another Keystone/ACL question...

I have to pick specific trains when purchasing Keystone tickets online, but when I pick them up they're unreserved. I could use them in a different order than I purchased them in, on different days from one another, and so on, and it's completely legit and I'll get all my AGR points.

I've never taken the NJT ACL, nor seen an NJT ticket on Amtrak stock, but my NJT experience on the NEC line with NJT stock is that NJT is all unreserved. Is that the case, such that my ACL tickets would be unreserved?

If so, I can dispense with the whole "I have to do PAO-CRH-PAO all in one day (plus getting to and from Paoli), and it'll take eight hours with all the layovers at 30th St" plan. Instead, I can reserve PAO-CRH round-trip on a single itinerary, pick up the four tickets, and then ride PHL-PAO and back one day and PHL-CRH and back on a different day. Since everything is unreserved, this is all above-board, and AGR for all four legs should post, right?

Benefit 1: much less sitting around at 30th St

Benefit 2: much more shopping time at Wegmans

Benefit 3: ... or in Atlantic City, which suddenly becomes possible if I don't have to get there via Paoli in a single trip :lol:

Am I right in my understanding of how each leg functions completely independently of the others once ticketed?

I, for one, enjoy sitting around in old, elegant monuments to the ego of railroads (Also known as Pennsylvania, Central, Grand Central, or Union Stations). They don't build things like that anymore. Especially for such a seemingly mundane purpose of waiting for a way to get from A to B. Plus you can watch all the trains go by. I found it fascinating watching Newark Penn during rush hour. I stood half-way up the ramp from Platform 3-4 to Platform H. The frequency of trains coming and going, and the sheer number of people aboard them, getting off of them, and getting on them was simply awesome.

I wish there was a way to oversea all that at New York Penn. Is there a way to watch over that in 30th Street?

Green Maned Lion said:

I, for one, enjoy sitting around in old, elegant monuments to the ego of railroads (Also known as Pennsylvania, Central, Grand Central, or Union Stations). They don't build things like that anymore. Especially for such a seemingly mundane purpose of waiting for a way to get from A to B. Plus you can watch all the trains go by. I found it fascinating watching Newark Penn during rush hour. I stood half-way up the ramp from Platform 3-4 to Platform H. The frequency of trains coming and going, and the sheer number of people aboard them, getting off of them, and getting on them was simply awesome.
I wish there was a way to oversea all that at New York Penn. Is there a way to watch over that in 30th Street?

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I love just sitting or wandering around the main station hall at 30th St, watching the bustle of people queuing up, the Solari boards flapping, and the grandeur of the architecture and sculpture. But the only place you can stand and watch trains is on the upper-level SEPTA commuter rail platforms, where things are just not all that varied or exciting. I mean, occasionally you see a switcher come through or even an MoW train, but as SEPTA-watching spots go, the best is actually Market East, nineteen blocks east of 30th, where you look down on all four tracks from about two stories up through enormous plate glass windows. Huge windows, great view, neat to see things from above, indoors and warm and sheltered.

The lower-level Amtrak platforms are only accessible to ticketed passengers, who are only sent down the stairs from the station hall about five minutes before train arrival. It's possible to linger on the platform rather than rush for the stairs when you arrive at 30th St, of course, but I imagine after a while someone's going to come and ask you to leave.

There are nice overlooks from several blocks away from the station on the south, west, and north sides, where you can look out over the main line and the yard tracks. The protected sidewalks on the Walnut St bridge over the Schuylkill are good for the southern view, the walk from the old PRR/PC/Conrail office building (now Drexel computer science) to 30th St gives a nice view of the yard tracks just to the west of the station, and the 30th St/Market St highway exit ramp from I-76 E gives a fantastic view right through the station from the north. I haven't discovered a good pedestrian-friendly view from that angle, but very late at night when there's little traffic, I slow down there and I've considered pulling over onto the shoulder (there are two traffic lanes and a right shoulder on that exit ramp).

Once upon a time, those buildings weren't just for "getting from point A to point B", they were also "if you're arriving at point B, this is the one and only spot you will be arriving at, what you will see first and what will give you your first impression of our fair city". These days, that function is largely taken over by airports, and with very few exceptions (the original Saarinen design for JFK comes to mind, but of course external expansion has ruined those lines and the original interior--straight out of the Jetsons--is gone) the Douglas Adams line holds true: "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression 'As pretty as an airport...'"

Similarly, Flanders and Swann's line "If God had intended man to fly, he would never have given us the railroad."

Airports seem more like people-processing plants than anything else. The dehumanizing aspect of airports is simply incredible.

You can go down to the lower level platforms at 30th Street unchallenged if you look like an NJT passenger. If a train happens to be boarding, they will open one of the even-numbered stairways for you to walk down. You may have a little time down there to catch some action, although once the NJT train leaves it might be advisable to head upstairs to the station.

"few exceptions "

One of those exceptions would have to be the Denver airport.... still would rather be butt scooting on Amtrak through there, though, than riding cowboy in the air turbulence.