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districtRich
Service Attendant
They've added priority boarding at WAS now. They took out most of the seats in the gate areas and added some queues with a special priority boarding lane at each gate. Each gate area has a queue for general boarding, and then there is a special lane for priority boarding.
Priority boarding is for Select Plus and higher, sleeping car passengers, Acela first, business on non-Acela trains, uniformed military, families with children, and special assistance. The general boarding line still snakes out of the gate area and down the hall usually, and some of the priority passengers can board from the Acela lounge anyway, but it's nice to see them having a special lane so some people don't have to push to the front of general boarding which was such a mess before.
I don't know where they expect most people to sit now though. They still don't have much seating in the main hall. I guess they want people to wander around and shop or eat before boarding.
Thirdrail7
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They've had priority boarding for years. It is the boarding queue that is new. As you indicated, I suppose it is necessary due to the heavy loads, but it also robbed the area of much needed seating.
Personally, i think the lack of seating will create more congestion. I hope they do something with the main hall soon.
districtRich
Service Attendant
It was always a crap shoot whether priority boarding was offered consistently so this should definitely help. Hopefully they're buying more seating for the main hall. Seems so empty now.
ToniCounter
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I've always managed to get on the train before boarding starts, just paying a few bucks in tips. Or has that changed at WAS?
districtRich
Service Attendant
I've always managed to get on the train before boarding starts, just paying a few bucks in tips. Or has that changed at WAS?
That still works too. Red caps are still around.
I still think they should board paid priority passengers (First/business/sleeper/Select Plus) before all other priority passengers that they pre-board as a courtesy. Make 3 lines then. You've gotta take care of the people that are providing the revenue. That's what the airlines do.
jis
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I still think they should board paid priority passengers (First/business/sleeper/Select Plus) before all other priority passengers that they pre-board as a courtesy. Make 3 lines then. You've gotta take care of the people that are providing the revenue. That's what the airlines do.
Many airlines seem to board armed services personnel on duty and handicapped, and some families with toddlers, before they board any of the revenue based priority people. But each is slightly different.
ToniCounter
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Many airlines seem to board armed services personnel on duty and handicapped, and some families with toddlers, before they board any of the revenue based priority people. But each is slightly different.
US senators always board first. (don't ask me which state) 
LOL! Specially if he has brought the bacon home for the airline or airport involved
Many airlines seem to board armed services personnel on duty and handicapped, and some families with toddlers, before they board any of the revenue based priority people. But each is slightly different.
US senators always board first. (don't ask me which state)
LOL!!!
I still think they should board paid priority passengers (First/business/sleeper/Select Plus) before all other priority passengers that they pre-board as a courtesy. Make 3 lines then. You've gotta take care of the people that are providing the revenue. That's what the airlines do.
Many airlines seem to board armed services personnel on duty and handicapped, and some families with toddlers, before they board any of the revenue based priority people. But each is slightly different.
Yes, I suppose that's true. Just to be clear though, I'm not saying that the non paying priority passengers shouldn't get priority boarding!
ToniCounter
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LOL! Specially if he has brought the bacon home for the airline or airport involved
Did I say he? no.. it was a she.
LOL! Specially if he has brought the bacon home for the airline or airport involved
Did I say he? no.. it was a she.
Now now ... don;t spill too much of the beans
ToniCounter
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LOL! Specially if he has brought the bacon home for the airline or airport involved
Did I say he? no.. it was a she.
Now now ... don;t spill too much of the beans
If they can spill the bacon, I can spill the beans, no?
Back to the red cap at WAS... I usually give them $5 just so I can board the train early, especially if I know the train is packed. Worked 99% time, except the one time a red cap refused because I had no luggage... just a backpack.
Do other large Amtrak stations have red caps that can get people on the train ahead of time?
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LOL! Specially if he has brought the bacon home for the airline or airport involved
Did I say he? no.. it was a she.
Now now ... don;t spill too much of the beans
If they can spill the bacon, I can spill the beans, no?
Back to the red cap at WAS... I usually give them $5 just so I can board the train early, especially if I know the train is packed. Worked 99% time, except the one time a red cap refused because I had no luggage... just a backpack.
Do other large Amtrak stations have red caps that can get people on the train ahead of time?
(Video) Simple Amtrak Boarding Walkthrough -- To Help With Travel Anxiety!
In Chicago I've seen people tell them at the gate they need a redcap and then the gate agents give them a number on a ticket. Then prior to boarding they call the numbers to get on the redcap vehicle and taken down to the train. But you have to get into the priority boarding lounge first (not the metropolitan lounge, the little lounge behind the rope). So no, I've never seen them just take a person from somewhere in the station down to the train.
Suffice it to say that there are other ways to get a very special person on the train without going through the standard boarding gate
neroden
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There are sound reasons to preboard handicapped people ahead of everyone else. They typically need particular seats in the train. If you don't preboard them, you end up needing to kick other people out of those seats, which is a pain. On top of that, it typically takes them longer to get to the train and to their seat and it's best done when it's uncrowded.
There are sound reasons to preboard handicapped people ahead of everyone else. They typically need particular seats in the train. If you don't preboard them, you end up needing to kick other people out of those seats, which is a pain. On top of that, it typically takes them longer to get to the train and to their seat and it's best done when it's uncrowded.
Exactly!
LOL! Specially if he has brought the bacon home for the airline or airport involved
Did I say he? no.. it was a she.
Now now ... don;t spill too much of the beans
If they can spill the bacon, I can spill the beans, no?
Back to the red cap at WAS... I usually give them $5 just so I can board the train early, especially if I know the train is packed. Worked 99% time, except the one time a red cap refused because I had no luggage... just a backpack.
Do other large Amtrak stations have red caps that can get people on the train ahead of time?
NYP (New York Penn Sta). Even when I'm in the Club Acela, I also get a redcap, too. They may let you preboard from the lounge, but sometimes you run into gate dragons. Having a redcap with you helps a lot. They have the special keys that reverse escalator direction, etc.
It was always a crap shoot whether priority boarding was offered consistently so this should definitely help. Hopefully they're buying more seating for the main hall. Seems so empty now.
(Video) Massive modernization project announced for Union Station
If you're select plus, first or sleeper, you can use the Club Acela, and can thus bypass the lines. It is sometimes a problem for boarding regional trains on the lower levels, though. Sometimes they let you go out the east doors as slip over to the stairs/escalator to the lower tracks. Sometimes they make you go outside and claim a place in the front of the line, which requires a thick skinned ability to ignore the dirty looks from the people in line. This was a bit of a problem when I traveled business class before I got Select Plus. On the other hand usually the BC car was pretty empty leaving Washington, so I would just sit at the bar, have a other drink, and wait to boars until the line cleared. I never had a problem finding a seat, and I avoided the crowds.
Cho Cho Charlie
Engineer
They've had priority boarding for years. It is the boarding queue that is new. As you indicated, I suppose it is necessary due to the heavy loads, but it also robbed the area of much needed seating.
Yes, we've made use of it for years.
There is always a line forming at the gate as the boarding time grew closer, and just before they open the gate, they make a PA announcement that they are boarding BC and Disabled passengers first. Since I have done BC, we simply get up from our seats, walk passed the line, show our BC tickets, and walk thru the gate.
Possibly, all that is new, is the sign.
BTW, as mentioned, sleeper passengers have priority boarding, but they typically go thru the ClubAcela lounge, and not go thru the regular boarding line.
Even when I was in Club Acela with a Coach ticket and a Select Plus status, specially when boarding on a Regional train from the low level platforms, I have been directed to go to the gate and board through the priority line showing my Select Plus Card and my ticket at the gate, and that has worked fine.
PaulM
Engineer
Personally, i think the lack of seating will create more congestion. I hope they do something with the main hall soon.
Having just come back from a 4 country trip in Europe (all travel by bike or train of course), I am reminded that most large stations have no seating in the main hall at all, only on the platform, usually including an enclosed area out of the elements.
Wouldn't that be nice :mellow:
Personally, i think the lack of seating will create more congestion. I hope they do something with the main hall soon.
Having just come back from a 4 country trip in Europe (all travel by bike or train of course), I am reminded that most large stations have no seating in the main hall at all, only on the platform, usually including an enclosed area out of the elements.
Wouldn't that be nice :mellow:
Sort of like at the Newark International Airport Station on the NEC. That station is very European in its layout IMHO, including having the entire platform area protected by entry gates operated using tickets.
Incidentally it is the same at Newark Penn Station, minus the gates protecting the platforms. You just go to the platform and hang out there.
The Airport station, ironically, is managed by the Port Authority of NY and NJ, while Newark Penn Station is managed by NJ Transit.
Yep. No lines anywhere. No kindergarten walk nothing. When you get to the station, you scan your ticket at the gate and just go to the platform and hang out there until your train arrives.
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Feels like a good moment to repost this:http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/07/10/_.html
The whole system of having to board a train with huge long lines, making the experience akin to air travel, is to my mind, nuts.