Hello all ;
Here’s an interesting site that ‘tells the story’ of amtrak in timetables, it has almost every single one up untill November 2010
In case someone wishes to ‘dig a little deeper’, there’s another site wich contains a nice collection of pre amtrak stuff
http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/
Enjoy it
Amtrak took over passenger services on day one without adjusting or dropping trains, it was whatever the participating roads were running at the time, Amtrak got. They started consolidating trains and routes, dropping duplicate routes, rearranging schedules, adapting to worn out equipment and breaking down trains. So of course day one was a big day. But subsequently schedules and number of trains were cut. As things changed, new trains were added, old ones eliminated, and new services and routes developed. Service, schedules, routings are so much better today than at any time from the beginning. Non paying or unsupported routes no longer exist for the most part, trains that are used are doing the job on old and new routes with help from states like California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Maine, and Illinois. Yes, long distance trains across the northwest still exist but are serving the purpose of Amtrak to provide public transportation where none exists. Acela’s, many of the San Diegans, Downeast, and many other services exist today that didn’t exist back at the beginning. And the likes of the Broadway and 20th Century Limited are gone. Can’t compare today to day one for many reasons…in some cases because track don’t go there nomore.
When Amtrak began (day 1) there were 9 daily trains from Boston To New York. Today there are 20.
Mario, thank you for providing us with those two links.
It is interesting to see the difference in speeds from one time to another; particularly the speeds of the City of New Orleans. The City’s (as it was called by IC personnel in southern Mississippi; they also spoke of the Pannyma.) time had to be increased in 1947 after the ICC issued its dictum concerning the maximum speed allowed with certain means of signal and train control systems protection. I wold not be surprised to learn that the original schedule was written with the thought of much running faster than 79 mph.
Henry: How about North Carolina, Virginia, Vermont ? Maybe Missouri Tesax, Oklahoma ?
Yes, they all have more and better services than Day One offered. And the states themselves have stepped forward, too.
NY- Albany. 6 at the start. 2:40 running time. A couple years later, 5 with 2:50 running time. Now 13, with 2:20 - 2:30 running time.
Didn’t know about this site. Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
In 1949 the New Haven’s Merchants Limited left Boston at 5 pm, stopped at Providence and New Haven and arrived at Grand Central Station, New York at 9 pm. 4 hours.
Today an Acela leaves Boston at 5:10 pm stopping at Providence, New Haven and Stamford and arrives at Pennsylvania Station, New York at 8:45 pm. 3 hours and 35 minutes.
Something that most of us don’t remember (possibly by choice) is that many of the trains from prior to May 1, 1971 were little more than one or two coaches and possibly a snack bar-coach. Good examples would be ATSF 23-24, C&NW 1-2, any number of PC trains outside the NEC, etc., etc., etc.
Of course that was a time when some railroads had become alienated from railroading and were actively trying to get rid of business.
At least between Champaign and Centralia , the ‘crack trains’ (Citys of NO & Miami, ‘Panyma’) were allowed 100 Mph versus 79 today, and left from ICs on station in Chicago, therefore dispensing a time consuming back up move that happens today everytime there’s a train going from Union Station to the mainline of mid America
In NYC & PC times, the top speed for NY-ALB was 70 Mph, today, a substantial part of the line has top speeds of 90 mph (with some restrictions at 70, 75 and 80 in several places), with a short section were the top speed is 95, just after Pougkeepsie, and a ‘big’ (about 17 miles) section at 110 Mph just South of Albany, that explains the shorter times of today. Yet some times today are actually slower than they were when the Turboliners were used, here’s an example: Albany - Hudson, Turbos 19 minutes, today : 25 minutes. Maybe the ‘tie scorching index’ is lower today, or the fact that Genesis are slow performers in terms of acceleration is too evident
The Acelas Schedules have way too much padding, I believe 3hrs 20 or 3hrs 25 are possible
I’m sure you are right, Mario. Also more time could be saved by omitting stops at Back Bay (1 mile from South Station) and Route 128 (11 miles from South Station. And Stamford is a commuter stop. Take those away and Acela Boston to New York could be cut to 3 hours. When there is a new catenary between New York and New Haven even more time could be saves.
Finally, the Merchants Limited had to stop 20 minutes in New Haven to change engines. Those engine changes were done away with in the 90’s.
John
You can find the padding in Amtrak NEC schedules pretty easily. They don’t build much slack into the running times EXCEPT in the last leg to destination or intermediate station that has “recovery dwell” (New York, in the case of Acelas). Just compare the running time in the leg in each direction and you’ll see the padding.
To/from Stamford and NYP 52 vs 40 minutes, so padding is 12 minutes.
I find it hard to understand why the Acela should stop at Stamford at all. Stamford is a commuter station.
Tradition. NH would run GCT or NYP with stop at Stamford. Like PRR to Newark, DL&W to Newark, Erie to Passaic and Ridgewood, B&A to Back Bay, etc. The idea was to pick up or drop off passengers who rode to or from intervening stations. It was called “service”.
How many trains actually ran in the US on 1 May 1971-- maybe half the number that ran on 30 April?
You are right, Henry. Many New Haven trains did stop at Stamford. And they also ran locals that were really local. For example, the Beacon Hill which stopped at East Greenwich and Hillsgrove RI. I could walk to Hillsgrove and catch the Beacon Hill.
But the Merchants Limited was their crack express. It did not stop at Stamford. And the Acela is supposed to be a crack express too.
John