Head-end View wrote:Why does Amtrak stop at Ardmore, or Paoli for that matter? Those seem like very local stops.
Total passengers by station for 2015
Ardmore - 61,129
Paoli -174,833
Exton - 112,253
In comparison, Lancaster and Harrisburg see over 500K per year, and N. Philly = 832.
Ardmore's 61K is not too bad considering not all trains stop there and about the same # as Middletown, Mount Joy, and D-Town.
andrewjw wrote:Also, a not insignificant amount of traffic goes from those stops to NYC, I expect.
Just about every person that boards an eastbound Amtrak at Ardmore are traveling further then Philly. Majority stay on the same train with the minority transferring to another train. Daily Ardmore - NYC commuters has dropped significantly in years and I assume that is why only one eastbound train in the morning stops there.
bikentransit wrote:Keystone trains seem to be doing great in terms of ridership. It would be great to see SEPTA trains run to Lancaster or Harrisburg as local service and eliminate some of the stops Amtrak has to make, such as Ardmore and Exton. Perhaps with some sort of combination we could get hourly service and later service.
You don't need SEPTA to run all the way to Lancaster and Harrisburg to accomplish what you're proposing.
ekt8750 wrote:Correct. Trains regularly turnback at CALN which is just west of Thorndale Station but they have to qualify out to PARK. As for Parkesburg service, yeah part of the reason they ended service out there was the lack of interlockings beyond Downingtown. Before CALN was built for Thorndale service, there was nothing between Downingtown and Parkesburg and then nothing after that til Strasburg with LEAMAN interlocking. I remember there being a few midday Parkesburg runs where trains couldn't use PARK interlocking due to scheduling issues and had to go all the way out to LEAMAN to turnback.
There's been talk on and off about extending service to Atglen (which would require building a station). That would split the difference between PARK and LEAMAN but who know's if there's enough ridership to justify doing so.
CALN has been in around since the P&T was built and believe the trains switch over east of the station at THORN tower. I do not know if it is standard practice now, but when first opened, every westbound that was to return to service eastbound would switch over, alight, and board on the inbound side. Only westbound trains that would deadhead back eastbound would use the outbound platform.
Also, I vaguely remember that when SEPTA had service to Parksburg LEAMAN was not used as a turnback and SEPTA crews had to be qualified all the way to Lancaster. I am not sure about this one.
A true Athearn was straight out of Compton.
