At Penn station, you used to be able to wait on the floor below (which has a staircase from the main floor as well as its own staircases down to each platform) and then just directly go down to your Amtrak as soon as you wanted rather than waiting for them to form a giant line. My dad taught me this trick, and we both used to use it to be able to avoid waiting longer, but once when I did it one of the Amtrak workers got super angry at me for it despite the fact that I did wait until after everyone leaving had come up, and as a socially awkward teen, I was too nervous to ever do it again.
I suspect the rationale behind not telling people beforehand is that they don't want to have to deal with people trying to get on at the same time as people leaving, but I feel like the main reason people are so aggressive about trying to get to the train as fast as possible on Amtrak is precisely _because_ the system treats them as too irresponsible to get timely accurate information. If people didn't need to worry about having only a couple short minutes to avoid missing their train and could plan ahead where to be when the train arrived, I think that a lot of people wouldn't feel the need to try to jostle through the crowd to race each other for the earlier spots in the line.
You can still do this. In fact, it’s even easier since the construction of the new mezzanine beneath Moynihan. There are glass windows on the mezzanine looking out onto the tracks beneath. If you’re good at differentiating train set for your train, you can easily spot your Amtrak train as it pulls in and head down to the platform well before the track is announced.
Knock on wood, but I’ve never had anyone give me so much as a sideways glance for this. The red caps will let you down early if you ask for assistance anyway.
Nice! I haven't ridden on Amtrak nearly as much in recent years, so I've only boarded twice in Moynihan, but it's definitely a _lot_ nicer than Penn Station, and it's nice to hear that the benefits go beyond just cosmetic.
Also a random aside here, but have you noticed the social media video folks setting up on this mezzanine to do dance videos? Every time I've been through lately I've seen squads of kids filming...
>I suspect the rationale behind not telling people beforehand is that they don't want to have to deal with people trying to get on at the same time as people leaving, but I feel like the main reason people are so aggressive about trying to get to the train as fast as possible on Amtrak is precisely _because_ the system treats them as too irresponsible to get timely accurate information. If people didn't need to worry about having only a couple short minutes to avoid missing their train and could plan ahead where to be when the train arrived, I think that a lot of people wouldn't feel the need to try to jostle through the crowd to race each other for the earlier spots in the line.
Agreed, this is the case with the LIRR, the tracks are usually known well ahead of time and so when the train arrives, people stand to the side of the doors so anyone on the train can get off, and then relatively orderly board the train. Very little rushing involved.
I suspect the rationale behind not telling people beforehand is that they don't want to have to deal with people trying to get on at the same time as people leaving, but I feel like the main reason people are so aggressive about trying to get to the train as fast as possible on Amtrak is precisely _because_ the system treats them as too irresponsible to get timely accurate information. If people didn't need to worry about having only a couple short minutes to avoid missing their train and could plan ahead where to be when the train arrived, I think that a lot of people wouldn't feel the need to try to jostle through the crowd to race each other for the earlier spots in the line.