Timetables - offline flavor

I think PDFs of schedules would suffice with maybe printed schedules being available for more frequent operations.

A similar issue came up recently when the National Speleological Society decided to stop printing members manuals. There was definitely an outcry and some of the points I think were valid. On the other hand, a society dedicated to among other things, conservation, had a hard time justifying sending manuals to members, a majority of whom would toss them. The main argument is, "people can still download the PDF and print it." Which is true.

That said, I recommended to them, and I would to ANY such society and also to Amtrak to have SOME form of printed document, even if it's a very limited distribution and that's for archival and research purposes.

I've seen multiple articles in the NSS News where someone dug through archives to find the history of some member or related information.

Besides just current railfans, 3 decades from now railfans and legitimate researchers are going to want copies of timetables. An electronic only version is nice because it's always current, but, unless steps are taken, that's also a HUGE issue because it's ONLY current. Yes, current railfans may print out copies and hold on to them, but that's not quite the same.
At least with the NSS Membership manual, I'm about 95% certain that not only does the NSS Headquarters have printed manuals going back to inception, so would many research libraries. These are an important part of our history and will continue to be so.

(An example of non-railfan research could be the case of Congressional Staff trying to gather data to support a bill to speed up the NEC, and wanting to compare train times over the years. Without easily accessible historical records, this ability will be compromised.)

So, I don't think Amtrak needs to make 100s of thousands of copies of their timetables available, only to be tossed after one use, but I do think for several reasons, if they're not, they should be taking steps to ensure research libraries and other areas DO have them, and that individuals can print them for their own needs.

When I was volunteering at the NRHS Library in Philadelphia we got a call from the Philadelphia Inquirer wanting to compare "then and now" scheduled times for the PRR Chestnut Hill local. Without the Official Guides in the collection we would have had nothing to tell them. The times were about the same over a 100-year period except that in steam days the trip took about five minutes longer going to CH (the highest point in Philadelphia) than coming back -- apparently the gradients had more effect than on the steam engines than on the future electric MUs.

This will not happen But if Amtrak required to make PDF available and note number of hits then required to print some fraction of that number.

Nah, just hit up a print-on-demand service. Even Amazon offers it (what I used for my book, Kindle Direct Publishing). They'll small-batch print and bind the national timetable book and ship as needed.

Corridor service (NEC, Cascades, etc) though it a bit tricky. Let me grab the latest NEC schedule and see if I can condense it down to 11"x17" format. If I can on the worst case... then you can move printing to high-flow stations and have the station masters print them on demand. Otherwise, it's PDFs all the way.

WashingtonPark wrote: ↑Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:57 am Try this https://amtraktimetables.com/timetables/ or this https://www.railpassengers.org/resource ... imetables/

WP: Thank You for these two timetable links...I was already familiar with the RPA timetable page being
on their email list. From checking both timetable sites I wanted to see if there was any special NEC - Empire or
Keystone Service Thanksgiving 2021 timetable issued as a PDF to download. Is there any special TT available?

With Thanksgiving Week beginning Amtrak's special Thanksgiving timetable was made available in advance for
the period of seven days - Tuesday through the following Monday of the Holiday period. With the ridership loss
in 2020 there was no special Amtrak NEC Thanksgiving TT as far as I recall.

GM: I agree with you - there should be some sort of percentage of printed copies of timetables available or at
least a downloadable PDF with all of the information that is contained in any given TT. For example during the
Thanksgiving Holiday period each year there would be leftover copies that would end up (hopefully) getting
recycled after the seven day period that the special schedules that were in effect ended. There is now not a
need to print the sheer volume of special NEC Thanksgiving timetables that were once issued.

If anyone knows of any special Thanksgiving timetables showing service changes - even if they are only for
the two peak days of Wednesday November 24 and Sunday November 28 please post where they can be
found and downloaded if possible...MACTRAXX

So I grabbed my copy of LibreOffice and roughed out a tabloid-sized schedule... and I can get the weekday NY to DC on one double-sided page. If I use two "leafs" (two sheets of paper), I can get the entire NY to DC schedule in. The BOS to Norfolk/Virginia Beach also looks like I can fit on a tabloid-sized 2-leaf format, although I may need to switch the font from Arial 8pt to Arial Narrow 8pt.

Thanks. Amtrak has published nothing about holiday service increases, but the Nov. 15 - Dec. 2 bus detour to Lakeland and Tampa was suspended this weekend without any notice I saw. The Silver Star train went to Tampa Saturday and Sunday.

It may be the NOL - NYP for your dates cannot take the usual NS cancellations MON - THURSDAY starting earl in Jam and ending in FEB ? That normally is MON _ THURSDAY actual days on that section ATL <> NOL.

https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/the-e ... timetable/

From what I've heard, ridership in the U.K. hasn't collapsed due to the lack of a printed timetable...

Here's an example of how Via Rail Canada displays their full route timetables online:
https://www.viarail.ca/en/plan-your-tri ... 2021-12-20

This example is for for service between Montreal and Toronto on 12/20/2021. To see the complete schedule for the route click on the word "Scheduled+" for the train you are interested in.

This seems like a sensible way to display the full schedule for a train route online.

What's nice is that if you select a date/train that is en route you will see the timetable, the real-time schedule, the estimated time until arrival (for each stop), and a map with the location of the train -- all on one page. On the Amtrak's site you would have to look in three different locations on their website to find the schedule, the train status, and a map of your train.

wigwagfan wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:59 am https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/the-e ... timetable/

From what I've heard, ridership in the U.K. hasn't collapsed due to the lack of a printed timetable...

Doesn't hurt there's probably a train per hour to most destination s. More people probably looking for the cheapest fare rather than time.