Which trains stop at which stations?

[H_X]

On a route with more than one train, how do they decide which trains stop at which stations? For example, how did they decide that Acela 2110 stops at BWI but Acela 2164 doesn't? As another example, Okeechobee has the Silver Star but not the Silver Meteor. Jesup has the Meteor but not the Star. If Okeechobee and Jesup are destined to have only one train, why isn't it the same train for both? It seems arbitrary to me...

Thanks!

 

[jerseymariner]

I used this link for the Star/Meteor comparison:

http://railpassengerusa.com/usalongdistance.php

 

[AlanB]

Not sure about the Silver's stopping at Okeechobee, but the Acela's its a time thing. They're trying to keep the running times down on Acela, so skipping stops speeds things up. What they do is the train that skips BWI stops at Metropark. Trains that stop at BWI skip Metropark.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I cannot answer the question about the Silvers.

But having grown up in the 50's before Amtrak I can tell you that very few trains on the same route made the same stops. I cannot even imagine it,even though I do not always know the reasons.

I guess a lot of times it had to do with population. And some trains,making fewer stops, thus faster than others. There were many lines which had several trains on them. Differences about which stops were made was not at all unusual.

There are at least two segments of preAmtrak schedules which come CLOSE to uniform stops. This would be the Northeast Corrider and the Florida East Coast line from Jacksonville to Miami.Nearly every train came pretty close to uniform stops on the FEC route. I guess that is because the beaches drew crowds at every station no matter the size of the year around population.

 

[me_little_me]

Many stations are on the main line i.e. a train stopped to disembark/pick up passengers will be blocking the main line for the time it is sitting there and while it is slowing/picking up speed. It also slows down the train's time. So if you were Amtrak, here are your choices:

• Make every stop with every train. Local will love you but nobody else will. The host railroad will be unhappy as will the passengers who want to get to their destinations. If you get delayed (loading/unloading a wheelchair-bound patron can be real slow), your train might miss its time slot and then will have to wait for an oncoming freight by sitting at a siding down the track. For track you own, you have other trains coming along behind.
• Skip those towns altogether with all the trains. Locals will hate you. Their politicians will then want your blood. Amtrak surely already has locals from other towns who hate them because they see the train pass by and their little station that had train service in the '60s no longer does adding a nail in the coffin of a dying town. Amtrak doesn't need more haters.
• Have some trains stop. Locals have their train. Those wanting to go to your town have a way to get there even if it means taking an earlier/later train from their city. You provide service to more cities so you get more customers. Less chance of getting delayed and train gets to main cities faster.

You have to make a decision for each and every town based on the hatred/politician factor, the revenue from the station vs the problems it causes, and the schedule you want to maintain. What would you do as Amtrak president?

 

[gatelouse]

You have to make a decision for each and every town based on the hatred/politician factor, the revenue from the station vs the problems it causes, and the schedule you want to maintain.

I absolutely love this succinct description of the factors involved. That, with the specific case of time-of-day/peak direction ridership trends (per AlanB) being a key driver, are what makes a train stop or skip.

WIL is the canonical example for political considerations on the NEC. Does it deserve a stop by every single Acela, especially considering that a Regional to WAS or NYP isn't all that much slower?

 

[AlanB]

WIL is the canonical example for political considerations on the NEC. Does it deserve a stop by every single Acela, especially considering that a Regional to WAS or NYP isn't all that much slower?

While true that WIL isn't that much longer to either WAS or NYP, WIL is headquarters for probably half to 2/3rds of all big banks in the USA. Therefore I believe that it actually drives more traffic to Acela than does say Baltimore. I know that in overall ridership it only lags behind Baltimore by about 200,000 rides. But again, I suspect that all that banking and their travels warrants the full schedule at WIL.