Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="gardendance"] "The boarding process at Pennsylvania Station is a bit strained" I don't believe the Pennsylvanian's boarding process differes from any other Amtrak train. [/quote] You are essentially correct.  At the major stations and/or terminals that I have used, i.e. Pennsylvania Station, 30th Street Station, Union Station in Washington, Los Angeles Station, etc. people begin to line-up approximately 30 minutes before train time, unless they are sleeping car passengers, in which case they know what space they will occupy. It is a scramble for coach passengers. At stations like San Antonio, Austin, Temple, etc. people usually line-up on or near the platform, whereas at the large stations mentioned above they usually line-up in the waiting area.  At San Antonio passengers are forced to line-up outside of the station.  The boarding process is supposed to begin at 6:45 a.m., but I have seen it put off until just five minutes before the Texas Eagle's 7:00 a.m. departure time. I have seen as many as 25 to 30 passengers in line as early as 6:30 a.m. And if the connecting cars off of the Sunset Limited are running late, the situation becomes intolerable, since there is frequently not enough room in the station to accommodate the passengers for the Texas Eagle and the eastbound Sunset Limited. Not a good outcome if it is cold and raining. I recommended several years ago to Amtrak's senior management that they should adopt a reserved seating system. They pushed back saying in so many words that it was too complicated. I found that hard to understand, especially in the computer age, since I remember assigned seats on the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Airline trains that I rode to Florida in the 50s. At its major terminals and stations, at least, Amtrak could adopt a system similar to the one used by Southwest Airlines.  Passengers on Southwest get a boarding pass by group, i.e. A, B, or C.  You can get an Early Bird Pass by paying an additional $12.50 per ticket. That practically guarantees you an A Boarding Pass, which means that you don't have to worry about the dreaded middle seat.  Or you can pay the business select fare.  In either case the computer assigns 36 hours prior to flight time an A Boarding Pass to business select passengers and then to the Early Bird passengers.  If the flight is a connecting flight, with a lot of business select fare passengers, it is possible for an Early Bird purchaser to miss out on an A Boarding Pass, in which case he or she is placed at the head of the B Group, but it is rare.  It has never happened to me, and I fly Southwest six or seven times a year.  The Southwest Airlines boarding system is not perfect.  But since implementation it has cut down on the hassle that was so much a part of the Southwest experience. Note:  I have been an enthusiastic Southwest customer since the days when it had only three airplanes.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag