14 replies to this topic

[jacorbett70]

It's not just the MLK holiday. Apparently the calendar for the entire year wasn't yet loaded. For kicks I tried a reservation for July 4th, a Friday in 2014, and it shows a regular weekday choice of trains. As long as one has the capability to make reservations 11 months in advance, then the system should "know" which days are designated as holidays as soon as those dates become available for advance booking.

This has become an annual routine for me for Thanksgiving or Christmas since I moved to Philly, as I must work on Black Friday (or Boxing Day when Christmas falls on a day like Wednesday). I reserve a weekday train to return to Philly on Thanksgiving night and then in the middle of October I get a robocall saying my reservation has been changed to the closest holiday schedule train with just a few minutes schedule difference. I keep the advance low-bucket fare even though the buckets change quite a bit when they program the holiday schedule.

[AlanB]

Another thought is that those who don't wish to pay that much can also opt for taking Shore Line East and Metro North back to New York. It will take much longer. But it is the way all of us might be going if our Shore Line East train is more than 11 minutes late into New London. In that case we'd all have plenty of time while riding commuter trains back to New York to think about our E-vouchers for $37 or $44.10 .

I was thinking of the possibility of bailing at Old Saybrook if really behind, but there is a risk of our e-tickets already being converted to e-vouchers by the time the train reaches OSB.

When I went through New London on Thursday, the Shoreline East train was turning on the normally westbound track closest to the station. We went through on the normal eastbound track.

So it's going to be interesting as to what happens regarding catching our westbound. One good thing, sitting on the station track the commuter train doesn't block the crossing at all, meaning that were the dispatcher to put our westbound train on the eastbound track, we'd be able to cross over provided that we arrive with enough time to transfer.

[KevinKorell]

Amtrak now has the correct trains loaded in its reservation system, so you can and should go ahead and book any other trips you might be planning for that weekend, including Monday.

[EdFindlay]

The train I was supposed to take home disappeared from the system thanks to the update Kevin mentioned. Thankfully Amtrak honored the lower fare, which is two buckets lower than the current priced seats on this train.

[KevinKorell]

Just noticed that the lowest fare from New London to New York City on #163 on Sunday is now $71 (minus applicable discounts) -- something to think about if anyone is considering joining us at this stage of the process. I was only looking because I was considering doing a multiday split trip involving that segment -- but it works out cheaper to just leave it alone and book the other segment separately.