98 Silver Meteor general On-Time Performance

[user 6862]

Thinking of getting the Silver Meteor from Winter Park, Fl to New York and was wondering what is the general On-Time performance. We will be flying back to London from NYC and as the SM is due into NYP at 11:00 am it does look on paper as though we could comfortably book a say 7:30 pm flight, is that correct?

We will have stayed in NYC for a couple of days on arrival so for this trip will be quite happy to go from train straight to airport. If there is a chance that we may not have enough time to make the connection then it will mean another night's hotel and would prefer not to do that.

Thanks

 

[acelafan]

"ASMAD" is a good source for this information.

Here is a link for the average delays/lateness of #98 along it's route for the past 60 days. It generally arrives into NYP about 1 hour late, and the median arrival is 27 minutes.

Here's another link showing arrival delays ranked by severity since January 1st. The worst delay was 7 hours, 33 minutes late...a rare occurrence.

A 7:30 PM flight should be plenty of cushion in my view.

 

[Bob Dylan]

As was said, you should have lots of cushion, but as we all know stuff can happen when traveling!

You didn't indicate if you were flying out of JFK or EWR, but have y'all considered taking a flite from Washington, BWI or Philadelphia to London?

All have excellent transportation options to the airport, and you would have even more padding built in with the earlier arrival of the Meteor into Washington,Philadelphia and Newark.

 

[user 6862]

Thanks Acelafan and Bob Dylan, from NYC I've since found flights leaving from 9 - 9:30 pm too, so a really big margin to the point it would have to be something special for Amtrak to cause us to miss a flight 10 hours after scheduled arrival time in Penn Station. I guess we'll have delay insurance so not too big a deal.

Mr Dylan in answer to your questions. Did look at Washington but currently it costs around $180 each extra to fly from WAS than NYC, too much for us. We also like the idea of completing the circle by ending the trip where we started, added to which we have never arrived in NYC by train and like the idea.

Having not booked the airline tickets we don't know which airport we will use, is one better than another for access from NYP? We may not have much choice if we want to fly from 9 pm onwards.

This trip is to start next September but flight prices are particularly keen in the weeks leading up to Christmas so want at least to book flights in the next 7 days or so.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I have taken a Summer run on the 98 each of the last 3 years and the latest we ever got into NYC was about 1 pm, which still gave plenty of time to grab a Metrocard, take the Subway to Katz's Deli, enjoy an amazing gut-busting meal and get back with plenty of time to catch the Lake Shore.

 

[Seaboard92]

I've taken the Meteor several times(3-4) each summer from Florence to New York. On average I arrive between on time and an hour early. Usually thirty minutes early. I can only think of one occasion when I haven't. My recommendation to you though is to travel on a Saturday or Sunday. There tends to be less freight traffic on the A Line which the a meteor uses. Plus less commuter train traffic so less delays

 

[acelafan]

I've taken the Meteor several times(3-4) each summer from Florence to New York. On average I arrive between on time and an hour early. Usually thirty minutes early. I can only think of one occasion when I haven't. My recommendation to you though is to travel on a Saturday or Sunday. There tends to be less freight traffic on the A Line which the a meteor uses. Plus less commuter train traffic so less delays

Good observation and ASMAD agrees.

Since January 1 of this year, #98 arrives into NYP on Saturdays or Sundays on average 27 minutes late. Median is 2 minutes late.

For Monday-Friday, the average is 59 minutes and the median is 37 minutes late.

 

[keelhauled]

We also like the idea of completing the circle by ending the trip where we started, added to which we have never arrived in NYC by train and like the idea.

There is nothing special about arriving in New York Penn Station, believe me.

 

[Seaboard92]

I've taken the Meteor several times(3-4) each summer from Florence to New York. On average I arrive between on time and an hour early. Usually thirty minutes early. I can only think of one occasion when I haven't. My recommendation to you though is to travel on a Saturday or Sunday. There tends to be less freight traffic on the A Line which the a meteor uses. Plus less commuter train traffic so less delays

Good observation and ASMAD agrees.

Since January 1 of this year, #98 arrives into NYP on Saturdays or Sundays on average 27 minutes late. Median is 2 minutes late.

For Monday-Friday, the average is 59 minutes and the median is 37 minutes late.

Can you Tell me how you get those stats. I would like to play around with them. That's the exact reason I travel weekends if I can help it

 

[user 6862]

Thank you

keelhauled, there must be some redeeming feature, something of interest? Don't forget that to us New York is exotic living half the year outside London suburbs and half the year in France profonde.

 

[acelafan]

I've taken the Meteor several times(3-4) each summer from Florence to New York. On average I arrive between on time and an hour early. Usually thirty minutes early. I can only think of one occasion when I haven't. My recommendation to you though is to travel on a Saturday or Sunday. There tends to be less freight traffic on the A Line which the a meteor uses. Plus less commuter train traffic so less delays

Good observation and ASMAD agrees.

Since January 1 of this year, #98 arrives into NYP on Saturdays or Sundays on average 27 minutes late. Median is 2 minutes late.

For Monday-Friday, the average is 59 minutes and the median is 37 minutes late.

Can you Tell me how you get those stats. I would like to play around with them. That's the exact reason I travel weekends if I can help it

Sorry, I neglected to provide the link. Here it is.

Just toggle the days of the week next to "Originating on" near the top of the page. After you hit Find Data, you will see the Average and Median stats near the bottom of the resulting table.

In this case since I wanted to see #98 arriving on Sat/Sun, I had to choose it originating on Fri/Sat.

 

[Shanghai]

The Silver Meteor is "MY" train. I have taken it 9 times this year and do not recall

being more than one hour late. I originate in Winter Haven, FL and depart in either

Washington DC or New York. I hope you have an enjoyable ontime trip and a good

trip back to the UK.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

I have taken a Summer run on the 98 each of the last 3 years and the latest we ever got into NYC was about 1 pm, which still gave plenty of time to grab a Metrocard, take the Subway to Katz's Deli, enjoy an amazing gut-busting meal and get back with plenty of time to catch the Lake Shore.

I arrived at around 1pm once. 1pm and a day late.

I have learned to have various backup plans for the Silvers to arrive late, though 24+ hours late was outside even those contingencies.

Though, one time it actually arrive an hour early. For that, I had no backup plans. So, we went to the ClubAcela, and killed an hour.

 

[Anderson]

I'm going to concur on the weekend point. I've had staff tell me point blank to travel on weekends (preferably Saturday) since CSX traffic is pretty light.