Long Distance Quick Reference Schedules for PHL, NYP, WAS, CHI

I found charts like these in an old Amtrak timetable:

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19721029&item=0028

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19721029&item=0029

So I made some of my own for the four cities with the largest ridership in Amtrak. I think Amtrak should publish charts similar to these and post on their website. It can show where you can get to from here for a particular city.

Only daily services are listed. Only direct services are listed when available (ex. NYP-WAS-CHI is not listed since NYP-CHI is available). Exception: Silver Meteor to Tampa because of the lack of diner car service on the Star. Thruway Bus options are only listed when there is no available daily train. For San Francisco, Transbay Terminal is used.

For the NEC cities, travel to/from NEC and BUF/PGH is not listed. For CHI, DET and STL are not listed.

I found CHI-LAX-SJC on the website which I didn't realize before and gets to San Jose a few hours behind CHI-EMY-SJC so I listed it for CHI, NYP, and WAS but not PHL (too many options then).

Please point out any errors.

Update: NE Regional trains now list M-F schedule trains.

Amtrak New York April 2016.pdf

Amtrak Washington April 2016.pdf

Amtrak Philadelphia April 2016.pdf

Amtrak Chicago April 2016.pdf

Why eliminate the Silver Star for not having a diner? It still gets you there. Or why drop the Cardinal or Sunset? They're still available to ride, just not every day of the week?

Such an abstract timetable is most useful when it includes all the connections too that Amtrak would normally offer to each location. Otherwise it gives a wrong constricted impression of what is available. So for example, NYP to CHI would include not just the LSL and the Cardinal, but also NER + Cap, Pennsy + Cap, specially considering that almost always the fare is lower via NER + Cap!

MikefromCrete said:

Why eliminate the Silver Star for not having a diner? It still gets you there.

Click to expand...

I did include the Star. I included the SM for TPA even though the SS doesn't require a transfer/bus because of the diner issue and significantly different times.

jis said:

Such an abstract timetable is most useful when it includes all the connections too that Amtrak would normally offer to each location. Otherwise it gives a wrong constricted impression of what is available. So for example, NYP to CHI would include not just the LSL and the Cardinal, but also NER + Cap, Pennsy + Cap, specially considering that almost always the fare is lower via NER + Cap!

Click to expand...

The full versions you suggest would be way longer than the compact versions I used. Six of one and half dozen of the other.

I tried to use the most optimal schedules in terms of shortest travel times and/or fewest transfers required. I would think two options whose travel times differ by three hours or less with the same or fewer transfers to be viable alternatives. Certainly the price difference is a valid point although prices do change much more frequently than the schedule does and trying to figure out less optimal routes are normally cheaper would be much more work and including every possibility makes the schedule much much longer.

The one problem is when I tried to find the appropriate schedules for Philly I typed in the date of a Saturday so those schedules are only valid for Saturday going west and Sunday going east. I will revise them for M-F at the very least.

Hopefully at the very least while we can debate on the format most if not all of us agree this is potentially useful.

Too bad the Amtrak timetable database is not available on line in a machine consumable form. If it were available in that form then you could do nifty things like what indiarailinfo.com does. For example here is an on the fly generated list of all direct service and customer provided connecting service between Kolkata and Delhi it shows days of service class of service and a whole host of info regarding OTP etc. all of which is dynamically available on line.

http://indiarailinfo.com/search/howrah-hwh-to-new-delhi-ndls/1/0/664

jis said:

Such an abstract timetable is most useful when it includes all the connections too that Amtrak would normally offer to each location. Otherwise it gives a wrong constricted impression of what is available. So for example, NYP to CHI would include not just the LSL and the Cardinal, but also NER + Cap, Pennsy + Cap, specially considering that almost always the fare is lower via NER + Cap!

Click to expand...

I think this shows the disadvantage of not having a second fast NYP-CHI train. In terms of time, the LSL is clearly the fastest option between the two cities with NYP-WAS-CHI the second with a transfer required and I'm not even sure what happens to baggage since NER's normally don't have baggage service. For a weekday train, the schedule with the WAS transfer leaves about four hours earlier and arrives one hour earlier for a three hour longer trip.

But back in the Three Rivers days,

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=20040426&item=0069

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=20040426&item=0071

49: NYP 2:50pm - CHI 8:55am

41: NYP 12:15pm - CHI 7:45am

The difference was less than two hours with no change of trains required and no baggage issue.

According to FY 2004 NARP data (file attached):

NYP-CHI on LSL: 15.9% of 272,203 = 43,280 (to nearest whole #)

NYP-CHI on TR: 6.5% of 149,562 = 9,722 (to nearest whole #)

By far the LSL was the more popular route but about 18% rode the TR between the two cities. Maybe if both trains existed today the TR could take some of the CHI-NYP traffic and either the prices for the LSL would go down and/or it wouldn't sell out as often. This isn't counting the passengers from Northern New Jersey to CHI for whom the TR out of Newark was more optimal than the LSL out of NYP.

It's obvious most of PA lost when the BL/TR was canceled but I think NYP lost a little too.

NARPtrains2004.pdf

Philly Amtrak Fan said:

with NYP-WAS-CHI the second with a transfer required and I'm not even sure what happens to baggage since NER's normally don't have baggage service ... and no baggage issue

Click to expand...

If you take the NEC->Cap and start at NYP, your checked baggage will be put on the LSL even though you are connecting in WAS.

the_traveler said:

Philly Amtrak Fan said:

with NYP-WAS-CHI the second with a transfer required and I'm not even sure what happens to baggage since NER's normally don't have baggage service ... and no baggage issue

Click to expand...

If you take the NEC->Cap and start at NYP, your checked baggage will be put on the LSL even though you are connecting in WAS.

Click to expand...

How about baggage for PHL-WAS-CHI? PHL-NYP-CHI? PHL-PGH-CHI?