One very nice thing about Amtrak, at least on the corridor services, is the 23.5 hour stopover rule. Essentially, as long as it's ticketed as such in advance, someone can make an unlimited number of stops between point A and point B as long as they're less than 23.5 hours each and only pay the through fare. I do think it defaults to the bucket of the most expensive leg of the trip, but other than that it can save quite a bit of money if someone wants to see a city for a day on their way to a destination, meet up with a friend for a few hours, or just take a break from traveling for a bit. I did it in October on the NEC, going WAS - PHL - NYP - BOS for $79, the same cost as going straight through WAS - BOS. I was able to see PHL for the day and spend an evening in NYP on my way to BOS, which was really nice. I'm also planning on doing it next month, stopping in MKE for a few hours before heading home on the Builder. For the same price as taking the Builder straight through from CHI to SCD, I'm going up on a Hiawatha to MKE that morning, meeting up with a friend for a few hours, and finishing my trip to SCD that afternoon.
To me, it's a huge competitive advantage for Amtrak. Most stops are in or near city centers, so tourist sites and landmarks are usually pretty easy to access. There's also typically no security lines, so compared to airlines you're not wasting a few hours of the layover leaving and re-entering security. I'm not even sure if airlines offer something comparable, though they might. I don't think Megabus, Greyhound, or any of the major bus companies do something similar, at least to the extent the Amtrak multi-city tool lets you (where you can choose what train and how long of a layover you want at specific stations of your choosing.) In fact, it's a major reason why I chose Amtrak both last month and next month...the ability to stop over offers enough added value that other transportation modes become a bit less appealing (as the same stopover would cost me two full tickets on other modes, versus one on Amtrak.)
Why doesn't Amtrak advertise this option more, and possibly even expand it on the long distance trains to 48 or 72 hours? Maybe I'm just an edge case that finds this option really useful, but I wouldn't be surprised if Amtrak could advertise it and get more business that way.
To me, it's a huge competitive advantage for Amtrak. Most stops are in or near city centers, so tourist sites and landmarks are usually pretty easy to access. There's also typically no security lines, so compared to airlines you're not wasting a few hours of the layover leaving and re-entering security. I'm not even sure if airlines offer something comparable, though they might. I don't think Megabus, Greyhound, or any of the major bus companies do something similar, at least to the extent the Amtrak multi-city tool lets you (where you can choose what train and how long of a layover you want at specific stations of your choosing.) In fact, it's a major reason why I chose Amtrak both last month and next month...the ability to stop over offers enough added value that other transportation modes become a bit less appealing (as the same stopover would cost me two full tickets on other modes, versus one on Amtrak.)
Why doesn't Amtrak advertise this option more, and possibly even expand it on the long distance trains to 48 or 72 hours? Maybe I'm just an edge case that finds this option really useful, but I wouldn't be surprised if Amtrak could advertise it and get more business that way.