THEY ARE BEGINNING TO CATCH ON.

The latest Destination: Freedom meditation on Amtrak at Forty notes that there are other passenger trains available to travellers in the U.S.

One step that Amtrak management could take is to give potential customers more information that would help them make connections between Amtrak and local transit. While a few Amtrak riders take a long-distance train from one small community to another, many more go to or from a city, or between two cities. This is certainly true in the Northeast Corridor (NEC) region, where almost every stop serves a major city. Other corridors serve hubs such as Chicago or Los Angeles, and every long-distance train goes through a number of medium-to-large cities on the way from one major destination to another.

That's long been a cause at Cold Spring Shops, where regular readers are familiar with the case for connectivity, and the way things work in Britain, where interline ticketing among the passenger train operators, some of which operate competing trains on the same routes (but don't look for the choice of a Zephyr or Hiawatha, generally it's a diesel railcar in a different paint job).  Getting around Boston, where some of the suburban trains are practically intercity trains, is a challenge, and connections among Amtrak's corridor trains radiating out of Chicago are erratic.

It is unreasonable to assume that the casual traveler has the sophistication to plan his or her transit use in the destination city by calling the local transit or using the provider's web site. That site may not be user-friendly for persons who are unfamiliar with the layout of the city or where the transit goes. Amtrak could solve this problem easily and inexpensively, and make many new friends in the process.

Many Amtrak managers spent portions of their careers managing local transit providers, so they are familiar with those providers. Amtrak also works with local transit providers in many cities, often on issues concerning shared track or stations. It would be an easy task for Amtrak to provide more detailed information about local connecting transit in the timetable and on the Amtrak web site. The most important information that Amtrak can provide customers is which transit lines connect with Amtrak at or near the station, and how to get there. Of course, the information must be up-to-date, but it would be easy to present, and presenting it to customers in an understandable format will allow them to plan their trips more effectively. That, in turn, would encourage them to use Amtrak more often.

Admittedly, detailed information on connecting trains in the States has always been hard to come by unless there's an Official Guide handy (the British, on the other hand, have always had a version of Bradshaw's, even though only Sherlock Holmes understood all of its intricacies).  Perhaps there's a market for a travel publisher to put together regional rail timetables.  For instance, the Northeast Corridor services, including those of all the Passenger Rail authorities, could probably fit into a 40 page folio.

Such a book might have great play value: identify all the twenty-minute-missed-connections at Penn Station or Baltimore.