Originally Posted by
ExitRowLegroom
My original train out of ZFV was Saturday morning. On Friday afternoon, I picked up my ticket from Princeton Junction. Saturday morning, I got on the Amtrak train in Trenton (same train that I would have been on if I left in Philadelphia). The conductor didn't make it to me to check on the ticket until after Metropark. After I arrived at Newark, I waited at the desk until 9:00 AM to get my Amtrak ticket for Sunday morning (my mileage run got me back in the next morning). At that point, I had my boarding passes for the rest of the flights and the train ticket to get back to ZFV (or Trenton in my case).
Thank you for the details. There have been quite many reports in the past that people could not get ZFV-EWR Amtrak tickets issued at stations other than 30th street station. I myself also experienced some difficulty (at least one occasion last Spring) to get paper tickets printed at ZFV until within a couple of hours of departure time. Your report is the first that I hear that not only were you able to get tickets issued at a station en-route between ZFV/EWR but also on the day prior. Given what you said about picking up your return (EWR-ZFV) ticket at EWR at 9AM on the day prior, my hypothesis is perhaps the real trigger nowadays is within <=24 hrs of travel. Did you use the Kiosks to print the return ticket or did you wait until 9AM so that you could get an Amtrak employee to help/issue the ticket for you? Also, when you pick up the outbound at Princeton Junction, did the ticket agent inquire/query the reason of your early pick up, and what rational did you provide, if any.