Originally Posted by
Agremeister
If you're riding the Acela, don't look at the main board. Look at the small arrivals boards dotted around the edges of the waiting area and look for your train number. The Track will appear there 5-10 minutes before it appears on the main board and you can be waiting at track level long before any lines start to form.
A few comments about this technique:
(1) These arrivals monitors are located at the base of the stairs at the Penn Station entrances at 8th Ave. and 31st St., and 8th Ave. and 33rd St., and at the base of the stairs at the entrance to Penn Station off of the street that cuts under MSG/Penn Station from 31st St. to 33rd St. half way between 7th and 8th Avenues.
(2) This technique works the vast majority of the time, but on rare occasion Amtrak does not post the track on the arrivals board, so be sure to watch the departures board and/or listen to the announcements as well.
(3) If you're riding the Acela to Washington, look for a train arriving from Boston with the same train number as yours. Note, however, that not all Washington trains originate in Boston. Some originate in New York, and if that's the case this technique will not work. If you don't see a train with your train number on the board, that probably is the reason. On the other hand, every Acela train departing to Boston originates in Washington, so this technique is much more reliable traveling in the opposite direction. (If traveling to Boston on a Northeast Regional train, those trains originate either in Washington or in Newport News, VA I believe.)
(4) Once the track has been identified on the arrivals board, you can make your way down to the track, but you typically cannot do so off of the main concourse level because they'll have the escalators running in the up direction to accommodate passengers disembarking when the train pulls into the station. Instead, you need to descend one level to the mezzanine level by taking the stairs or escalator directly below the jumbo train board that hangs in the center of the station. From the mezzanine level, you can easily get down to the track (subject to my next point). If there is an escalator running in the wrong direction when you try to get down to the track, simply cross to the opposite side of the corridor, where you will find a stairway down. There may be a closed door at that stairway, but it will not be locked.
(5) On a very rare occasion Amtrak has stationed a police officer or other Amtrak employee on the mezzanine level to prevent people from accessing the track from that level. I've only seen this a few times, and have not seen it at all in quite some time, but it does (or at least used to) happen on occasion.
(6) If you are traveling with a fair bit of luggage (and even if you are not), you always have the option to request red cap service. The red caps will escort you to the train before the track is announced to the general public, but of course expect a tip. (I typically tip $5.) This obviously is the easiest way to get on the train before the mad rush, and simply will cost you the amount of your tip.