This is the third post (Post 1|Post 2) about four trips over four days on a POH-YNY-NYP-NWK-PHL points run muli-city ticket I bought to ride VIA Cars on the Adirondack after Thanksgiving 2012 and to also get enough points for S+ status.
My points run on Wednesday is from NYP-NWK, a trip with fewer train options than you might think since the only eligible trips are those trains that come from Boston or other points north. My train #141 departing 23 hours and Trains that originate in New York are discharge or receive only.
Knowing how quickly the subway is to Penn Station I leave the house at at 8:50 and am on the A train to Penn Station where I arrive at 9:22. Train #141 from Springfield to Washington is already boarding and there is a long line with a Amtrak cops and a luggage check table.
I go downstairs to the exit Exit Concourse but two cops are guarding that entrance to the elevator down to tracks 7 and 8. I show them my iPhone boarding pass and tell them “I do this all the time” and one policewomen screams at me “Not today, for the next year or ever again.” I debate going to an elevator on the NJ Transit concourse but don’t want to miss the train.
I go upstairs and join the long-line. Soon another AmCop screams at me to come over to the luggage table to scan my tiny daypack sholder bag. I barely cooperate, convinced they have profiled me because of my lack of luggage. I don’t see anyone else asked to the table with multiple suitcases on the train bound for Washington. They don’t ask for my ticket or to see my id. I finally go down the escalator to the platform and see the conductor standing right there. I tell him I’m going only to Newark and he scans my ticket on the platform. The train is in reverse with Business class in the last car followed by the quiet car. I grab an aisle seat. The conductor makes announcements apologizing for the reversed consist and asks us to have all tickets out and make sure our mobile devices are on and on the right screen.
We leave leave at 9:36 for my one stop ride. The conductor makes it three rows up my car before he goes to the vestibule doors for the Newark station. At 9:50 we get to Newark penn, I’m in a rush and am closest to the Market street exit. I need to get back at WTC as quickly as possible. I go and try and get to the path platform exits but the doors are locked to tracks 1 and 2 with a man cleaning behind them. I am stuck jogging across the street, tap my SmartLink card and am sitting on a quite empty path train, restored to WTC as of Monday at 9:52, my Amtrak train hasn’t left the station yet. PATH gets crowded and we finally leave at 9:58 the signs working.
PATH seems slightly slower than usual we make a yard stop at 10:03 and crawl through the Meadowlands. We keep crawling. We get to Exchange place at 10:21. It’s a quick trip through the tunnel to WTC.
I walk over to the subway and on my Unlimited Ride, I’m sitting on the E train at 10:30, heading up to Spring Street and my internship.