Announcing East Coast RailFest 2014 (ECRF)
I would like to thank almost all of you for your patience. Having dealt with a few managerial changes at work (including myself on that ladder) prohibited me until now from announcing this long planned Fest. The person who would have approved my vacation also was promoted, so I then had to contact the new person. The outline tentative itinerary has been up and available for a while, and those of you savvy enough to figure it out have surely by now made travel and hotel reservations.
Let's get into the specifics. This stands to be a Fest of 2 full days, the Saturday and Sunday of the Martin Luther King weekend. As we have found in the past, Monday can be an optional extra day, however those who travel far can use the day for getting home. An attempt to do this on a non-holiday weekend resulted in a very different bunch of faces, one where a much larger percentage of them were locals residing in the city and state where we were meeting (namely Philadelphia and Pennsylvania).
The checklist of goals is as follows:
- Branch of SEPTA #15 trolley to Frankford & Delaware, across from Sugar House Casino
- Pennsauken, NJ Transit Center (between Atlantic City Line & RiverLINE)
- Hudson-Bergen LRT segment beyond 22nd Street to 8th Street in Bayonne, NJ
- Shore Line East commuter rail weekend service beyond Old Saybrook, CT to New London, CT
From 30th Street Station, NJT Atlantic City Line to Pennsauken Transit Center. Switch to NJT RiverLINE northbound, to Trenton Transit Center. Lunch there at Trenton Transit Center, then NJT Northeast Corridor Line from there to Newark. PATH train from Newark to Exchange Place in Jersey City. Walk to Hudson-Bergen LRT (HBLRT) and take southbound to 8th Street in Bayonne. Return on same equipment from 8th Street to Hoboken Terminal. From there official day is over; where we go or what we do depends on dinner plans yet to be made, and on where respective participants will be staying.
Sunday activity begins with meeting at Grand Central Terminal for a ride up to New Haven. One hour allotted there for lunch. Then take Shore Line East train eastbound to New London. Return towards New York City or other final points on Amtrak Regional #163.
Both days of official activities end approximately 4 PM. Daylight usually ends not too long after that. If people wish to keep riding they cam explore the HBLRT, PATH, or NYC subways further on their own.
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Hotels needed:
Except for those living in the Philadelphia area, you may wish to stay in a hotel in the area on Friday night, 1/17/14, checking out on Saturday the 18th.
Except for those living in the New York/North Jersey area, you may wish to stay in a hotel in the area on Saturday night, 1/18.14, checking out Sunday the 19th.
If enough people wish to meet again on Monday (though this number is expected to be small compared to the overall total of participants), then some may wish to take a hotel again in the New York/North Jersey area for Sunday, 1/19/13, to check-out on Monday the 20th.
Travel:
Travel to and from the area is on your own. Participants are responsible for their own transportation fares getting to and from the Fest, as well as any incurred as part of the Fest. We anticipate a mix of light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, and one Amtrak trip over the course of the weekend. A more detailed analysis of the transit costs will be forthcoming in another thread.
Meals have not yet been decided yet. As our travel schedule currently allows, Saturday lunch would be at Trenton Transit Center (McDonald's & Pizza Grill as well as some smaller places). Sunday lunch would be during the scheduled hour layover at New Haven Union Station, which has a Sbarro, Subway, and a Dunkin' Donuts. If folks wish to meet for a larger sitdown meal on Saturday (and possibly Sunday too) that can be discussed in forthcoming threads.
Remember nobody is obligated to go wire to wire on any Fest; many come join us late or leave us early as they might have different plans. Make sure you keep in touch with one of us on our whereabouts just in cast we for some reason have deviated from the original plan. As a rule, as painful as it is to do so, we should wait at all general meeting places until everyone who was expected to join us has arrived. We want to avoid leaving people behind by starting early. On the other side of the coin, if you were supposed to be with us on all or part of a particular day, and your plans change, please make sure I know about it.
Please begin to e-mail me with your intentions of coming to the Fest, and whether you can attend Saturday, Sunday, or both days. Indicate too if you will either be in the area sometime Friday for some early pre-Fest events or Monday for possible post-Fest activities. Both have happened before, sometimes planned at the last minute. Once I have enough interest I will put together our guest list. And finally, closer to the event, a confidential contact list goes only to participants showing everyone's cell phone numbers and their hotel plans..
Again sorry for the shorter notice, but I am pleased and confident we can still pull this off within the 5 weeks remaining. After 37 of these, I can plan them with my eyes closed. Look for much more discussion about this Fest in the next few days as we zero in on various aspects.