Amtrak Autumn Express Thread

Departing Newark Penn. On our way.

Does someone want to straighten this guy out?

From the WFMZ website:

"If we get our act together in the Lehigh Valley we could see a train…in the next five years," said Ed Pawlowski, Mayor of Allentown.

"What people don't realize is that Amtrak has the right of way under federal law on every freight rail track."

About 2 min away from South Plainfield.

Just passed Bound Brook NJ

A few very important errors and prejudgements from the article. If a freight company owns the tracks, then they get the priority but there are some who are generous toward passenger trains. Next, any current Amtrak corridor route or any proposed one, operating between endpoints in which one of them isn't on the NEC-the state decides for Amtrak what to do as well. Don't count on any train service reaching the Lehigh Region in the short term. It would be very nice, but if it were to happen, it would probably be NJT. NJT has their own issues much closer to NYC.

Coming up to Bethlehem Pa.

CP Burn

We just took the belt line at Reading; it sounds like the city line was an option but it was up to the dispatcher. Anyone know which the 10/29 train took?

Did all aboard draw the Monopoly Chance Card "Take a ride on the Reading". Will everyone pass Go and collect $200?

How many Metroliner cab cars are in the train? A photo shows that the 1st car is one.

No metroliner cab cars, that's the conference car 9800.

I was on 10/29. We also took the Belt Line. And likewise, according to PA announcer, it was up to the dispatcher. We did not know route ahead of time.

This was the exact moment on Sunday that I told my son we were riding the Autumn Express. That's excitement. It was a day that'll be etched in his mind forever.

Was the Sunday train earlier, or are the timestamps just messed up on here? Saturday's left Newark at 8:30something, per the schedule.

ryanov wrote:Was the Sunday train earlier, or are the timestamps just messed up on here? Saturday's left Newark at 8:30something, per the schedule.

The Sunday train left Newark at 8:30 also. We arrived in Harrisburg early (by about 45 minutes I believe), but after a long stop at Harrisburg and some slow going to Lancaster we were back on schedule by the time we left Lancaster and arrived back in NYP a few minutes early.

My thoughts:
I preferred having people line up in advance as they did in past years vs. waiting until they were boarding to announce the track. To be honest I don't know how it went since I heard some guy on a cell phone mention track 10, took the chance that he knew something, and waited over by that escalator, so I was on before the crowds arrived anyway. Still it would be really nice to not have to worry about getting a window. It definitely helps that they don't sell every seat, and keeping some of the cars closed initially I'm sure helped the folks boarding in Newark, still, reserved seating would be wonderful. Or at least reserve window vs. aisle, perhaps with different prices, maybe $225 for a window, $75 for an aisle, so if you're a couple you still pay the same $300, but if you're a single, you either pay for the privilege of a window, or you save by agreeing to sit in an aisle seat.

The photo stop at Lancaster was a nice idea, but didn't work so well from a photography (or safety) perspective. Too many people all along the platform edge (constantly told be the police to get back behind the yellow line) to get a decent picture as it pulled through. It would have worked better if they could have run the train through on the far track that doesn't platform so people could have lined up along the fence on the Harrisburg-bound platform, but I'm guessing logistically that wasn't an option. Overall I think there are just too many people to do a photo runby. I liked the addition of a "stretch your legs" stop though, and wouldn't mind if they kept doing 1 or 2 of those in the future, just don't move the train during the stop. It would be even nicer if it was someplace that isn't currently an Amtrak station (if it could still be done safely), but any stop was a nice change.

Running back at high speed instead of retracing our route out worked well, especially since it added some rare mileage.

Side note: Just wondering who from here was sitting near the front of the 4th car on Sunday (near the woman who worked at the Valley RR in CT)? I heard someone mention railroad.net just as we got to NYP, but they were gone before I got up there. I was in the middle of the car.