Station locations with the same name

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
BCL

BCL

Engineer
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
4,413
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Anyone ever made a mistake or get confused booking a trip because of common city names?

If you start with the A's, the first common city name is Ardmore then Ashland.

I guess in the San Francisco Bay Area, there might be confusion if there were ever Amtrak stops in Albany or Danville. Amtrak trains actually run right through Albany. Richmond creates an interesting dilemma. I'm curious about how Richmond, California got RIC. Strangely enough, it seems to be possible to book RIC-RVM with the CZ/CL/NER, or CC/CL/NER taking 4 days.
 
Newark, DE and Newark, NJ

Doesn't take nearly as long as your Richmond to Richmond. :giggle:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Each morning before 8am in Seattle, there are trains departing north to Vancouver and south to Vancouver at almost the same time. Despite signs, announcements, and ticket checks, it is a major challenge to keep people from boarding the wrong train.
 
Sactobob said:
Each morning before 8am in Seattle, there are trains departing north to Vancouver and south to Vancouver at almost the same time. Despite signs, announcements, and ticket checks, it is a major challenge to keep people from boarding the wrong train.
Click to expand...
And it doesn't help that the train to Vancouver, WA is 501, and the train to Vancouver, Canada is 510.
 
I would imagine the Southwest Chief gets a lot of confusion between Las Vegas, NM and Las Vegas, NV, as there is a thruway bus to Las Vegas, NV.
 
CHamilton said:
Sactobob said:
Each morning before 8am in Seattle, there are trains departing north to Vancouver and south to Vancouver at almost the same time. Despite signs, announcements, and ticket checks, it is a major challenge to keep people from boarding the wrong train.
Click to expand...
And it doesn't help that the train to Vancouver, WA is 501, and the train to Vancouver, Canada is 510.
Click to expand...
That's just too perfect. Must be a nightmare for dyslexics. So do they clarify it with northbound/southbound? In any case, Vancouver, WA isn't the terminus of any train is it? However, I've heard announcements from conductors or station staff ticking off destinations, so I'm guessing that would be the issue when someone hears "Vancouver".
 
Yes, they clarify that it is NORTHBOUND to Vancouver CANADA (with a Canadian flag), vs. SOUTHBOUND to Vancouver WASHINGTON and Portland OREGON (with an American flag) but a lot of people are so geographically challenged that they don't know the difference between North and South.
 
There was a news story within the last couple of years (which I can't find now) about a driver who was caught trying to go through the Canadian border crossing without stopping. They insisted that they thought they were driving south on I-5 to Vancouver, Washington, but had mistakenly driven north toward Vancouver, BC instead. Totally oblivious.
 
Springfield, MA and Springfield, IL

Little Rock, AR and Little Rock, CA

San Marcos, Tx and San Marcos, CA

Portland, OR and Portland, ME

Lincoln, NE and Lincoln,IL
 
Last edited by a moderator:
CHamilton said:
Sactobob said:
Each morning before 8am in Seattle, there are trains departing north to Vancouver and south to Vancouver at almost the same time. Despite signs, announcements, and ticket checks, it is a major challenge to keep people from boarding the wrong train.
Click to expand...
And it doesn't help that the train to Vancouver, WA is 501, and the train to Vancouver, Canada is 510.
Click to expand...
That's...probably a good case for switching some train numbers (i.e. flip the numbers of 501 and 503).
 
Windsor, VT, and Windsor/Windsor Locks, CT. The Vermonter stops in Windsor, VT and Windsor Locks, CT (it skips Windsor, CT). I have family in tiny Windsor, VT and the last time I took the train up there the conductor wrote the station code for Windsor Locks, CT WNL instead of WNM on the seat check. He didn't try and kick me off the train but after the crew change the new conductor north SPG didn't just examine my ticket again but asked to scan it.

I've definately typed in the wrong state before, but generally because the routes are so different you realize the mistake quite quickly.
 
tim49424 said:
Bangor, MI and Bangor, ME
Click to expand...
Bangor, ME doesn't count, its just a throughway, stop in my humble opinion, I guess the Vegases are in the same category.

NJ Transit even has the same problem, serving a Middletown, NY (on the Port Jervis line, it operates it under contract to Metro-North) and MIddletown, NJ (on the Jersey Coast Line).
 
One of my thoughts was about the stories of people booking a trip to "San Jose" believing they were headed for The capital of Costa Rica and ending up in Silicon Valley.
 
Regarding the Vegases, I have heard of cases where passengers have stepped off the train in Las Vegas NM and wondered where the casinos were located. Geographically clueless travelers can easily do a search for trains to Las Vegas and not notice that they are being ticketed to NM and not NV.
 
How about Jackson, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi. I was on 354 once when the conductor woke up a passenger as Jackson was 10 minutes away. She wondered why we were there so quick,"she never got to Mississippi this fast". The City of New Orleans was boarding at CUS on an adjacent track.
 
Charleston SC (Silver Meteor & Palmetto) & Charleston WV (Cardinal); change at Washington DC.

Which reminds me :) Washington DC (too many trains to name) & Washington MO (MO River Runner); change at Chicago.

Three near-matches:

Detroit MI (Wolverines) & Detroit Lakes MN (Empire Builder); change at Chicago.

Rensselaer IN (Cardinal/Hoosier State) & Albany-Rensselaer NY (Lake Shore Ltd., Empire Service, etc.); change at NYC.

Charlotte NC (Crescent, Carolinian & Piedmonts) & Charlottesville VA (Crescent, Cardinal & NERegional); no change needed on Crescent. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sactobob said:
Each morning before 8am in Seattle, there are trains departing north to Vancouver and south to Vancouver at almost the same time. Despite signs, announcements, and ticket checks, it is a major challenge to keep people from boarding the wrong train.
Click to expand...
This would be a non-issue if the citizens of Vancouver, Washington would change the name of their city to Fort Vancouver. This proposal has been voted on in the past, but has always been defeated. The good people of Vancouver, Washington claim that since their city is the older of the two, why should they change the name? So the confusion continues ad infinitum. I like the name Fort Vancouver. It would give the city a certain cachet and a brand which it doesn't have now. And, after all, the city had its origins in the fort of the same name.
 
Washington, DC and Washington, MO probably counts as the most annoying since I've punched in WAS as my origin on the website and accidentally clicked on "Washington, MO" when trying to shift to the destination box.

Edit: And on the two Vancouvers, it might behoove someone to change the train numbers (say, switch 501 to 503 or 510 to 508) so they look more distinct on the tickets (501/510 is easy enough to mentally transpose, I suspect).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
jimhudson said:
Springfield, MA and Springfield, IL

Little Rock, AK and Little Rock, CA

San Marcos, Tx and San Marcos, CA

Portland, OR and Portland, ME
Click to expand...
I didn't know there was a Little Rock, Alaska. And I was very surprised to see that a bus actually stops in Little Rock CA as the population there is about 1400.
 
Sactobob said:
Regarding the Vegases, I have heard of cases where passengers have stepped off the train in Las Vegas NM and wondered where the casinos were located. Geographically clueless travelers can easily do a search for trains to Las Vegas and not notice that they are being ticketed to NM and not NV.
Click to expand...
Clueless travelers would probably flunk a quiz as to which State the more lively of the Vegases is situated.
 
May not be apropos, but an earlier post triggered a memory of the best USA Today graphics I have ever seen (as a devotee of Edward Tufte I relish these things)

The most common place name in the US is Washington

The second most is Lincoln,,,

Care to guess the third ?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top