In a statement released this week, Amtrak says, “surveys have revealed that few customers want or use the printed System Timetable and expressed a preference to access information on-line.” Other reasons given include:
- Schedules, policies, and programs are ever-changing, and it’s impossible to keep the printed document up-to-date
- Reducing print is financially and environmentally responsible
- Individual route panels will continue to be printed for distribution aboard trains and at stations; these are also available on-line.
As late as the 2011-2012 Fall-Winter edition, Amtrak’s press run was 500,000. It dropped to 360,000 by 2013, and concluded with a 300,000 printing in what turned out to be the final printed timetable, which was issued on January 11, 2016.
While VIA Rail Canada still provides a pocket timetable which lists all of its routes, virtually all other forms of public transportation dropped paper versions long ago.
Periodically over its 45 year history, Amtrak has experimented with separate “National” and “Northeast” editions but has always returned to a national system timetable.
Over the last few years, the company has been more likely to tinker with schedule or service adjustments because these can easily be communicated electronically through booking channels. The Amtrak smartphone app, for example, provides station information with maps to show exact locations. In contrast, the timetable’s printed station list has been dumbed down to eliminate not only street addresses but zip codes.
Nevertheless, with elimination of this year’s National Train Day as well as most route- and train-specific advertising and promotion (unless a state or regional operating authority wants to pay for it), the latest move makes it more difficult for Americans who may not be familiar with all of Amtrak’s routes to find out exactly where passenger trains go and when they leave the nearest station.
I tried for the last year or two to get a printed timetable (short of calling them) off their website and i couldn’t find anywhere to order one. If it was on their website, it was buried or hidden somewhere. Apparently, Amtrak wasn’t interested in issuing them. I too would like a printed timetable to plan a trip or at least dream one.
Seems like most customers agree, keep the Timetable. To keep cost down and pay for printing the timetable, simply reduce the salary of those in upper management.
Not everyone uses a smart phone, and the information in the timetable, makes for easy comparisons. Computer technology is great, but still, many prefer a book. It is the hard-copy, many people print-out after searching the web-site. It is also advertising! It is on the shelf at Travel agencies and AAA. If you haven’t traveled Amtrak, it gives you an alternative to the airlines. Just remember, out of sight, means out of mind.
Why does Amtrak keep shooting its self in the foot? I guess some lessons just have to be learned over & over again!
add me to the list of disappointed ones. the national system timetable is a very valuable resource for me. not only for the detailed info on all routes, but also the system map for planning, or just for daydreaming.
Bad idea. The system timetable serves as promotion and visually appealing advertising for potential riders thinking of a trip and wondering where the trains go. Most electronic schedules are unappealing and cumbersome to use. Looking for a trip on Amtrak outside the NEC is not like arranging a flight for many travelers. As I scroll down through the comments I see many others feel the same way.
Please add my name to the list of Amtrak customers who think this is a terrible move! I agree that this move does nothing to improve ridership!
That’s why I still mail a paper return to the IRS – just to annoy the buggers! (-:
I can find times and routings that I want in no time with Amtrak’s printed timetable. It takes much longer to fiddle with all of their electronic clap trap to find a schedule. If I want a simple Point A to Point B, electronic is fine. Anything involving some level of complexity is a royal pain in the posterior. Good job Amtrak. You’ve just made it even more difficult to use your service.
Management at Amtrak is horribly flawed. No more printed timetsbles. No more sit-down Diner on the Silver Star, nickel and dime decisions that deteriorate seevice and affect its ridership audience.
Come-on people, keep Amtrak functioning as the viable railroad it has become, or face a slow Amtrak demise( whichI believe the decipnmakers are quietly working towards.
Is Amtrak trying to kill itself again? Between cutting the food service on the Empire Corridor and the Keystone Corridor. Then cutting meal service on the Silver Star. Next, eliminating staffed stations and using ticket machines. Now, you’re doing away with printed timetables! Why? Does it really cost a lot of money? The way I see it that you’re becoming a bus company on steel wheels. Not all boomers can handle a computer. A lot of interstate bus companies and airlines have done away with timetables. Must Amtrak do the same thing? Please reconsider this.
One thing at a time, everything that makes life comfortable and convenient is disappearing. Do we control our electronic technology, or does it control us? I retired from university teaching sooner than I had to, largely because the university eliminated printed versions of both the academic calendar and the faculty handbook.
Well I’ll miss it a lot,call me old fashioned but I really enjoy poring over printed timetables when planning real or even fantasy journeys. so yes online in easier & quicker but it’s just the end of another small pleasure
Joshua, next time try using your keyboard’s comma and period keys. They make your sentences much easier to read.
Another ClusterF*** by Boardman, Statler and Co. !!!!
Amtrak continues to make bad decisions on an almost daily basis. Like getting rid of advertising and marketing, discontinuing the printed timetables and allowing pets on trains. I can easily plan my trip and get the tickets using the website but not everyone is knowledgeable enough about Amtrak operations to do so easily. Mr. Marx example below is a good one. if someone took the routing that was suggested by the website we might have a “never again” situation after the bus ride from Bakersfield to Barstow. Certainly not a trip for the “faint of heart”. I don’t have a “smart” phone and I don’t like to bring my laptop along unless I’m driving which I am doing more and more lately. So now I’ll have to print out the various schedules and hope I don’t need the ones I don’t have with me.
And Mr. Woodworth, I hear ya!! I do the same thing for the same reason.
I like a paper version so that I can design a routing and haul it along while in transit. Plus, it is a nifty and inexpensive souvenir by which to remember the trip. My experience with their web site is that I can never get the accommodation I need on the day that I need it. Also, if there are more than one routing options, the web site seems to default to a less desirable route. For instance, I tried to book a reservation from San Francisco to Chicago. That’s a no brainer. Go on the California Zephyr. But no, the site tried to send me on a San Juaquin to Bakersfield with a bus connection to the Southwest Chief in Barstow. Huh? Also, I need a telephone number where I can talk to a live person. Eliminating printed time tables is like everything else Amtrak tries to do that doesn’t work well, like eliminating meal services. The days when the train stopped at the Harvey house for a hot meal are long gone and most of the junk sold in the lounge car is just that, junk.
What is wrong with these people? Next you’ll just have to access the chip implanted in you for any information. Don’t have one? You’re not going anywhere!
A couple of good points made here–the supposed “survey” was probably conducted online, and never considered that there are people (especially those who ride these ancient contraptions called “trains”) who actually get information from printed paper, and find it more useful often than instant wireless global online blah blah, and don’t have or even want a “smart” phone!
Another is, why not try sponsored timetables with advertising if they are too cheap to pay for them?
Printed timetables are not obsolete until we are.
It is quicker to look in a paper timetable for information than it is to find and power up the computer then put up with Amtrak’s software; with these hand-held computers there is a risk of being robbed or murdered for them in some locations. I gave up on buying tickets on-line years ago as the software is awkward to use. I call late at night and use real people who know what they’re doing so I don’t get booked on the following night’s #66 from Philly. I do keep a current AMTK national TT in the house in an easily reachable place; also one for the car. In my “bag of tricks” briefcase I keep the current one-sheet paper NEC and New England area routes TT’s for reference when I’m about. The attendant at one of the AMTK stations suggested calling 1-800-USARAIL to let them know how we feel about doing away with the paper timetables. Paper allows simultaneous display of information independent of power supply. What is unclear from the above story is whether the one-sheet timetables are also being discontinued, like the one-sheet lowdown on when the Downeaster might pass through. But this move does show short-sightedness on Amtrak’s part as the timetables spread awareness of AMTK services which AMTK’s software does not. Airlines gave up on timetables because air travel is point-to-point only and basically a slow-motion teleporting system (think Star Trek) wherein one minute you’re in Boston then some minutes later Jet Blue unpacks you from the tin hundreds of dollars lighter in LA.
This will probably have little impact on the ridership on corridor services, but one can predict that intercity travelers and especially those making connections will be inconvenienced and may not even book Amtrak transportation in the first place because information will be accessible only on the web or by telephone. I wonder how the referenced “survey” was conducted? Via the internet, perhaps? If Amtrak believes that an important fraction of its long-distance passengers are senior citizens who pay income taxes and vote, then this may prove to be a significant mistake. Nobody would seriously doubt that the demand for paper timetables is shrinking, but couldn’t Amtrak simply reduce the size of the print run to meet demand instead of eliminating them altogether?
I’m glad I got the information about Amtrak’s cancellation of their timetables. I was going to make a special trip to Philly’s 30th Street station to pick one up, because I had planned a few trips this summer. I can understand why it was cancelled, but it will be missed.
I would rather see Amtrak continue to print the timetables out and charge a per-copy to each customer wanting it. It couldn’t possibly cost more than most magazines and could be a little bit of revenue for Amtrak or at least enough to defray the cost of printing them.
My Name is Jonathan Hamlin how could you do that I am a huge Amtrak fan I am a volunteer station host at the Fresno Amtrak train station I am mad because I love getting the Amtrak system timetable you guys cant do that to me because I love getting a copy for my self so please don’t do this to me and the Amtrak passengers too I m sure the Amtrak passengers like getting a copy too again my name is Jonathan Hamlin thank you for your time your friend Jonathan Hamlin
How very sad! I love looking thru them, they where a great referenced I used often. I don’t have a smart phone so out of the house I’ll be in trouble!
As a NEC resident, I use the printed timetable to check whether (for example) my train to New York originated in Richmond or elsewhere south of Washington, figuring that those trains are more likely to show up late. My experience last week on the train from Norfolk to New York confirms this, when it was delayed south of Richmond for freight traffic. I did the same last year to avoid the Vermonter on return trips from New York.
Using the annoying Rail Europe web site for planning travel in Europe illustrates the same problem: No overall picture of available service, just what’s going from point A to point B at the requested time. I wound up buying a printed European Rail Timetable to work out my simple itinerary. At least the European trains are more likely to run on schedule.
I also like the printed timetable for the reasons mentioned already, and to follow my progress across the landscape.
I have to say it seems shortsighted for Amtrak to do this, even if most consumers are moving away from paper.