Superliner Diner
Conductor
Effective with the October 27th timetable change, there will be some changes to the schedules for trains between the Midwest and the east coast. The Lake Shore Limited has already been covered in another thread.
The westbound Three Rivers, Train #41, will operate later than it does now. It will depart New York at 1:45 PM (vs. 12:15 PM now), Philadelphia at 3:50 PM (vs. 2:25 PM now), and arrive in Chicago the next morning at 9:20 AM (vs. 7:45 AM now). So in a sense it is flip-flopping arrival times with the Lake Shore Limited, possibly because of the fact they share trackage between their merge point in Indiana, and Chicago Union Station.
The eastbound Three Rivers, Train #40 is for now unchanged.
The westbound Pennsylvanian, Train #43, will run later than it does now. Its Philadelphia departure will be at 8:20 AM (compared to 8 AM now), and it will get into Chicago at the very quiet hour of 2:25 AM (as if the current 1:44 AM was much better). If you think that's bad, read on....
The eastbound Pennsylvanian, Train #44, will run over an hour later than it currently does. All aboard from Chicago at 1:00 AM !!! At least currently it's a little before midnight. It will get to Philadelphia at 9:15 PM, which erases some of the benefits of the previous 8 PM arrival time.
I will be very interested to see what happens at Chicago Union Station with these changes to the Pennsylvanian. When I rode #43 into Chicago a few years ago, it was at that time supposed to arrive at 12:30 AM or so, but was a bit late. The station closes for the night midnight to 5 AM, one of the few major city Amtrak stations to do so. When the train arrives, passengers are herded out to Canal Street by Amtrak police and strategically-placed barriers. Now with the scheduled arrival time 2 hours later than that, plus a 1 AM departure of #44, it seems to me that the station will have to be at least partially open, to give "both" passengers brave enough to depart at that hour a place to await their train.
Changes to the Capitol Limited will be very minor. The only change to westbound #29 is that it will run just 10 minutes earlier than it does now through its entire trip. Eastbound #30 operates at essentially the same times, only its arrival in Washington is at 1:55 PM, ten minutes later than present.
What this means, particularly for westbound passengers, is that the connection between #41 and #29 at Pittsburgh is broken. Under the new schedule, #41 will arrive in PGH at 11:30 PM, twenty minutes after #29 has gotten the highball. This connection was important for those who wished to go between points served by #41 east of PGH, and #29 west of PGH. Some who preferred sleeping and having breakfast on a Superliner even transferred in Pittsburgh in order to take advantage of the increased amenities offered by the Capitol Limited. Eastbound, there's still a comfortable 2-hour connection at Pittsburgh from #30 to #40, but obviously connections have to work in both directions or they are almost useless to many passengers.
The westbound Three Rivers, Train #41, will operate later than it does now. It will depart New York at 1:45 PM (vs. 12:15 PM now), Philadelphia at 3:50 PM (vs. 2:25 PM now), and arrive in Chicago the next morning at 9:20 AM (vs. 7:45 AM now). So in a sense it is flip-flopping arrival times with the Lake Shore Limited, possibly because of the fact they share trackage between their merge point in Indiana, and Chicago Union Station.
The eastbound Three Rivers, Train #40 is for now unchanged.
The westbound Pennsylvanian, Train #43, will run later than it does now. Its Philadelphia departure will be at 8:20 AM (compared to 8 AM now), and it will get into Chicago at the very quiet hour of 2:25 AM (as if the current 1:44 AM was much better). If you think that's bad, read on....
The eastbound Pennsylvanian, Train #44, will run over an hour later than it currently does. All aboard from Chicago at 1:00 AM !!! At least currently it's a little before midnight. It will get to Philadelphia at 9:15 PM, which erases some of the benefits of the previous 8 PM arrival time.
I will be very interested to see what happens at Chicago Union Station with these changes to the Pennsylvanian. When I rode #43 into Chicago a few years ago, it was at that time supposed to arrive at 12:30 AM or so, but was a bit late. The station closes for the night midnight to 5 AM, one of the few major city Amtrak stations to do so. When the train arrives, passengers are herded out to Canal Street by Amtrak police and strategically-placed barriers. Now with the scheduled arrival time 2 hours later than that, plus a 1 AM departure of #44, it seems to me that the station will have to be at least partially open, to give "both" passengers brave enough to depart at that hour a place to await their train.
Changes to the Capitol Limited will be very minor. The only change to westbound #29 is that it will run just 10 minutes earlier than it does now through its entire trip. Eastbound #30 operates at essentially the same times, only its arrival in Washington is at 1:55 PM, ten minutes later than present.
What this means, particularly for westbound passengers, is that the connection between #41 and #29 at Pittsburgh is broken. Under the new schedule, #41 will arrive in PGH at 11:30 PM, twenty minutes after #29 has gotten the highball. This connection was important for those who wished to go between points served by #41 east of PGH, and #29 west of PGH. Some who preferred sleeping and having breakfast on a Superliner even transferred in Pittsburgh in order to take advantage of the increased amenities offered by the Capitol Limited. Eastbound, there's still a comfortable 2-hour connection at Pittsburgh from #30 to #40, but obviously connections have to work in both directions or they are almost useless to many passengers.