AMTRAK NEC: Springfield Shuttle/Regional/Valley Flyer/Inland Routing

I am guessing they must have gotten some sort of reprieve from the platform. Word for a while was they couldn’t start this service without completion, but then it happened. The platform is making progress and actually looks really nice - but probably has a few more weeks left yet. I will post photos later that I took today.

Kilo Echo wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 5:05 pm Furthermore, the perpetually delayed completion of platform C is infuriating. Why wasn't the new platform ready for the inaugural run of the new service?

Both were not planned together, but either way that has no affect on service. Tracks 8 and 6 are used full time and 4 is used during the nights and weekends.

Contractors are impossible right now.

gokeefe wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 7:44 pm Contractors are impossible.

Fixed that for you

Haha! Yes, very true it seems. Thank you for the laugh.

Rockingham Racer wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:27 pm Ill-timed, don't you think? Right after the inception of a new service??

Even the Hartford Line didn't have a screw up this bad so early.

Kilo Echo wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 5:05 pm There are many factors militating against the Valley Flyer, especially the fare schedule. For example, an adult, one-way ticket (without additional discounts) from NHT to NHV costs $33. That fare, however, can be reduced to $25.75 by purchasing two tickets: NHT→SPG ($13) and SPG→NHV ($12.75).

I don't know if you would be allowed to combine tickets like that. This isn't taking Shore Line East from Stamford to New London when you could technically show 2 separate tickets for STM-NHV and NHV-NLC as there are two different sets of crews (Metro-North and Amtrak)

NH2060 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2019 7:07 amI don't know if you would be allowed to combine tickets like that. This isn't taking Shore Line East from Stamford to New London when you could technically show 2 separate tickets for STM-NHV and NHV-NLC as there are two different sets of crews (Metro-North and Amtrak)

Assuming there were such a prohibition, I could purchase a CTrail Hartford Line ticket for the SPG-NHV leg (which Amtrak cross-honors), and simply inform the conductor I was changing to a different service at Springfield.

There are no restrictions.

I've done that before going BOS to NHV, where for some baffling reason it was cheaper to buy BOS-WLY and WLY-NHV than BOS-NHV on Friday evenings. Conductors always said "yeah, seen that lots before."

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:59 pm I’d agree they should probably have delayed launch until after this outage.

One can also argue, that they launched service before a busy holiday weekend and college semester move, which may of been a milestone for the service.

So who has ridership figures?

It's official - the names "Shuttle" and "Springfield Shuttle" are being discontinued. The service will now be known as the "Valley Flyer" for the trains which extend north of Springfield and the "Amtrak Hartford Line" for trains NHV-SPG trains.

Rockingham Racer wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 4:26 pm So who has ridership figures?

Ha!

Nice to see Amtrak making an attempt to avoid confusion.

gokeefe wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:27 am Nice to see Amtrak making an attempt to avoid confusion.

Some confusion may exist, however, for those who may falsely infer from the name that the line ends at Hartford.