Long Time No Blog: HELP!

Yes. I've been away for a while. But I am back. Sort of. More on all of that very soon. But for now:

How in the hell do you get to the Amtrak station in Pittsburgh? I am, going to NYC this weekend. Amtrak seemed like the best bet. But I am already frustrated beyond belief.

I could drive and park. Where would I park? I need to be there very early. I have a lot of stuff. So I can't walk 10 miles from a garage. Does Amtrak have one? What is the closest garage lot? Which ones are open at the appropriate times? Which ones will cost less than, say, a billion dollars a day, seeing as my car would be there for a few days?

There is no way to know. Why? Because Amtrak does not maintain a useful website for individual stations. The parking authority lists some garages in the area, but these are listed as "extra" spots with neither price nor availability discussed.

So, why not join the transit crowd, eh? Why not save the Earth from Global Warming and take a bus?

Because there is no way to know which bus to take. Seriously. Yes, I know that the Port Authority maintains a website. And that website is extremely useful in offering suggestions (after about 30 minutes searching) about which bus lines go PAST the Amtrak station. But if you go get a PDF of, say, the 77G, which goes right past my house, you will notice that Liberty and 11th is not listed as a stop.

Let me be clear about my intentions: I don't need to go PAST the Amtrak station. Seeing that I am actually, you know, going to the station, and actually getting on a train, I need to know where the 77 bus... er... stops. I know from direct, awful experience that buses do not, in fact, stop at every stop along their routes. Sometimes, you are on the bus frantically pulling the string, and the bus keeps on going. Which can be kind of funny if you are, say, missing work. But not if you are missing a train that is taking you to something very important, and the train after it does not come for another two days.

People complain all the time about how people don't take rail.  Fine. People should take rail. But here's a hint: If you are offering rail, and you are working uphill to make people interested in taking rail instead of flying or driving, you should make it AT LEAST AS EASY to go to the train station as it is to get to the airport. And I can tell you from experience, the airport makes it EXTREMELY EASY to get there. There is a ton of info about shuttles and parking and which bus to take and when it arrives and how much it costs and when it runs.

The down side of the airport in Pittsburgh is that it is a pain to get there. In hopes of avoiding that I opted for the train. But in the amount of time it took me to figure out how to get to the station (an entire morning, and I still don't know) I could have driven to the airport and back three times.

Yeah. I know. Some smart aleck will say, "just call." Way ahead of you there. The person who answered the phone at Amtrak did not know any answers. The people at the Port Authority referred me to the PDF schedules online. Which, as I mentioned, do not list 11th and Liberty as a stop.

So... has anyone ever tried to get out of Pittsburgh on a train?

Let me know.

Comments

Yes I've been to NYC by train, though it has been many years. The station is in that big fancy building next to the federal court house, catty corner to the federal building and across the street from where the old Greyhound bus terminal used to be and there's construction currently underway right on Liberty Ave as you enter the strip from downtown.

As far as I knew when we went there was no long term parking there or nearby. Depending on how early you need to be there and where you're coming from a bus may be difficult to impossible to rely on. From where I live in the North Hills there's no way, when trying from Squirrel Hill if it's not to early and the buses are running it was possible with an hour worth of travel and a transfer or drop in town and a very substantial walk.

We always threw some gas money to a friend and got dropped off, a cab might be the best option if nobody likes you that much :-)

[Ed Heath]

The EBA goes right by and stops real near the train station, I believe. When I rode the EBA 15 years ago the stop was called Penn Station. And the EBA runs pretty frequently. Not that you want to use that as an excuse to leave at the last moment. Good luck.

[Matthew]

Try Google Transit, available online at www.google.com/transit. Pittsburgh is one of the few cities that's available. Basically, the Port Authority provides all of its schedules and times to Google. It works decently well; even if it can't be used for this trip, it might help for something else.

Also, have you considered taking a taxi?

[Mark Rauterkus]

Going to the train station is easy -- because -- My wife takes me there and drops me in her car. Then she drives home.

You could get a lift from a very good friend.

Or, you could take a taxi.

[adam]

I just played around with both Google Transit and the Port Authority site and this time Port Authority seems to win.
No matter what I did, Google just would not route me on the East Busway and kept having the end of the journey be a "five minute walk" (which you don't want with luggage).
But when I put in "Squirrel Hill" and "Penn Station" on the Port Authority trip planner I pretty easily got schedules and routing for the 64A to the East Busway (EBA).

[john morris]

I think you said you live in freindship so you have better options than many. You can catch an 86a which I think goes down Libery and I think get off right past that trestle underpass and the old Greyhound terminal or take the 86B down Penn Ave (that bus is pretty reliable and frequent)and also get off near the Greyhound terminal.

Either way, you are going to have to face down all the car oriented intersections with your luggage and the fact that Liberty Ave has no sidewalk over there which says about all you need about Pittsburgh's concern for pedestrians.

I think the trip is scheduled for 9 hours but usually takes longer since the train operates on freight lines to Harrisburg and they figure your just a tourist. Buy a ticket in advance. There is only one trin a day and it is becoming increasingly crowded. During peak periods, it's possible for it to sell out.