JUST HONOR THE TICKETS.

That's long been a Cold Spring Shops cause.  "A rail pass good on Amtrak and on the commuter rail systems would offer travelers additional convenience."  The British still do so, for tourists on a rail pass.  "A holder of a rail pass has the option of taking the next service out, no matter whose it is, but if you're at Doncaster headed for York on a Virgin ticket and the next down train is one of those Great North Eastern expresses, you just have to wait." Likewise, in Germany, your pass, or your day ticket is equally good on a split-level puddle jumper or an Inter-City Express, although you may have to procure a seat reservation to board the latter.  And the day the Chicago Aurora and Elgin quit, Chicago and North Western and the Burlington honored the interurban's tickets.  Chicago has taken a step forward, in that a Metra ticket is good on any Metra train, but a South Shore Line ticket is not.

Now, with Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority having to take its newest multiple unit cars out of service for running gear repairs (doesn't anybody know how to build Passenger Rail cars any more?), Amtrak finds itself in the commuter business, and engendering ill will.

Amtrak will make four more stops at Ardmore - three inbound and one outbound - and add an extra car to six of the eight Keystone trains between New York and Harrisburg.

Passengers will need Amtraks ticket to ride on the trains.

This apparently required a ukase from L'Enfant Plaza.

As an Amtrak train pulled into the Ardmore Station Wednesday morning, hopeful SEPTA passengers approached the open doors, only to be disappointed.

While Amtrak had let commuters catch a ride to 30th Street Station on Tuesday, the conductor would only let Amtrak riders board on Wednesday.

"We will take them at 11 bucks a piece," he told the crowd as the train pulled away.

Let's see if I understand this ... Amtrak stops additional trains at Ardmore for the benefit of commuters and then requires those commuters to have Amtrak tickets to board.  Legally sound, but politically, that's the kind of thing that will make voters receptive to Tea Party arguments about Washington agencies.