Slate.com has a a fun story penned by Julia Turner on yet another reason to dislike Penn Station–impossible-to-follow signs.

Penn Station’s signage got 2.5 stars on Yelp.com (”Without a doubt, one of the poorest and most confusing arrangements for signage and passenger movement that I can imagine”), Turner notes, compared to the 4.5 stars Grand Central got.

Of course, comparing Penn Station to Grand Central is comparing Tad’s Steakhouse to Gramercy Tavern Camryn Manheim to Cameron Diaz.

But Turner does some digging into signmaking and “wayfinding”–the school of thought about how best to get people from Point A to Points B, C and D–and discovers what sort of a conflicting mess the Penn Station signs representing Amtrak, LIRR and NJT make in aggregate.

She writes:

The problem at Penn Station is not that designers skipped these steps. It’s that three sets of designers did them three times. Penn Station is owned by Amtrak, which manages its concourse on the western side of the station. But Amtrak leases the rest of the station out to the two other tenants: New Jersey Transit has the southeast corner, and the LIRR the northeast. (The Metropolitan Transit Authority oversees both the LIRR and New York City Transit, which manages the two adjacent subway stations; their sign systems are similar to the LIRR’s.) The fundamental wayfinding problem at Penn Station lies in the fact that each of these entities manages its own signs, usually without consulting the others. As a result, the station essentially has three different systems of signage.

This is a crazy way to manage information at the biggest railway station in the country. The user experiences Penn Station as one place. But the current system assumes that the user experiences the station as three distinct spaces. In truth, though, as we saw in the slide show above, many journeys require travelers to cross from zone to zone.

It’s a fun read. It’s here.

Some bait and switch on this morning’s New Jersey Transit Midtown Direct train to Penn Station.

Blackberrys were buzzing, and Clever Commuters were quizzing, as the 7:15 from Summit left the station.

As he walked through the first car, the conductor promised the nervous passengers that he would make an announcement.

“Due to AMTRAK problems, there are up to 60 minute delays in and out of Penn Station New York. Several trains are being diverted to Hoboken, but this train is not. Next Stop, Penn Station, NY.”

Some smiles, and audible sighs of relief rose above the seats. It sounded too good to be true. And sure enough, it was.

About 10 minutes later, another announcement from the conductor.

“Ladies and Gentleman, this train will be going to Hoboken. PATH trains will cross-honor fares for all NJT passengers.”
 
From the ongoing postings to Clever Commute, confusion and delays persisted on the other trains heading East.

So we rolled into Hoboken Lakawanna Terminal, and submerged to the PATH trains. Not much complaining; most of the passengers shrugged and took it in stride. In yonder days before the Midtown Direct, this was a daily slog for all Jersey commuters heading to New York City.

The Philadelphia Phillies opted for a chartered train ride to Gotham to prepare for their World Series showdown with the Yankees at the House That Ruth(less Pursuit of Free Agents) Built.

The Phillies also hopped a train to New York to face the Yankees in the 1950 Series.

Writes the New York Times:

The reason for the train was neither historical novelty nor an exercise in team building in advance of the World Series, which begins Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. It was pure convenience. The distance between Philadelphia and New York is too short for a flight, and a fleet of buses traveling up the New Jersey Turnpike could spend as much time on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel as the entire train ride.

So for the first time in recent memory, the team boarded the Phillie Express from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia about 4:45 p.m., bound for New York’s Penn Station.

(As an aside, today’s NY Times also has a big story about how newspaper readership is way down. My copy of the paper was trimmed badly at the printer, so I couldn’t read the print version of the Phillies-Amtrak story, as the last word in each sentence was cut. I instead read it online.)

[Ballplayers are just like you and me! Pedro Martinez turns up for work at Penn Station.] 

Amtrak officials said it was difficult clearing the sidewalks for the players upon their arrival, as they got there right at the peak of yesterday’s evening commute. The players got a mixed reaction from people schlepping into Penn Station.

When the first members of the team emerged from Penn Station on the corner of 32nd Street and Eighth Avenue, they were greeted by a couple of Phillies fans. Their voices were soon overtaken by more lusty locals chanting, “Let’s go, Yankees.”

Perhaps that explains outfielder Jayson Werth’s terse “no” when asked if he could give his assessment of the short ride.

Nevertheless, Hannah Kirkner, a native Philadelphian and a freshman at the nearby Fashion Institute of Technology, was delighted to see her team on a Manhattan sidewalk.

“I thought it was so cool they came here by train,” she said. “It’s very representative of our city to take the train. It’s so human.”

We’re doubtful the players will opt for the 4 train to Yankee Stadium tomorrow.  

[image: NY Times]

That’s right, National Train Day. The specialest day of the year for fans of the rail is actually tomorrow, when the masses will be relaxing at home and, ironically, not riding on a train.

I’m not exactly sure what this National Train Day is about; it appears to be some PR construct from Amtrak. It’s the first-ever National Train Day, and it marks the 140th anniversary of a spike being driven into the ground in Utah that helped connect the Union Pacific with the Central Pacific railways.

I do know that American Idol judge/former Journey bassist Randy Jackson is the “celebrity headliner” for the event. So for tomorrow, trains will be referred to as “dawgs,” riders as “da BOMB!” and noises emanating from trains will be described as “a little pitchy.”

There will be train-related events tomorrow in Chicago, Los Angeles Washington and Philly, though not New York, it appears.

I’m unclear about how much train travel Randy Jackson embarks on, but apparently he believes in the concept. He’ll be in Washington tomorrow to pump his fest and kick off the festivities.

“Showing support for Amtrak’s National Train Day reinforces my belief that trains are the backbone of America,” said Jackson.

There will be live music in the various cities, along with exhibitions showcasing trains, train stations, and that sort of stuff.

Check the full listings here.

[images mercury news, evilavatar.com]

Apparently there was once a day when train travel was super-swank, and dutiful attendants catered to your every whim.

These attendants were known as Pullman porters, and they played a vital role in black history, as the jobs were largely populated by blacks–many of them former slaves. They were named for the sleeper cars that were made by Pullman.

As May 9 approaches–bet you didn’t know May 9 is National Train Day–Amtrak is attempting to gather the surviving Pullman porters for a reunion, reports the NY Times.

The Pullman fellows were known as pretty cool cats.

The porters largely settled in cities that were major rail stops — Chicago, Boston, Washington, New York — but they could be found anywhere the railroads ran. “We found pockets of them in Nebraska, in Omaha,” said Mr. Ernest, who works for Images USA, which is working with Amtrak on the National Train Day project.

The men have retained a certain dignity. “When we find them, they are dapper,” Mr. Ernest said. “They are men, even at this age, who wear suits and ties.”

The reunion is slated for 30th Street Station in Philly.

Six Amish guys step onto a long-distance Amtrak…

Sound like the setup to a joke? In fact, it’s the starting point of a big New York Times story on long-distance train travel, either for work or for fun, across America.

On both sides of the train window, American scenery unfolded. A dirty layer of ice and snow subdued the still cropland to the distant horizon. At the next table a woman stuck her nose in a novel; a college kid pecked at a laptop. Overlaying all this, a soundtrack: choo-k-choo-k-choo-k-choo-k-choo-k — the metronomic rhythm of an Amtrak train rolling down the line to California, a sound that called to mind an old camera reel moving frames of images along a linear track, telling a story.

With gas prices ticking upwards and airlines charging for every last article brought on board (and continuing to withhold the peanuts), long-distance trips on trains like the California Zephyr, writes Andy Isaacson, are suddenly in vogue.

The Mets’ new Citi Field (a.k.a. Taxpayers Field), set to debut inside of a month, will feature a high-end restaurant named for the high-speed Amtrak train covering the Northeast, Acela. Drew Nieporent, sort of the Willie Mays of the New York restaurant scene, will skipper the Acela joint.

Acela will be located down the left field line, with giant plate-glass windows overlooking the field.

It’s not to be confused with Acela’s, a Spanish joint in Yonkers.

True to its name, Acela will typically be half empty and considerably late with your order, and will cost about twice as much as you expected it would.

[image nymag.com]

While much is known about Joe Biden’s knack for a deliciously inappropriate malapropism (Lesson of the day: Calling a presidential candidate an “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking” African-American will not necessarily preclude you from being said African American’s V.P.), less is known about his tricky commute.

But not for long.

Often called the stingiest man in the Senate, Biden is known to commute via Amtrak from Capitol Hill to his home in Wilmington most every day.

Biden even thinks of the Amtrak workers he sees each day as “family.”

The A.P. reports:

Sen. Joe Biden, the vice presidential half of the soon-to-be-official Democratic ticket, made a surprise appearance Monday at the Amtrak station he has used for years to commute to his day job in the U.S. Senate.

“These guys have been my family,” said Biden, who has taken Amtrak during his 35 years in the Senate. After Senate sessions, Biden travels home almost every day to Wilmington on a train.

Expect the Biden-Amtrak story to get lots and lots of play in media outlets considerably larger than Trainjotting. As the pundits either try to paint Biden as a DC insider, or distance him from that sketch, the fact that he schleps home to his family–well outside the Beltway–for dinner each night will be referred to frequently.

In fact, no less a figure than Biden’s favorite well-scrubbed minority mentioned it in a speech this past weekend.

The Washington Post says:

“He never moved to Washington,” Obama told a crowd of several thousand here, in one of several references to the train. “Instead, night after night, week after week, year after year, he returned home to Wilmington on a lonely Amtrak train.” 

A round-trip on the Acela from Wilmington to Washington costs between $83 and $97, and the pokey ol’ Northeast Regional runs one about $60-$75. The trip takes around 80 minutes.

We’re curious to see if Amtrak seeks to capitalize on its highly visible customer with some sort of marketing campaign.

[image: phl-caw.org]

Following their trip to the Irish Catskills and big brother TJ’s house for the christening of Little Miss C, sister Kate and clan hopped back on the Amtrak auto-train for the long schlep from lovely Lorton, Virginia to outside Orlando, Florida.

Kate and hubbie Brian gave the auto-train mostly high marks on their trip north–fairly comfy seats, decent food, and a sincere effort by the Amtrak staff to make the ride pleasant for all.

The return trip, hauling 140 cars, 50 vans, a motorcycle, and their respective owners, proved to be more of the same. In fact it was an overall better ride, thanks to some pointers the Kates picked up on their first trip, such as hoarding as many free snacks as possible before the train even departs.

Brian also proved to be a pioneer in the field of train interior design, creating a privacy screen with an Amtrak blanket, a strategically placed hotel key card wedged into the ceiling, and a spent piece of MacGyver’s bubble gum. Apparently other riders were asking Brian to erect a similar screen around their seats too.

Kate said after the first leg that your fellow riders will make or break your trip. This time around, the girls had three young Disney-bound playmates to frolic with right up until sleepytime, which needless to say made for a much more pleasant ride for mom and dad.

Brian gave the veggie lasagna the thumbs-down on the northbound, and went with the Choo Choo Chewies chicken fingers that his daughters were so raving about. Alas, the dyspepsia was every bit as intense. Surely an overnight stank wafting through the car that Kate called “tuna mixed with sauerkraut” did not help matters.

On the bright side, the Amtrak pulled into Sanford, FL a full hour earlier than expected. Even after waiting 40 minutes to be reunited with their minivan, the Kates were still on the road before they were even supposed to pull into the station.

The final verdict? “It’s really not that bad,” says Kate. “We’ll probably do it every summer.”

[image: trainnet.org]

Our little sister was in Westchester over the weekend, en route to taking the girls i on a little vacation in the Irish Catskills. Kat and Brian were fresh off the Amtrak car train from Florida (near Orlando) to Virginia (near DC).

They’d booked the auto train several months ago, some prescient thinking with the price of gas through the roof. The cost ran about $900 for the four of them and, of course, the fully-packed minivan.

Kat and Bri said mostly favorable things about the trip, which took off at 4 p.m. and pulled into its destination in Virginia around 9:30 the next morning. They’d scored four seats in the back row, which meant the girls could sleep on the smallish floor space between the row and the wall (they’re 6 and 3). The downside of that spot was hearing the car doors open every few minutes more or less until 2 in the morning.

It’s worth noting that bro-in-law Brian is like 6′ 8″, with a bit of the Restless Legs Syndrome to boot. He said, if you can sleep in a Lazy Boy, you can sleep in one of the car train seats–they recline a bit, and there’s a footrest for everyone under 6′ 8″.

Also on the plus side of the ledger, every row had an outlet, and Kat and Brian gave the service very high marks–Amtrak staffers who were constantly looking to make your trip better (particularly after you’d greased the bartender’s palm to score some free snacks for the girls).

Kat and Brian said your car train trip would be basically a joy or a debacle based on the people seated around you–remember, you’re on a train with strangers for over 17 hours. It’s mostly old folk, who tend to behave themselves, while some kiddies pushed fellow riders’ buttons, so to speak, with noisy video games.

There were several dinner seatings in a dining car (Shannon spoke highly of the Choo Choo Chewies chicken fingers, Brian not so much on the veggie lasagna), a movie in the lounge (”Mad Money”, if you’re scoring at home), and bathrooms that rated higher than their airplane counterparts.

Keys to keep in mind on the car train–bring earplugs (or Bose headphones, for that matter), pillows, blankets and socks (apparently people from Florida don’t always wear them), and sign up for AAA for a major discount–like kids are free or something like that.

Happy trails.