Thanksgiving Week Extras

Sunday Northeast Regional Extra 1141 and Extra 1164

Is Amtrak still running extras?

This says yes, but not sure if that includes the commuter rail equipment extras that were around pre-pandemic. https://media.amtrak.com/2024/10/amtrak ... ravel-now/

To accommodate the expected surge of customers during Thanksgiving week, Amtrak is deploying all available equipment — adding extra cars to Northeast Regional and Midwest trains and increasing trip frequencies between November 25 and December 2 between a number of popular destinations along the Northeast Corridor (NEC), including Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, among others.

Doubtful, since leased Arrows were often used and since 2018 when this last occurred, many Arrows have been scrapped or removed off the roster. MARC HHP8 sets with Sumitomo/Nippon Sharyo coaches and an Amfleet cafe were also used.

R36 Combine Coach wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 1:54 pm Doubtful, since leased Arrows were often used and since 2018 when this last occurred, many Arrows have been scrapped or removed off the roster. MARC HHP8 sets with Sumitomo/Nippon Sharyo coaches and an Amfleet cafe were also used.

And at last report, the MARC sets are still available for use.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 2:09 pm

R36 Combine Coach wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 1:54 pm Doubtful, since leased Arrows were often used and since 2018 when this last occurred, many Arrows have been scrapped or removed off the roster. MARC HHP8 sets with Sumitomo/Nippon Sharyo coaches and an Amfleet cafe were also used.

And at last report, the MARC sets are still available for use.

Were the HHP8s idled for now or stored? How many single level coaches are still around?

R36 Combine Coach wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 2:32 pm Were the HHP8s idled for now or stored? How many single level coaches are still around?

Put in use on regular Penn line (NEC) service. So there's no issue getting it up to NYC.

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 8:44 am Is Amtrak still running extras?

JS - With the mention of Amtrak service during the Thanksgiving 2024 Holiday Period -
Lets see if Amtrak issues a downloadable Thanksgiving Holiday timetable covering Wednesday
November 27 to Sunday December 1, 2024 mentioning the two prime travel days...Since this
subject was not active since 2018 - Thanksgiving 2019 only had the two MARC sets operating
on the Sunday after Thanksgiving WAS-NYP-WAS...After searching the Amtrak Forum back to
2019-2020 there was no other topic covering the Thanksgiving holiday for the last four years.
2020 was "The Problem" year; 2021 to 2023 there was no extra commuter equipment used...

Amtrak Thanksgiving 2024 Holiday ridership could be a good indication if ridership gets back
to 2019 and before levels on the busiest routes starting with the NEC...MACTRAXX

Reason For Editing: Incomplete Post

Based on prior years, leased commuter extras would be in the 3000/3100 series and as mentioned in timetables, such trains may lack amenities such as food service or have limited toilet facilities.


Could M-8s also be used as holiday extras? They also have the capability to use multiple voltages along the corridor.

M8s can't be used because as discussed elsewhere on this site, they lack the equipment to operate under 25Hz catenary, such as is used from Sunnyside yards south, to meet the weight limits going into GCT.

Previous Thanksgiving Extras have been trains in the 1050 series, and usually going between DC and NYP -- thus the use of MARC equipment there.

I checked Amtrak's online reservation and so far, nothing on the schedule.

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2024 10:33 pm Lets see if Amtrak issues a downloadable Thanksgiving Holiday timetable

LOL

If you must have a traditional timetable you can get computer generated ones at this link:

https://www.amtrak.com/schedule

Click routes. Select the route. Click the little printer icon. It will give it to you in a traditional timetable format.

As has been discussed before, that doesn't give you as much information as the old versions and don't have an effective date, making it difficult to figure out when service changes happen. These days they rarely come with press releases.

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 28, 2024 2:59 pm If you must have a traditional timetable you can get computer generated ones at this link:

https://www.amtrak.com/schedule

Click routes. Select the route. Click the little printer icon. It will give it to you in a traditional timetable format.

No, that's not a "traditional timetable" format. That's a cheap-looking report that I can easily generate by spending 20 minutes feeding database info into SAP's Crystal Reports to spit out the PDF. And I've done much much better with Crystal Reports. I can reproduce the printed timetables.