Standing on the train

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Bill Haithcoat

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I noticed that "New rider" had to stand on a N.E. corrider train recently. I have seen that also, in the N.E. TP 49 and other mention it also.

Also in a recent post I mentioned having to stand in the vestibule for 2.5 hours on a cold night before Thanksgiving in college days ('62 or '63) Forgot to mention that people were even in the baggage car....perhaps my only time to actually walk into a baggage car.(the airlines were on strike which complicated it severely) That particular train had eight more hours to go to complete its journey after I got off---hope some of those people got seats before the night was gone.

What about anybody else?

Any really long periods of standing on a long distance train?
 
Well for the most part these days they try to avoid standing by seating people in the lounge, but if it is THAT overcrowded people could be standing.
 
battalion51 said:
Well for the most part these days they try to avoid standing by seating people in the lounge, but if it is THAT overcrowded people could be standing.
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I think Amtrak is trying to do a better job of not over selling reserved trains too. I think the only trains you're likely to end up as a standee are unreserved trains in the Northeast and on the West Coast.
 
Pacific Surfliners, which normally run unreserved coach class service, are all reserved seating during the Thanksgiving holiday period. There should be no standing passengers in Southern California this weekend.
 
Unfortunately that is not the case up north this weekend as the Capitols are still unreserved. Ths San Joaquins are always reserved.
 
tp49 said:
Ths San Joaquins are always reserved.
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San Joaquins were still overbooked. I rode 714 Wednesday and it was standing room only from Stockton to Bakersfield (even after passengers were seated at tables in the cafe car instead of coach seats, and even with five coaches vs. the normal three). Fortunately I was one of the first on in Stockton and got a seat. We were 15 minutes late out of Stockton but a little over 2 hours late into Bakersfield, the result of longer than usual station dwell times due to many many passengers and bags on and off at each stop. It also didn't help that the longer-than-usual train did not fit on many of the valley station's platforms. There was a line nearly two cars long for the snack bar the ENTIRE trip and the lady running it was pretty stressed out. It wasn't my best trip on the San Joaquins to say the least.

One of the conductors told me that 712 had the same problem with standing room only that miorning.
 
Seeing how the SJ's were SRO too I wonder if anyone on the board heard anything down south about Surfliners being SRO even though they were reserved for the weekend.
 
jccollins said:
tp49 said:
Ths San Joaquins are always reserved.
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San Joaquins were still overbooked. I rode 714 Wednesday and it was standing room only from Stockton to Bakersfield (even after passengers were seated at tables in the cafe car instead of coach seats, and even with five coaches vs. the normal three). Fortunately I was one of the first on in Stockton and got a seat. We were 15 minutes late out of Stockton but a little over 2 hours late into Bakersfield, the result of longer than usual station dwell times due to many many passengers and bags on and off at each stop. It also didn't help that the longer-than-usual train did not fit on many of the valley station's platforms. There was a line nearly two cars long for the snack bar the ENTIRE trip and the lady running it was pretty stressed out. It wasn't my best trip on the San Joaquins to say the least.

One of the conductors told me that 712 had the same problem with standing room only that miorning.
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How did the Amtrak Thruway bus connections from Bakersfield to Southern California (operated by Coach USA/Antelope) run?

It must have been a nightmare for them too.
 
tp49 said:
Seeing how the SJ's were SRO too I wonder if anyone on the board heard anything down south about Surfliners being SRO even though they were reserved for the weekend.
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The northern portion of the Surfliners (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles) probably did OK. Los Angeles to San Diego could have been otherwise, considering the SRO on the SJs.

It will be interesting to see Amtrak California's ridership statistics for the month of November for this year.
 
Allen Dee said:
How did the Amtrak Thruway bus connections from Bakersfield to Southern California (operated by Coach USA/Antelope) run?
It must have been a nightmare for them too.
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It wasn't actually quite as bad as I had expected. We were only in Bakersfield for about 25 minutes before the buses departed. I have NEVER seen so much baggage transferred by Amtrak from the train to the buses before. All of the bus slots were full at the station and two buses were boarded behind the regular bus boarding area in an area that is normally part of the parking lot. At least we weren't short on buses. The Bakersfield staff really had it together and this part was quite impressive. There were plenty of Amtrak staff on hand at Bakersfield (not onboard, unfortunately) and quite a few were available in the mezzanine area to direct passengers to the appropriate buses.
 
jccollins said:
Allen Dee said:
How did the Amtrak Thruway bus connections from Bakersfield to Southern California (operated by Coach USA/Antelope) run?
It must have been a nightmare for them too.
Click to expand...
It wasn't actually quite as bad as I had expected. We were only in Bakersfield for about 25 minutes before the buses departed. I have NEVER seen so much baggage transferred by Amtrak from the train to the buses before. All of the bus slots were full at the station and two buses were boarded behind the regular bus boarding area in an area that is normally part of the parking lot. At least we weren't short on buses. The Bakersfield staff really had it together and this part was quite impressive. There were plenty of Amtrak staff on hand at Bakersfield (not onboard, unfortunately) and quite a few were available in the mezzanine area to direct passengers to the appropriate buses.
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I was at LAUS several months back. I went out to the bus loading dock and witnessed the first 3 sections loading and departing for Bakersfield.

After these coaches departed, 3 more pulled in to accommodate the passengers coming in from the south on the Pacific Surfliner.

There was one bus dispatcher and only one baggage handler to transfer the checked baggage. I talked to the bus dispatcher, and he told me it was not uncommon for 12 sections on busy holiday weekends.

It must be much more complicated in Bakersfield, with passengers traveling to a multitude of destinations.
 
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