What ever happened to Amtrak timetables, and why? Amtrak used to publish a system timetable and a series of route-specific ones. As I recall, the system timetable disappeared first. Then Amtrak stopped “printing” the other timetables, although they continued to “publish” them to the Internet. And now the timetables appear to be gone entirely. In my judgment, the reasons for timetables are manifest. If I were to enumerate the reasons, it would be a long list. But I still don’t know why they were discontinued. Can anyone tell me why Amtrak did this?
Could it be just one way to decrease LD passenger demand? others are bad meals, poor customer service, long wait on telephone,stranding passengers with no effort to mitigate strandees, etc???
Do airlines print timetables?
No, but they don’t have to. For long distance travel they’re effectively the only game in town.
Remember those old Avis car rental ads? “When you’re Number Two, you have to try harder!” Well, if Amtrak wants the business they have to try harder, and if you’re Number Zero you have to try harder still.
If nothing else those printed timetables are reading material for people coming to an Amtrak station to pick up arrivals. They’ll look at the schedules and might just possibly think “Hmmm, maybe. Just maybe.” Printed schedules are a way of attracting business, not foolproof of course but another tool in the bag.
Making the trains WORTH traveling is another subject.
I haven’t seen an airline timetable in years, not even on foreign carriers such as Mexicana or Aeromexico. I don’t even think that you can find them on their websites.
Miost commuter railroads do, as does Israel Railways.
Why print a timetable when you’re never going to abide by it? Passengers might start thinking that they’re going to get somewhere at a certain time!
They stopped with the timetables because thanks to most our Class I freight lines, Amtrak trains are notoriously late and they are probably tired of the public complaining about it. So adopting the frieght railroad philosophy of the train will get there when it gets there, I suspect Amtrak hopes to reduce complaints.
Amtrak’s interface assumes that you already know where you want to go and approximately when. But a timetable lets you see all the options. Some folks want to know what’s available, then plan a trip. Amtrak’s website is like a catalog in which you can see only one product at a time; you cannot compare. It’s stupid.
If I see a timetable I can decide where I might wish to make a stopover before continuing on to my final destination. This decision will be influenced by what time trains stop where, and what times trains may leave when it’s time to move on; it will also tell me if there is any train the next day or whenever I wish to move on.
There is simply no excuse for not having timetables, at least online. A passenger railroad without timetables??? It’s utterly ridiculous.
(Also, not that Amtrak cares, timetables are very valuable to us railfans and photographers …)
Most people know where they are going and don’t want a timetable. It’s unnecessary with modern technology. The airlines got rid of them long ago. Ditto with foreign rails though on some you can check the route if you must.
It seems the main reason they discontinued timetables was because they were constantly changing with the pandemic. We will see if they bring them back. I think most younger people don’t know what a timetable is, and they are used to buying tickets as is done with airlines. If you want to see intermediate stations, you can look at the system map.
40 plus years ago I travelled for business a lot, and I made my own travel arrangements. I subscribed to the OAG (Official Airline Guide). It was a phone book sized thing that came out often. Amtrak used to publish its own system table, but most of us don’t take the train because we HAVE to for work. I read the Amtrak guide just out of idle curiosity.
Today, if I want to travel I head for the internet. Most Americans have the internet in their pocket wherever they are. Where would they get a paper schedule anyway?
Doesn’t METRA still have staffed stations and ticketing windows with people in them with large racks and racks of timetables as far as the eye can see?
I’m not necessarily lobbying for printed timetables. Mainly I just want timetables on Amtrak’s website. I thought I had read that they are bringing them back, but AFAIK nothing has happened on that front yet.
This: https://www.railpassengers.org/resources/amtrak-timetables/
is a good website for timetables. However, as it is not an official AMTK site, I’m not sure how quickly it gets edited to reflect changes. For example, I see nothing on there at the moment about the suspension of the Silver Meteor currently in effect.
Well, I think there’s more to it than just indicating the times of departure for various stations. For example, I used to use Amrak’s national timetable to plan trips. You can’t do that anymore. Furthermore, their website (assuming you have a computer) is not really all that helpful.
There has been folks at the Rail Passenger Association and the Passenger Train Journal that have been pushing Amtrak to restore the printed schedules. Will they get anywhere? Probably not. But with the $66 BILLION dollars that Amtrak has supposedly gotten access to, why not? Once again, as I stated on another thread, what are they doing with our money?
Pollution, recycling, etc - the great bogeymen of our times. How many printed TT’s just ended up in the trash when DST began or ended. How many were just left on station benches and tossed on the ground. AMTK wants to be seen as a good, non-polluting neighbor and also doesn’t want to pay more than it has to for janitorial services. And where is the great demand from the public for TT’s. Fans might love sitting in the den pouring over a TT and dreaming. Everyone else pretty much knows where they want to go and when. It just took me less than 60 seconds to look up a trip Amtrak Tickets, Schedules and Train Routes
Maybe someone could publish ‘The Official Guide to Railway Passenger Schedules’.
Containing all Amtrak schedules as well as all tourist railroad operations as well as all rail commuter operations.
[/sarcasm]
My airline experience when flying puddle jumpers was many persons would pull out the route specific TT to know what next stop(s) would be. That would be equivalent to today’s multi stop trains.
Auto train very few need timetable or would concerned however the Florence service stop might interest some persons.