This way lies madness

[wayman]

So, this is Amtrak rail travel, AGR calculations, non-Amtrak rail travel, and upcoming member travel, all in one... but the part I'm least certain of is how many AGR I'll wind up with after all of this, so I'm posting it here for anyone who wants to check my math.

Goal #1: I need two more NEC >$50 segments by March 14th to qualify for the B2G1 AGR promotion.

Goal #2: I want to visit a friend in DC, and the weekend of February 27th works for both of us.

So, there's a very easy way to fulfill both goals: just pick PHL-WAS and WAS-PHL regionals that have bumped up to the $63 bucket (from the $44 low bucket). That's exactly what I did for my inauguration trip in January.

But... other seemingly unrelated goals...

Goal #3: Take a trip to Atlantic City sometime soon for a poker tournament.

Goal #4: Ride ACES.

Goal #5: Eventually ride all of Boston, Mass, to Fredricksburg/Manassas, VA, via non-Amtrak (not necessarily in a single trip!). Using non-Amtrak methods to bridge Newark-to-Perryville and Providence/Worcester-to-New London, which is the added challenge, since no non-Amtrak rail options exist for those.

And I think I can accomplish Goals #1-4, and knock out the Sharon Hill-WAS stretch of Goal #5, with only two weekend trips.

Trip #1:

Friday 27 February

SEPTA R2

dep.Sharon Hill 11.51, arr.Wilmington 12.24

"DART connecting service" (on R2 schedule)

dep.Wilmington 12.37, arr.Newark 13.07

Fare: $3.50 (Intermediate Advanced Zone 2 to Zone 5) (would be $4.75 if from PHL, for reference)

DART Bus 65

dep.Newark R2 Station 13.42, arr.Elkton North & High Sts 13.57

Fare: $1.15

C.T. Cruiser "The Bus, Perryville Connection"

dep.Elkton 241 North St (at High St) 14.05, arr.Perryville MARC Station 14.42

Fare: $3.00

MARC Penn Line

dep.Perryville 15.00, arr.WAS 16.42

Fare: $11.00

TOTAL Fare for Sharon Hill-WAS: $18.65, plus a token to get to Sharon Hill

(would be $19.90 plus $4.25 if it was a full PHL-WAS plus Lansdowne-PHL, for reference)

Sunday 1 March

Amtrak NEC Regional 182

dep.WAS 19.20, arr.PHL 21.12

Fare: currently at the $63 bucket ($56.70 with AAA)

Total Trip #1 fare is $75.35 (would've been $113.40 round-trip Amtrak).

That leaves one more NEC >$50 trip to qualify for the B2G1 free round trip, which I can get with...

Trip #2:

Friday 6 March

Amtrak NEC Reg 130

dep.PHL 08.30, arr.NYP 09.59

Fare: currently at $64 bucket ($57.60 with AAA)

ACES 7163

dep.NYP 14.30, arr.ACE 17.16 (note different Atlantic City station code for ACES)

Fare: currently at $44.00 bucket

Jitney Bus to Showboat Casino and back for the 7 PM $65 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament

(I mean, when in Atlantic City... and I was a pro poker player in Vegas for a while....)

Saturday 7 March

New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line

dep.ACY 01.45 (or 05.45), arr.PHL 03.17 (or 07.24)

Fare: $8.00

Total Trip #2 fare is $109.60 (would be only $16 round-trip by NJT-ACL).

So, Trip #1 + Trip #2 = $184.95.

Alternately, doing PHL-WAS-PHL on Amtrak would cost $113.40 (to qualify for B2G1), and doing the cheapest possible trip on ACES (just to get to ride it) from Philadelphia (NJT to Atlantic City, round-trip to Newark on ACES, NJT back to Philadelphia) costs about $16+$98=$114, for a grand total of about $228 ... so I'm saving about $43 by taking these two trips in this fashion.... I think? Which is roughly the cost of the poker tournament...

Assuming I book the whole thing with my AGR-MC, booking the NJT-ACL trip "to Paoli" (required, but I don't have to take that leg on the same day), I think Trip #1 and Trip #2 combine for...

114 AGR Rail Points from WAS-PHL ($56.70)

114 AGR Chase AGR-MC Amtrak-Purchase Points

114 AGR AGR 2xMasterCard Promotion Points

116 AGR Rail Points from PHL-NYP ($57.60)

116 AGR Chase AGR-MC Amtrak-Purchase Points

116 AGR AGR 2xMasterCard Promotion Points

88 AGR Chase AGR-MC Amtrak-Purchase Points (ACES $44 fare; but no rail points from this)

100 AGR Rail Points from ACY-PHL

16 AGR Chase AGR-MC Amtrak-Purchase Points (NJT $8 fare)

TOTAL 330 AGR Rail Points, and 564 additional AGR, for a total of 894 AGR.

Plus the 100 AGR Rail Points, and 14 additional AGR, for the PHL-PAO leg that I'll have to purchase with this but will take on a later date.

Plus a free round-trip on the NEC sometime this June, from the AGR B2G1 promotion

Can somebody double-check that math? :huh: :unsure:

Also, can somebody confirm that taking these two trips makes some small degree of sense ... in addition to being totally nuts? :unsure: :blink: :lol:

(And with this, I'll have finished WAS-to-Westport, CT, towards Goal #5; also Manassas-to-Alexandria, but not Alexandria-to-WAS unless we count Alexandria/KingSt-Rosslyn-MetroCenter-WAS.)

 

[the_traveler]

I didn't check your math, but here's a suggestion for the PVD-NLC section. Shore Line East goes NHV-OSB, but you can ticket on SLE to NLC, but it will be on an Amtrak train (although technically your ticket is from SLE). Between NLC and PVD, you can take the 'Hound - with the NLC terminal at the station. In PVD, the stop at Kennedy Plaza is a short (<1/4 mile) walk to the PVD station, where you can catch MBTA to BOS.

 

[AlanB]

I didn't check your math, but here's a suggestion for the PVD-NLC section. Shore Line East goes NHV-OSB, but you can ticket on SLE to NLC, but it will be on an Amtrak train (although technically your ticket is from SLE). Between NLC and PVD, you can take the 'Hound - with the NLC terminal at the station. In PVD, the stop at Kennedy Plaza is a short (<1/4 mile) walk to the PVD station, where you can catch MBTA to BOS.

Actually there is one SLE train per day that does run to/from New London. The rest of the service to New London however is provided by Amtrak.

 

[AlanB]

Wayman,

While I too didn't stop to add up all the numbers, two things pop out at me. One, if you catch a later R2 train, you wouldn't have to transfer to a bus at Wilmington to reach Newark. Not sure if that's conducive with your schedule, but it is something to perhaps consider.

Second, the ride from Atlantic City back to Philly using Amtrak tickets is only supposed to qualify for points if you're using it as a connecting train. Since you aren't connecting to any further Amtrak service, you may or may not be able to get AGR to award those points. One thing I can tell you for sure is that points never post automatically for the ACY-PHL thruway service. You always have to call AGR to get those points no matter what.

 

[wayman]

While I too didn't stop to add up all the numbers, two things pop out at me. One, if you catch a later R2 train, you wouldn't have to transfer to a bus at Wilmington to reach Newark. Not sure if that's conducive with your schedule, but it is something to perhaps consider.

The catch is that not too many combinations exist where all four segments (PHL-Newark, Newark-Elkton, Elkton-Perryville, Perryville-WAS) connect, especially since very few MARC Penn Line trains originate in Perryville. If I left Sharon Hill at 6:00 AM, I could take an R2 direct to Newark, DART and The Bus to Perryville, and wind up with the 9:01 AM MARC from Perryville; but there aren't any MARCs between the 9:01 and 3:00 departures, nor after 3:00 PM, from Perryville

Second, the ride from Atlantic City back to Philly using Amtrak tickets is only supposed to qualify for points if you're using it as a connecting train. Since you aren't connecting to any further Amtrak service, you may or may not be able to get AGR to award those points. One thing I can tell you for sure is that points never post automatically for the ACY-PHL thruway service. You always have to call AGR to get those points no matter what.

Since the NJT-ACL ticket and the Keystone ticket are both "unreserved", my thought was that after I've used both tickets (possibly on different dates) and after the Keystone points post automatically, I could call AGR and say "there were two segments on this reservation number, but only one of them posted...". And in theory, that would prompt them to find the ACY-PHL thruway ticket and add it to my account. I suppose it's not strictly "by-the-book" unless I ride them on the same day, but since they're unreserved tickets, wouldn't this still get the points?

I actually tried this last July, but I never got around to calling AGR and trying to add the NJT points what with all the moving. So I might have missed out on 200 points in 2008, or I might have discovered at that point that this wouldn't work. Might as well try it again and actually remember to call this time....

 

[wayman]

I didn't check your math, but here's a suggestion for the PVD-NLC section. Shore Line East goes NHV-OSB, but you can ticket on SLE to NLC, but it will be on an Amtrak train (although technically your ticket is from SLE). Between NLC and PVD, you can take the 'Hound - with the NLC terminal at the station. In PVD, the stop at Kennedy Plaza is a short (<1/4 mile) walk to the PVD station, where you can catch MBTA to BOS.

Yeah, I think the Hound may be my only option for PVD-NLC

Going westbound, SLE operates the train leaving NLC at 7:55 PM (all other westbounds from NLC are Amtrak-operated).

So, on a return trip from Boston, I could take...

MBTA dep.BOS 10:25, arr.PVD 11:30

Greyhound dep.PVD 12:30, arr.NLC 14:15

SLE dep.NLC 19:55, arr.GCT 23.51

Amtrak 67 dep.NYP 03.00, arr.PHL 04.37

I'd like to go for gonzo and do MBTA-Greyhound-SLE-MetroNorth-PortJeffersonFerry-LIRR into New York, or the reverse, but I don't think that's doable in a single day if I limit myself to the one SLE in either direction that actually goes to New London. But since I won't be doing this any time soon, I'm not scheduling it out just yet