AMTRAK SYSTEM TIMETABLE DISCONTINUED

Amtk30 wrote:After reading through this thread, I pulled out my copy of the March 1978 Guide - North American passenger travel edition United States, Canada, and Mexico. Purchased it at the NRPC offices then on 33rd Street, NYC. Cover highlights include: additional San Diegan, Champion resumes services, USA Rail Pass prices down, something about those turbos in NY, and LSL slated for refurbished "electric" cars(!). Not sure how much longer the Guide lasted for passenger listings through the Amtrak era.

Amtk30

Amtk30: That LSL mention was about HEP which was to eventually replace steam heat on equipment.
The Lake Shore Limited was one of the first Amtrak trains using older rebuilt equipment on all assigned trainsets.
That was the beginning of the "Heritage Fleet" car rebuilding years on Amtrak - one of the best fleet improvements
in Amtrak's history.

Everyone:

With the mention of the Official Guide to the Railways I recall that the now-stored NRHS Library had an extensive
collection of Official Guides - one could easily reference when the split was made during the 70s when they were
made into two separate publications replacing the thick paperbound book which was printed similar to what phone
books were. As Noel Weaver mentions they are sometimes very interesting - and historical - reading material.

Since this topic is about Amtrak System or National Timetables that same stored NRHS Collection had a very large
selection of these Amtrak schedules - I believe that only one middle 80s edition was missing in what otherwise was
a literally complete collection. In recent years these timetables have been kept to add to this collection in the future.

MACTRAXX

TRAINS Newswire reports there has been a reprieve of sorts for the National Timetable:

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/20 ... -timetable" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently such will continue to be available on-line.

Could be a revenue opportunity to sell high quality prints to collectors or tourists.

$5 at major station ticketing offices for example

David Benton wrote:The Thomas Cook Overseas timetable, had listings of most American trains , buses and ferries.It was discontinued in 2010. It appears Amtrak was the inspiration for adding the "rest of the world", to the European timetable. It was then split to a seperate overseas Timetable in 1983, which I relied on a lot for my travel in the late eighties/ early nineties.
http://www.austta.org.au/Table%20Talk%2 ... vember.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I remember those--it was interesting to see familiar trains in one's own country in the 24-hour clock, with crossed sledgehammers indicating daily except Sunday, as well as the crossed knife and fork, and pictogram of a bed, not yet familiar here at that time. It doesn't look as though we're going to see anything comparable for the wider world from now on.

We shall soon see if the layout of the existing System Timetable carries forth in its Web Only future editions.

Regarding Cook's Contental Timetable, I have in my collection, 1960, 1971, 1979, 1990 copies of such. Now that the German Railroads have gone to an Origin-Destination format, I had to go to such to determine on what line the recent "Biergarten meet" occurred.

DB's Kursbuch timetable is indeed online -

http://kursbuch.bahn.de/hafas/kbview.ex ... K_strecken" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click on the map two or three times to drill down to a local map. Then click on the line number to get a page listing the timetable in PDF form. This is something Amtrak should do with a clickable map.

MACTRAXX wrote: Since this topic is about Amtrak System or National Timetables that same stored NRHS Collection had a very large
selection of these Amtrak schedules - I believe that only one middle 80s edition was missing in what otherwise was
a literally complete collection. In recent years these timetables have been kept to add to this collection in the future.

MACTRAXX

Here’s another great resource…and I think just about every Amtrak System or National Timetable published is here:

The Museum of Railway Timetables:

http://www.timetables.org/catalog/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

.

A new System Timetable dated September 9 is now available - for download.

The Welcome letter, signed by D.J. Stadtler EVP - Operations, mentions that it was all about cost, but that anyone was welcome to.download the 19mb and print the 137 pages.

Somehow I doubt if there will be many takers.

I've always had one in ready reach along with a current almanac and road atlas. I guess that the advertising, of which this digital version is devoid, did not cover the production cost, and I'd dare say it was outdated as soon as the presses were rolling.

But then, how many were actually picking it up to see when a train was arriving or departing - let alone what a journey would cost.

Sic transit digitalis.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:But then, how many were actually picking it up to see when a train was arriving or departing - let alone what a journey would cost.

Or to find the telephone number by which they could make their reservation chargeable to the "company account".

"The Pullman extra fare will be $10."

Is there anyway to order a timetable online? Doesn't have to be current, any relatively recent ones will do.

Mr. Denver, over at another site, someone reported that he ordered a System Timetable from Amtrak's website and received the final printed edition dated January 2016.

Best advice, get 'em while they last.

Mr. Norman, thank you for the advice and I will give it a try. By any chance the site you mentioned is trainorders.com? It has a lot of useful information but I cannot seem to figure out how to join that site for free.

Trainorders is a PAY site,no freebies there!

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Mr. Denver, over at another site, someone reported that he ordered a System Timetable from Amtrak's website and received the final printed edition dated January 2016.

And as of three days ago, the information booth at South Station in Boston still had a rackfull of them on display. Maybe Amtrak will just continue to distribute them until they run out.

Same at Washington Union Station as of this past Wednesday.