This week is AGR Triple Point week in honor of National Train Day (I’ll be at Grand Central of course). If I lived in a place with a cheep corridor train (for example Philadelphia with the unreserved Keystone, $6.50 for 300 points out to Paoli) I would be trying to ride it quite a few times this week just to rack up the points, unfortunately the closet corridor with cheep trains is the New Haven to Springfield Shuttle Corridor and today I went up there to get four more and new intermediate Amtrak stations and rack up the maximum in day 1200 points, spending $23 on Amtrak and $23 on Metro-North to and from New Haven, plus my $4.18 to the Subway and $1.30 to CT Transit, one of my most pricey day trips. One of the most satisfying parts of the day was never having to do the usual transfer in Stamford to reach Fordham (my preferred and much cheeper stop, would have been $34.25 to Metro-North had I gone to and from GCT or 125th Street) routine, lucking out with expresses that just so happened to stop in Fordham to begin and end my trip.
The trip started with me leaving the house late and being convinced I’d miss my train (I would have been on the bus all the way to Meridan instead, probably missing Wallingford), got to 181 Street and an uptown train to 207th Street came in immediately. Got up to 207th Street at 8:02 one Bx12 Select Bus pulled away immediately but another soon opened its doors and I was off. It was a surprisingly fast ride over the University Heights Bridge and down Fordham Road and I got to Fordham Station at 8:22 for my 8:24 train. I ran down to the platform and back up on the ticket office side, seeing lines at the two TVMs but hah one of two open windows at the ticket office was free so I brought my ticket there, realizing there is a great view down the tracks and dreading watching my train enter and leave without me. It didn’t, I rushed down to the platform as a M8 entered and left deadheading back for another rush hour run and then finally my train of M8s bound straight to New Haven pulled in.
The train arrived at 8:27 it was 12 cars full of reverse peak commuters to all of Connecticut’s professional jobs (and the source of a lot of Metro-North’s increased ridership). The train didn’t even fully platform at Fordham which can only handle ten cars, I walked through two cars to the front car where I noticed some empty seats but was stuck with an asile seat in a three seater (the middle cars were much more crowded). The conductor came through and seemed to be only giving seat checks to those with regular tickets and not monthly or weekly passes. At the next stop Rye I moved to a window seat and in Stamford (which my car didn’t even open at, the front door did not platform) my car became nearly empty and it the train became a local as the conductor announced all of local stops with their short platforms, the doors to my car opened at maybe 3. In New Haven I even had to walk back two cars to exit and we arrived at 9:57, 5 minutes early.
I got to New Haven and slowly walked into the station, the long way through the one crowded tunnel (ideally there would be Quik-Trak and Metro-North Vending machines on the platforms for transferring travelers) into the station and picked-up my first only $4 Amtrak ticket to Wallingford. I ran outside to the street for a few photos and back in. The train’s connecting Regional had already arrived and a boarding call was made for my Shuttle train #470, not do to leave until 10:30 I went up to the platform and got pictures of my two car Shuttle train in pull mode which made me happy and the fronts of both trains since the Regional had not left yet. I got on at about 10:15 to enjoy a nice plush Amfleet-I seat and realized I would spend more time sitting in New Haven than actually moving on this train. The two car train, with an Amfleet-I and an ex-Metroliner Cab Car (interiors furnished identically except the Metroliner had single numbers per seat and the Amfleet-I had 1A, 1B ect.) were in the half the seats facing each direction configuration, to my dismay there would be no looking out the window of the cab car, about the last six rows of seats were behind a crew members only behind this point sign. This car was quite crowded so I went back and sat in a loud seat behind the engine pulling us. The biggest thing I noticed about this train is that Connecticut residents definitely use it for local service (with such cheep walk-up fares, I literally booked my tickets via the Amtrak app as I road the New Haven Line) for example there was a stop and shop employee in his uniform, that seems quite unlikely on a regular, more expensive Regional train. The seat back pockets all had the menu for the Northeast Regional Cafe, something else I found amusing since there is no food service on the two car shuttle trains.
Train #470 left on time at 10:30 and we slowly made our way past New Haven-State Street and onto the marshy and industrial Springfield Line up to Wallingford. We arrived at 10:43, the historic station house is now an Adult Education Center, not opened to the public, I than had an extra hour because of the hourly bus schedule and decided to take it in Wallingford which I did, photographing Southbound Shuttle #493. The arriving CT Transit (New Haven) bus route C was supposed to come at 2:25 and finally showed up ten minutes late. This worried me because I had just ten minutes to connect to my next bus up in front of a random Kolhs. This was luckily a guaranteed connection and waited for me and quite a few other passengers, and I took CT Transit-Meriden Bus Route A to that train station.
I was quite happy I had chosen Wallingford for my layover. The Meriden transit center and train station built in 1970 (and hasn’t left that decade) and is only open for one shift during weekdays (6:30am to 3:00pm). I picked up my $7 ticket to Hartford from a station agent who seemed old enough to have been working back in the time of the PennCentral whom the station was built for. He brought up my reservation on arrow (I could see the computer monitor) and asked me for $7 payment. I said that I had paid for my ticket with the iPhone app, he brought up another screen and confirmed that, printing it finally as I signed it (I also noticed have the screen said eTicketing under development). The station was full of city bus riders (although only open when the agent is there) and one woman who was sitting on one of the two benches on the actual Amtrak platform was visited by Meriden’s Finest (I saw them pouring out a beer can) as my next train, the northbound Vermonter came in at 1:45. I boarded with two other people (a Vermonter who didn’t realize the ticket office was open, the conductor was nice enough not to charge him the $9 buy on board fee) and a lady also going only to Hartford. I walked through looking for spare seats and a seat check for Berlin and realized that most of the seat checks were unreadable, just pieces of paper punched and ripped in various odd ways, only punched in a layman readable manor for those going into Vermont itself.
The train arrived in Hartford basically on time and I got off, not waiting to photograph it as the Mobile-Lift had to be brought over to detrain a wheelchair passenger. I went for a walk and immediately loved the historic station and how its been incorporated into a nice intermodal transit facility with a modern waiting area and interesting art installations in the former great hall. I ended up buying a delicious lamb kebob sandwich for lunch in the neighborhood of the station, after almost ending up at the Subway in the station because of a lack of anything around. I found an amazing stop for pictures of trains nearby but alas I was getting on the next one through town. I visited a Quick-Trak machine for my final Amtrak ticket of the day, a $12 multi-city trip ticket and went up to the platform early (totally public access!) got my pictures there and photographed the southbound Vermonter coming in ten minutes late. I took it one stop to the nice, historic and also still open for one weekday shift (it had closed for the day, I’ll probably revisit it by car when its open on my next drive up to Vermont to pick-up my brother) station in Berlin that is technically in Kensington, CT because that’s what the Amtrak app requires to find the station. I got off there (seating on the Vermonter wasn’t a problem, they had saved an empty car for passengers boarding in Hartford) along with a wheelchair passenger which delayed the train as the conductors went out to the unmarked shed at one end of the platform to grab the mobile-lift (two wheelchairs in one day, surprising). I also noticed the man get himself into a taxi (who had asked if I was the customer who had called). The train finally left at 4:01, 16 minute late and I stopped at a nearby Dairy-Queen for desert and noticed an occupied car of Berlin’s finest at an end of the station’s park-n-ride lot. They never hassled me, nor did someone who I believe was an Amtrak employee (he had an Amtrak car) weed whacking the overgrown tracks. Without any grade crossings to get interesting angles (the track is on a slight embankment from a newer overpass) it was kind of a boring layover for less than an hour before Shuttle Train #475 in push mode came in as I boarded the cab-car. It was me and an Amtrak employee getting on and the conductor was slightly surprised I already had a ticket. She collected it and then I saw her back in the little restricted zone at the front of the coach scan the bar code with her new iPhone reader (my first direct experience with eTicketing!). The employee also suggested that she try and scan his id badge and they looked amused trying to get it to work. It did when the magnetic strip was read. It was an uneventful ride back for a slightly early arrival into New Haven at 5:25. There was a 5:35 train to connect to a local in Stamford or a 5:55 express that stopped somehow in Fordham, I decided on that and went for a wonder through the station. I decided to visit another agent to pick-up my return ticket and walked up to the platform getting nervious that there was not a train. It turned out it originated in New Haven-State Street and I took the seat right in front of the railfan door for a nice fun local ride to Stamford and non-stop express ride to Fordham, it started raining en-route as I noticed the differences in original and rebuilt catenary and the Change Modes sign between Mount Vernon East and Pelham. The only downside was that because this was a reverse peak express we ran via the local track passed all the platforms. The train for no apparent reason pulled into Fordham ten minutes late and the Bx12 SBS just didn’t seem to come, I eventually got home at 8:20 a bit later than I hoped.
Amtrak Routes Ridden: Empire Service (most), Maple Leaf, Adirondack, Ethan Allen Express, Lake Shore Limited, Downeaster, Vermonter, Northeast Regional & Shuttle, Acela Express (just once, I’m cheep), Keystone, Pennsylvanian, Cardinal, Capital Limited, Wolverine, Hiawatha, Carl Sandburg, Empire Builder, Cascades, Coast Starlight, Pacific Surfliner, Capital Corridor, San Joaquin, Sunset Limited, SW Chief, California Zephyr