WAS late night wait

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the_traveler

Engineer
Joined
Nov 15, 2007
Messages
25,998
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Whatever siding I'm sitting on!
The wait in WAS for train 190 (3:10 am departure) used to be comfortable. Not anymore!

I have done this many times. There used to be a bakery open all night. That was the only shop open at that time. But when I did this on 10/27-28, it was not open. (Thus nothing was open!)

Also with the VERY reduced seating, there is almost no place to sit and wait. And what there is to sit on is not very comfortable at all. And if you want to charge up your phone or computer - forget about it! There are no plugs around! (Airports have many charging stations at the gates.)

As much as I am an Amtrak supporter, this is more reason to fly instead of using the train!
 
How long was the wait (i.e. when did you get there)? FWIW, I did this wait in 2012 (for the VIA Adirondack)...and it involved sitting on the floor so I could get at a power plug for the three hours or so between when Red Dawn got out and when the train left.
 
I had a 3 1/2 hour connection between 165 and 190. I didn’t feel like sitting on the floor for hours after I finally found a plug!

Another thing is that they say the gates in WAS and NYP close xxx minutes before departure. WAS departure is 3:10, boarding began after 3. NYP departure is 8:15, boarding began after 8:10! Guess what? We left late!:confused:
 
I once waited for 190 in Baltimore. Not too much later than DC, arrived at about 330 am. The only thing open was the waiting room. At least there was a cop on duty, but it didn't seem too creepy, and there were a goodly number of fellow passengers waiting.
 
I took 190 once after missing earlier 148 which left at 3pm at the time (the only time I've missed a train I've had a reservation for) which was the last train of the day to serve Hartford, with or without a connection, and it was weird...nobody around! Luckily at the time I was living in D.C. not a far Metro ride away, so I took that and waited out the 12 hours there. I took a Lyft back to the station and remember the driver being astonished there were trains that left at 3:15am!

Please write to Amtrak or call Customer Relations with your complaints: Washington's concourse will be renovated and expanded in the coming years but the removal of seating is a relatively recent change aimed at reducing line length at gates.
 
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