live three hours away in
> western Michigan, and I listen regularly on the
> excellent signal, and I know many other people who
> do as well.
>
In 2017 they reduced their signal power down to 35,000 watts daytime, and 42,000 at night!

KOA does not seem as strong either, did these AM super stations get choked?

A picture is worth a thousand words!  Topeka depot parking lot 2014 vs. 2022!
It's disturbing to me, to say the least!

---

---

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> People who pay Amtrak ticket prices want to ride
> in Amtrak equipment, not commuter rail equipment.
> There will not be any MARC or NJT trains in
> foreign states. Amtrak still has a crew shortage
> so the Tgiving schedule before covid-19 isn't
> happening this year.

People may not like it, but that system worked at running 2nd and 3rd sections of various trains for decades, and those particular trains tended to have lower fares. It was generally NJT MU's and MARC single-level cars south of NY and MBTA equipment north of New Haven, with a stand-by set of SEPTA equipment. An Amdinete was thrown into the MARC and  SEPTA consists for the bathrooms.  

In 1992, I rode a Jersey Arrow from NYPS to Washington on Thanksgiving. The set up a make-shift snack bar across a few seats. It was hitting 117 MPH south of Wilmington. We survived and it was on time. They never book more than 75% of the 3+2 seats.

Now we have far fewer people carried, diverted to I-95, and the few seats remaining have super high fares. 

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> People who pay Amtrak ticket prices want to ride
> in Amtrak equipment, not commuter rail equipment.
> There will not be any MARC or NJT trains in
> foreign states. Amtrak still has a crew shortage
> so the Tgiving schedule before covid-19 isn't
> happening this year.

In years past though most would take whatever showed up. It was about getting home or wherever they spent Thanksgiving.

In reply to https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,5580982,5581373#msg-5581373

mp51w Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A picture is worth a thousand words!  Topeka
> depot parking lot 2014 vs. 2022!
> It's disturbing to me, to say the least!

That's just unreal! I expected to see at least a few cars parked in the second shot as I scrolled the screen down!

Jim

As far as press coverage,  I doubt if there's much interest in covering a few hundred passengers at most passenger stations,  even in big cities.  Compare this to LAX where they anticipate about a quarter million pax on Sunday alone. As someone above said,  non-commuter train travel is just not on many people's radar in 2022.