Penn Station Emergency Repairs: Trackwork, etc.

[pumpers]

While stopped at the Alexander Hamilton rest stop on the NJ Turnpike around 3:30 yesterday, the results of the trackwork were quite evident. With a EB Amtrak Regional stopped on Track 1 with an NJT train nosed it to its rear, a WB Acela and 3 NJT WB trains came by in the space of about 10 minutes. It was quite a show.

Could it have been just the normal weekend pattern (for the past few years) of one tunnel closed. For the active tunnel it has been 30 min (or less actually to let traffic clear before reversing direction) in each direction in every hour?
JS

[glennk419]

I suppose that is entirely possible. Nonetheless, the parade was quite entertaining.

[hs3730]

Albany-Times Union article from Friday notes while it is not official these are the projected trains which will be routed to GCT:

Southbound: 230,236,242
Northbound: 233,235,239

Weekend service will not be impacted (Monday-Friday only)

Source: http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-busine ... 209740.php

Interesting, nice and spread out! Though 239 does not run on Friday, 293 (the Ethan Allen) takes its place. Might they instead run 291 Friday (cancelling 255) and run 239 for simplicity?

[rohr turbo]

I know it's trivial, but I am really looking forward to Amtrak trains in GCT again! Small throwback to great times for the grandest station in the world. I only wish the Solari board were still there and able to use the blunt arrow Amtrak flap.

[Nasadowsk]

Which brings up an interesting question: How on earth are they going to list/announce the trains at GCT, and will Amtrak have any ticketing or such there?

[Patrick A.]

Since the only trains being routed to GCT are Albany terminating, the amount of Amtrak servicing required is pretty low. Would imagine they could have a few staff members stationed there with mobile ticketing equipment (mini tablet scanners the conductors have) to assist with any connecting passengers and for ticket inspection. Since overwhelming majority of folks have smartphones with web-ticketing, don't think they would need to haul a Quik-Trak machine over there, but if they wanted to I'm sure that could be easily accomplished, or take up space in one of the ticket booths in the main concourse.

Tricky thing will be displaying which track the trains will be on, unless MNRR will dedicate a single track to Amtrak operations and direct people there?

[Jenny on a M2]

I would imagine that the Amtrak trains to ALB would get their track assignments displayed on the Hudson Line departure board since they ARE going up the Hudson line. They're just going a bit beyond Poughkeepsie.

There's plenty of space in the "Remarks" column of the departure board to identify the train as an Amtrak service as opposed to garden variety Hudson Line service.

This seems the most logical solution to me at least.

[Backshophoss]

Believe MN could free up 1 ticket window at GCT for Amtrak,if needed,but may need to use portable devices to handle ticketing,
unless Amtrak maintained their data lines into GCT.

[rohr turbo]

Who remembers when the Amtrak ticket windows were the 3 or 4 on the east side of the little ramp from the main concourse to the waiting room? Be funny if they reappropriated those!

[AgentSkelly]

On my very first Amtrak ride in the infamous Turboliner in 1989, I remember that windows well as we waited in line to get tickets for our return to SDY.

My understanding is that Amtrak now uses VPN connections over internet to their back office.

[Jeff Smith]

Which brings up an interesting question: How on earth are they going to list/announce the trains at GCT, and will Amtrak have any ticketing or such there?

They'll also have to make some kind of allowance for posting that information at NYP, too, for travelers expecting to make a connection there. Perhaps they'll list the track as "GCT"?

And will the tickets for these trains show "NYG" (or "GCT") instead of "NYP"? How will it show up in the ticketing system online?

[Gilbert B Norman]

In an article focused upon LIRR affairs, The Times has confirmed the reroute of three Empire trains into GCT:

http://nytimes.com/2017/06/12/nyregion/ ... pairs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

.The authority, which runs Grand Central Station, reached an agreement with Amtrak to have some Amtrak trains that normally travel to Penn Station instead go to Grand Central this summer, Ms. Hakim said, adding that six trains from Amtrak’s Empire Service between New York City and Albany would move to Grand Central to provide relief at Penn Station.

It appears to me that all three agencies using Penn are "sharing the pain" during the project. Possibly NJT's D,L,&W a bit more (no service into Penn), but basically it seems like a "we're all in this together" mindset.

It'll pass in due course.

[JimBoylan]

In Amtrak's mind, each of their trains that uses MetroNorth's Grand Central instead of Penn Station makes room for 1 more Long Island Rail Road train to be allowed to stay at Penn Station. Since MetroNorth and Long Island are under common ownership, that's why the cooperation.

[rohr turbo]

NYT:

...Grand Central Station...

Pretty disgraceful error for your Gray Lady. I see they have corrected it in the last few hours, however.

[TCurtin]

Believe MN could free up 1 ticket window at GCT for Amtrak,if needed,but may need to use portable devices to handle ticketing,
unless Amtrak maintained their data lines into GCT.

Well, there sure is no shortage of unused ticket windows at GCT, so that's no problem. I would imagine that importing a ticketing device (or two) not to mention a couple of Quiktrak machines, is no big deal.

Now, this probably wouldn't occur to very many of us but it would be nice to see a bow to tradition by using track 34 at Gct ---the 20th Century track