Thanksgiving Week Extras

I read a notice in Penn Station that stated an additional 60 trains would be running for the holidays. Traffic was definitely pretty brisk on Sunday night coming from NYP to Boston.

EVERY regional service train out of Union Station Washington DC was sold out when i tried to buy a ticket to go see my parents.

I got lucky and found the 1 non acela service train that still had a couple seats open

The printed Thanksgiving week NEC timetable was available at South Station in Boston on Saturday. From what I could see, there are a bunch of extra trains being added between New York and Washington but none out of Boston this year. Of course they can always add "unadvertised" runs in addition to what's in the public timetable.

That's what I meant by the extra traffic. Where will Amtrak get the 60 extra trains from ? On occassion I have seen MARC equipment on the NEC and I once saw, several years ago, a VRE at Frankford Junction. I belive that Amtrak has used Septa equipment, though without bathrooms on board I don't know how they managed that. North of NYC would Amtrak ever use Metro North or Conn. Dot ? How about outside the NEC ? Does Amtrak run extras in other parts of the country ? Or just add extra cars, wherever they might be found ? And even if the seats are sold out will Amtrak sell tickets for standees ? I remember riding the PRR and later Penn Central and early Amtrak where the aisles were jammed with standees. When I complained the conductor told me to read the ticket. I had paid for transportation, not a seat.

Most of the commuter equipment that you see is run between NYC and DC. Plenty of MARC and transit arrows. Will anyone be railfanning along the corridor around then? Have fun while railfanning but be careful.

kevikens wrote:That's what I meant by the extra traffic. Where will Amtrak get the 60 extra trains from ? On occassion I have seen MARC equipment on the NEC and I once saw, several years ago, a VRE at Frankford Junction. I belive that Amtrak has used Septa equipment, though without bathrooms on board I don't know how they managed that. North of NYC would Amtrak ever use Metro North or Conn. Dot ? How about outside the NEC ? Does Amtrak run extras in other parts of the country ? Or just add extra cars, wherever they might be found ? And even if the seats are sold out will Amtrak sell tickets for standees ? I remember riding the PRR and later Penn Central and early Amtrak where the aisles were jammed with standees. When I complained the conductor told me to read the ticket. I had paid for transportation, not a seat.

It is most definitely built into the operations contracts for the commuter lines that are staffed by AMTRAK staff that if needed AMTRAK can use any "extra" motive power or trailer cars for extended service

i can almost guarantee that V30 was the VRE locomotive that you saw at Frankfurt Junction because that is actually an old AMTRAK F40, for some reason that i have yet to figure out its in VRE paint and running VRE service, i don't know if VRE bought into it, is leasing it ???? i just don't know

They use to run extra cars on 347/348 during the Season I remember 1 that stands out 1 F40, 1 Cafe, 2 Coaches and get this 5 Dome Coaches.

Yeah I'm thinking about getting out on Thanksgiving day njt/mnrrbuff. Any ideas as to what would be the best time, AM or PM?

If you can't get an Amtrak Thanksgiving timetable, go to their website and look for NEC trains with four digit train numbers beginning with 1 (Regional extras) or 3 (transit trains). MARC equipment will be used.

Here are some from Thanksgiving Sunday last year:
http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _28_13.jpg

The Regional extras look like Regionals
http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _28_26.jpg

bad quality pix in the rain; MARC train
http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _28_33.jpg

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _28_42.jpg

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _28_68.jpg

chuchubob wrote:If you can't get an Amtrak Thanksgiving timetable, go to their website and look for NEC trains with four digit train numbers beginning with 1 (Regional extras) or 3 (transit trains). MARC equipment will be used.

They have a downloadable Thanksgiving schedule on there, Bob? If they do, I can't find it...I'd much appreciate a point in the right direction (just post a direct URL here if you can)...

Thanks.

Mike DiMunno

Mike,

I haven't found a Thanksgiving Holiday timetable online. Before I picked up my hard copy, I went to the amtrak.com site and plugged in the date (most extras are on Sunday), from PHL tp NYP, and the time (8 AM). this gives 3 or 4 hours of trains. Doing this and plugging in three different times for each direction gives all the trains. Yes, it's tedious.

From the printed timetable, I made myself a list of approximate times at Frankford Junction for Sunday:

time train
11:10 3143
11:16 1174
11:40 1074
12:12 3154
13:10 3095

Some of The West Coast Trains are sold out.

Looking at the timetable I would guess that trains 3078, 3167, 3154 and 3045 will be handled by the two MARC trainsets and trains 3143, 3096, 3095 and 3082 will be handled by the 2 NJT Arrow trainsets.

I am also guessing that the extra clocker cars will be strapped onto the back of the keystone trains cause there's extra haulage capacity. I wouldn't be surprised to see some 8 or 10 car Keystones.

What was the all time highest ridership during the Thanksgiving holiday? and in what year?

I was just wonderning on what equipment will Amtrak borrow from other transit sysyems along this Northeast Corridor this Thanksgiving that will be used on Wednesday & Sunday.