2 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

                       OTOL NEW YORK-MASSACHUSETTS RAILFEST 2019

                                                          January 19-21, 2019

 

POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER

 

 

                                          ANNOUNCING OTOL NEW YORK-MASSACHUSETTS RAILFEST 2019

 

This is official announcement of another winter RailFest, to take place over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in January of 2019.  The New York - Massachusetts RailFest (NYMARF, or just NYMA) will be three days of travel on Amtrak, performing a huge circle tour of New York State and the Connecticut Valley and across the Berkshires in Massachusetts.  Along the way, we will get to see the totally rebuilt train stations in Rochester, NY and Springfield, MA.    Travel will take place on Amtrak's Empire Service, Lake Shore Limited, and Northeast Regional.

 

The homepage for this event is here, and the tentative itinerary is here. I will not be providing any fare analysis for this trip, since all of our travel will be on Amtrak, whose fares vary by many factors.

 

While much remains to be discussed, so far this is what you need to know:
 
                                                                                   Amtrak
 

•    Your own travel plans, whether by Amtrak, bus, or air to & from New York City.
•    "Official" trips on our itinerary would be Train #281 on Saturday New York City to Rochester, Train #448 on Sunday Rochester to Springfield, and Train #157 on Monday Springfield to New York City.   No doubt some coming from points south of New York might take a connecting Northeast Regional, Keystone, or Acela train to New York to connect with #281, and likewise could remain aboard #157 to points south of New York.
•    The classes of service that we choose to take will be discussed separately, and there is the chance we could be split up in different parts of the trains.  Trains #281 & #157 offer Coach or Business Class.  Train #448 offers Coach, Business Class, or First Class (sleeper).

 
                                                                                    Hotels
 
Hotel(s) of your choice would be needed in:

• Rochester on Saturday night, 1/19/19 (leaving Sunday)
• Springfield on Sunday night, 1/20/19 (leaving Monday)
• Some might also wish to spend either Friday, 1/18/19 or Monday, 1/21/19 in New York City, or both.

 
                                                                                    Meals

 

•   Saturday: Breakfast on your own.  Lunch aboard Amtrak train #281.  Dinner in Rochester, to be determined.
•   Sunday:  Breakfast on your own.  Lunch aboard Amtrak train #448. Dinner could also be aboard the same train, or if we get to Springfield close to schedule dinner could be there at a place to be determined.
•   Monday:   Breakfast on your own, or in café car aboard Amtrak train #157.  Lunch could be aboard the same train, or in New York City if that is your destination.

 

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To attend, all you need to do is contact me BY E-MAIL to let me know you are attending.  Please state whether you will participate Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or all.  No pre-Fest or post-Fest activities are anticipated at this time.

 

Fest information tends to play to more than one audience because some do not regularly visit the board. Outside this one initial announcement, all further updates will be done via the OTOL board in the New York - Massachusetts RailFest 2019 forum.  It is up to all potential participants to check the board regularly for updates, as things can change. 

 

Please do NOT at this time send me hotel or travel plans.  That will be done separately closer to the event weekend.  In early January, a confidential contact list will be created, which will then show everyone's hotel plans and phone numbers in the event of emergency or unlikely  last minute changes of plans.
 
More to come soon, but again keep on watching the board!

[KevinKorell]

Given the predictions for bad weather over this coming weekend, not only in New York City but in  Rochester, Springfield, and in between, we have decided amongst us to postpone this event for 2 months.   More details forthcoming. 

[KevinKorell]

Since 2001, when the baton of organizing and running RailFests was passed from Don Weinstein to me, I have done 47 such events.   Those 47 events have mostly gone off without any hitches from the weather.  Sure, we've experienced extreme cold in January, and extreme heat in July.  However of the 18 RailFests in the month of January in the years 2001 through 2018, we mostly dodged bullets of major snowstorms hitting during our Fest weekend.

 

This year, at least with the dire predictions at this time, we won't be as lucky.   It had taken us a while to agree on the venue for this trip, but we looked forward to the runs on three Amtrak trains out to Rochester, then east across the Berkshires to Springfield, and finally back to New York City.  With predictions for 4 horrible winter elements happening at the same time (namely snow, ice, extreme cold, and wind), there is too much at risk as far as possible train cancellations, severe delays if not cancelled, and the health and safety of our participants. Some come from Florida and are thus not used to dealing with such conditions.   We also are concerned with the same weather elements making reliance on hired car service scarce if there is a declared snow emergency.  Rochester would have been a 5 or 6 block walk in each direction which would have been tough in snow with luggage, and in Springfield the chosen hotel is about a mile each way from Springfield Union Station thus we all would have piled into Uber or Lyft cars.

 

We had a rare Tuesday matinee chat session at our current home on Slack, and had a good conversation to address a few points of discussion about our "Go/No-Go" decision, as well as what our alternatives can be and how to best avoid being penalized for changes or cancellations.

 

Rather than cancelling the entire Fest, we agreed to try again in what we hope will be better weather.  Avoiding everyone's other personal engagements, plus not conflicting with holidays like St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Passover, etc., we came up with another Saturday-Sunday-Monday weekend, although this is not a holiday weekend hence a regular weekday schedule on Monday, and the need for those who are employed to take a day off.

 

So our make-up weekend will be Saturday March 23th, Sunday March 24th, and Monday March 25th.  I think most of us involved already made the necessary hotel reservation changes and were able to re-book Amtrak as well.   For everyone, here is the new information you need to know:

 

 

 
                                                                                   Amtrak
 

•    Your own travel plans, whether by Amtrak, bus, or air to & from New York City.
•    "Official" trips on our itinerary would be Train #281 on Saturday New York City to Rochester, Train #448 on Sunday Rochester to Springfield, and Trains #471 (Shuttle) & 171 on Monday Springfield to New York City.   No doubt some coming from points south of New York might take a connecting Northeast Regional, Keystone, or Acela train to New York to connect with #281, and likewise could remain aboard #171 to points south of New York.
•    The classes of service that we choose to take will be discussed separately, and there is the chance we could be split up in different parts of the trains.  Trains #281 & #171 offer Coach or Business Class.  Shuttle #471 is Coach only.  Train #448 offers Coach, Business Class, or First Class (sleeper).  

 
                                                                                    Hotels
 
Hotel(s) of your choice would be needed in:

• Rochester on Saturday night, 3/23/19 (leaving Sunday)
• Springfield on Sunday night, 3/24/19 (leaving Monday)
• Some might also wish to spend either Friday, 3/22/19 or Monday, 3/25/19 in New York City, or both.

 
                                                                                    Meals

 

•   Saturday: Breakfast on your own.  Lunch aboard Amtrak train #281.  Dinner in Rochester, to be determined.
•   Sunday:  Breakfast on your own.  Lunch aboard Amtrak train #448. Dinner could also be aboard the same train, or if we get to Springfield close to schedule dinner could be there at a place to be determined.
•   Monday:   Breakfast on your own, or in café car aboard Amtrak train #171.  Lunch could be aboard the same train, or in New York City if that is your destination.

 

Here is the new NYMA RailFest 2019 2.0 Itinerary.

 

Although we've been in the pattern since 2011 of 2 RailFests per year in January and July, a RailFest in March is not unprecedented. We did it in 2001, 2005, and 2006.

 

So those of us itching to get back on the rails and see one another will need to wait another 2 months for the 48th RailFest I've organized.  Perhaps others can take this opportunity to join us as well!