Adventures with Amtrak ($1.27)

I don't think of myself as a particularly lullable person, but yesterday morning, when my Amtrak train to New York left Union Station on time and arrived at Penn Station on time, I was lulled to believe that Amtrak would always be on time. I thought that my $76.50 was well spent, although I think that the price (for the regular train, with a senior discount) is a bit high.

I spent the majority of the day in meetings, I took a nice walk through mid-town on a beautiful day, I stopped at a small Thai restaurant on 8th Avenue near Penn Station for a delicious meal (green papaya salad, and chicken and vegetables in a ginger sauce), and got to Penn Station at about 6:30, in time for my 6:45 train.

I looked at the time board, which showed the usual 20 or so trains scheduled to be leaving, and noticed that all said "On Time", except for mine. Mine said "1 hour, 40 minute delay".

For some reason, I did not believe it. I thought I had misread the sign. I thought the sign maker had misspoke. I walked around to the other side, to see if it said something different. It did not. I was paralyzed. I was not sure what to do.

I walked around and looked at other people. That did not help.

I walked to my right, to my left, ahead. I turned around. I put my briefcase down. I picked it up. Penn Station does not have any seats to sit in, and I did not know how I was going to spend 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Then I remembered there was an information kiosk and I went there. I told the woman in the kiosk that I had a ticket on the 6:45. She said: "You have time, go to gate 13E and take the train to Harrisburg. It will stop in Philadelphia. You will be fine." I said: "What will I do when I get to Philadelphia?" She said: "isn't that where you are going?" "No", I said, "Washington". Her smile faded, she stared at me, she took a second or two, and then she said "I guess you are just out of luck".

"Do you think the time is firm?", I asked. "Yes", she said. "What was the problem?" "I think it is track repair work north of here." "Oh", I said.

And then came the clincher. She said: "I don't know why they don't build this into the schedule. This has been happening all week. Very regular." "When did they post the delay", I asked? "Quite some time ago."

I thanked her (it wasn't her fault, and at least she wanted to send me to Philadelphia) and walked away.

I looked at the board again, and saw that there was a 7 o'clock Acela, and a relatively short Acela line, so I went to stand in it. I did not know if I could make it, but thought I would give it a chance. Of course, an Acela is more expensive, and I figured it would cost me about an extra $75. Was that worth getting back into Washington at about 10 p.m., rather than 11:45? I debated. I got to the window (I had decided that if I got a ticket in time, I would take it, and if not, that God wanted me to wait until 8:25.) The woman took my credit card. I asked her how much extra the Acela was. She told me it would cost me an additional $96. I told her, even with the senior discount? She said that they had no senior discount (it is 15%) on the Acela.

I thought for a minute. They are 1 hour and 40 minutes late, and I am the one that pays an extra $96? That made no sense. I retrieved my credit card.

I looked at the board again, to see if the 1 hour, 40 minutes had changed. It had; now it was only 1 hour and 25 minutes. But then I saw something else; I saw that there was another regularly scheduled train at 7:35. And I saw that there was a fairly long, but not terribly long, ticket line, and once again I stood in it. This was successful, and I now had a ticket on a train leaving at 7:35, as opposed to my original train, now scheduled to leave at 8:10.

I would save 35 minutes, and I killed most of the delay.

But then I thought about my friend at the information kiosk. Why did she tell me I was out of luck? Why didn't she tell me about the 7:35 (which then would have bee n a 50 minute saving)? No answer for that one. At all.

I went back to the board. My 7:35 was now delayed. It would leave at 7:45. OK, I was still saving 25 minutes.

Then 7:45 came. And there was a public address system announcement that said that the train would leave at 7:45, but that the gate had not yet been assigned, and wouldn't be until the train came into Penn Station, which would be "momentarily". I looked at the schedule board. A new entry was placed next to my train number, where the gate reference should have been. It said: STAND BY.

A couple of hundred people were waiting for this train. We all stood by. And we stared at the screen. Not one person took one eye off it, for what seemed like decades. And more decades.

At about 7:50, the gate was announced, and we pulled out of the station at about 8. I was scared to death. By my measure the other train was only about ten minutes behind us. You can make up ten minutes very quickly. I was sure we would rear-ended, all the way home.