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WARF 2015 Amtrak trips


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 08 December 2014 - 11:29 AM

The only Amtrak train scheduled to be taken together as part of the weekend events will be Regional #147 from Baltimore to Washington. This departs on Saturday 1/17/15 from Baltimore at 2:43 PM and gets to Washington 3:30 PM.  At this time, "Saver" fares are available for $13.  This fare is refundable only by e-voucher.   The "Value" fare is $17 , which with an AAA discount comes to $15.30 , so the difference is not all that much.  I would expect that all of us can go in coach class for a scheduled 47 minute trip. Business Class jumps to $32.

 

Any other Amtrak trains will be used presumably to get you to and from the Fest, and any activities that might be planned for Friday and/or Monday if enough people want to do a "points run".



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#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 08 December 2014 - 08:10 PM

Here is a word of caution.  If anyone is planning to ride ANY Amtrak trains on Sunday 1/18 or Monday, 1/19, well at least you have to give Amtrak a grade of "A" for its consistency of messing up.

 

At the present time, even though one can reserve an Amtrak train up to 11 months in advance of travel, they have failed to account for the fact that this is a holiday weekend.  When there is a 3-day holiday weekend with a Monday holiday, the practice has been to run a Saturday schedule on both Saturday and Sunday, and a Sunday schedule on the holiday Monday.  Right now there still exists a Sunday schedule for Sunday and a regular weekday schedule for the Monday.

 

If you take a train on Sunday that happens to have the same train number as a Saturday train in its slot, then you may be OK.  But if the number is different, or you plan to return home on Monday, you will find incorrect train numbers.  When Amtrak does get around to finding this mistake, they will change your reservation usually to the closest train on the correct schedule. This may or may not be what is preferred, so it may be best to keep watching their schedule and just wait until they get it right before reserving something you know will likely change.

 

This happens every year since we usually hold the fest over the MLK weekend. You'd think they would have learned by now.



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#3 saxman

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Posted 08 December 2014 - 08:21 PM

I booked 147. I was hoping to take the Crescent but realized it's not running past ATL! Guess I'll go or come the long way through CHI!



#4 Long Train Runnin'

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Posted 11 December 2014 - 12:08 PM

E mail sent. Train 147 booked. Will wait to book a return on Sunday until the Amtrak and Fest schedule are figured out.

#5 saxman

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Posted 18 December 2014 - 05:40 PM

All booked up. Arriving on train 90 into ALX on the 16th and departing on train 29 on Sunday for Chicago.



#6 BillMagee

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Posted 22 December 2014 - 08:32 AM

Here we are on December 22, and Amtrak reservations has not yet come to life and corrected the MLK weekend schedules.  Looking back at the ECRF posts, the Amtrak MLK weekend schedules were corrected on or about December 31.  We'll see if the same holds true this year.



#7 KevinKorell

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Posted 22 December 2014 - 12:06 PM

Here we are on December 22, and Amtrak reservations has not yet come to life and corrected the MLK weekend schedules.  Looking back at the ECRF posts, the Amtrak MLK weekend schedules were corrected on or about December 31.  We'll see if the same holds true this year.

Pathetic. Not only the oversight, but the fact they repeat it every year.  Don't they realize how much damage control they have to go through every year correcting people's reservations with the new train numbers?

 

I purposely made a reservation for Sunday, 1/18 for WAS-ALX on Train #87, which is the Sunday-only number. When they notice their mistake and start to correct things, I will get a robo-call from Julie telling me the reservation changed.  It will be Train #71, the Saturday train number.  At least this way I will have a gauge as to when the correction was made.



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#8 KevinKorell

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Posted 29 December 2014 - 05:56 PM

Just checked, and they don't have the Monday holiday Presidents Day in February as a Sunday schedule either, nor the preceeding Sunday as a Saturday schedule. We just never noticed because we don't hold Fests in February!  The calendar year is almost over so hopefully the corrections will be made soon and we can complete our bookings for the January fest weekend.



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#9 BillMagee

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Posted 29 December 2014 - 10:48 PM

Just checked, and they don't have the Monday holiday Presidents Day in February as a Sunday schedule either, nor the preceeding Sunday as a Saturday schedule. We just never noticed because we don't hold Fests in February!  The calendar year is almost over so hopefully the corrections will be made soon and we can complete our bookings for the January fest weekend.

They still show a weekday schedule for Memorial Day, Labor Day, and even Thanksgiving. Loading holiday schedules when the date opens for booking shouldn't be all that difficult. Yikes!



#10 jis

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Posted 30 December 2014 - 01:41 PM

The sudden appearance of these holidays every year absolutely befuddles them I guess! They are unpredictable acts of nature afterall! :P






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