Let's make this real easy. We start both days at Union Station. No doubt people will want to sit within the Club Acela if they are qualified to do so, and they may take others in as their guests. Since we are not originating from there on an Amtrak train either day, there's only one way out. So if you are not in the Club Acela, meet us outside it as we will come out the exit door next to the entrance.
As for times, on Saturday since we depart 9:02 AM, we should begin to assemble around 8:30 or so, and around 8:45 AM or so we can go out into the station. Most MARC trains depart from tracks access by Gate A, so it's assumed we will go in that direction. When the train is announced, we go. If you get there and the track is already displayed and you don't see us, go out to MARC Train #476 and text someone to find out what car we ended up in.
***Sunday we leave on Metro at 9:50 AM. If anyone wishes to take a walk over to see the streetcar station on the bridge, we should go about 9 AM so that we can be back in time to remain on that schedule. We should no doubt be headed into the Metro Red Line station no later than 9:40 AM since there will be a number of us getting through the faregates with various types of media. I ask that those who don't live in the area and don't have a SmarTrip card (or the legacy paper farecard if you wish to go that route) please purchase what you need (the card AND the required stored value for your trips) BEFORE the group is travelling together so we don't get held back and miss a train. So for those who wish to walk to the streetcar, the same as above applies. We will meet in or outside the Club Acela, and then it's a short walk to the escalator leading to the parking garage that we need to walk through. We will begin the walk at 9 AM sharp. If you want to forego this, then please meet us by the Metro station no later than 9:40 AM.
*** Subject to change. See Post #4 below
As always we try to remain as close as possible to the last published itinerary. We will NOT leave the starting points any earlier than the noted start times, no matter whether anyone wishes we do so or not. We have left people behind by doing this in the past. However once we are in travel, it is possible we could end up ahead of schedule as we can end up catching a previous train that is running late. If anyone is meeting us along a rail transit line, you need to contact us on our whereabouts to ensure you can meet up with us. It may require "short turning" somewhere to meet the train we are on. As for the scheduled Amtrak and MARC trains, we won't be early but we could be late.
IF we need to adjust our schedule because of extended headways due to construction or tunnels filling with smoke, the above could change. Stay tuned.
Edited by BillMagee, 16 January 2015 - 10:09 AM.
Changed Sunday Metro Schedules