Passenger Trains > Amtrak Announces "Night Owl" Fares

https://www.amtrak.com/nightowl

Amtrak is introducing new discounted coach fares for late night and overnight Regional trains and resurrecting the "Night Owl" name for it. I think this is a great idea. In addition to the traditional Night Owl train it also includes other departures between New York and DC between 7 PM and 5 AM.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/23 12:48 by lordsigma.

Its a good shot across the bow.   NY-PHL for 10 bucks.   NY-WAS for 20 bucks,  Pretty amazing.

Only bad news is that it is apparently NEC only (??), and they are still paying no attention to the national network...(??)   Can I go from Oakland to redding. CA overnight for 10 bucks.?  I dont think so.  IF im wrong, LMK.

pdt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Its a good shot across the bow.   NY-PHL for 10
> bucks.   NY-WAS for 20 bucks,  Pretty amazing.
>
> Only bad news is that it is apparently NEC only
> (??), and they are still paying no attention to
> the national network...(??)   Can I go from
> Oakland to redding. CA overnight for 10 bucks.? 
> I dont think so.  IF im wrong, LMK.

You can't even drive from Oakland to Redding to 10 bucks unless you're driving an EV.

Only $10 between PHL and NY? This is cheaper than SEPTA ($10 PHL-TRENTON)
and NJ Transit ($16.75 Trenton- NY). Total - $26.75!  So ride Amtrak, save $16.75
and avoid the transfer at Trenton !  Also, PHL-Wilmington $10. Cheaper than SEPTA!

Nice alternative to either NJT or SEPTA for whavever intermediate stops too, if you can get $10. Buy a NY - Philly  ticket, and get off where you want. 

Nice to see them offering good night fares in the NEC (Nothing Else Counts), but there is plenty of railroad beyond Harrisburg west, where they need similar attention.

I don't know - I find this very telling......It's an interesting marketing strategy. A bit clever actually. But it clearly speaks to the extra capacity that exists. The marketing slogan of "No reason to catch the red eye when you can catch the Night Owl" - not bad, but not sure if that's comparable. Did Amtrak forget it could do the same with Viewliner sleeper cars? Amtrak was (still is I presume) forbidden to do discount on long distance coach fares. Course there's a clear imbalance of demand/supply with the long distance (national system) trains.

Overall, I do hope that this attracts riders from airlines to Amtrak trains. But, very telling......   

I can see Amtrak not doing it with LDT because often with LDT you are forced to ride at night anyway.  Because of the limited number of trains, the scheduled arrival and departure times are at God awful times late in the night or in the wee morning hours.

Victor Baird

 

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can see Amtrak not doing it with LDT because
> often with LDT you are forced to ride at night
> anyway.  Because of the limited number of trains,
> the scheduled arrival and departure times are at
> God awful times late in the night or in the wee
> morning hours.
>
> Victor Baird
>
>  

Amtrak offered a "rail sale" for various Amtrak trains on its website - mostly LD trains in the national network - for quite a number of years in the late 1990s and early 2000's.........