bennos

One could also presumably simply walk over to the east end of Penn Station and board from there.

ibrandsguest

I boarded from the downstairs level at NYP a week and a half ago, on a Saturday morning.

Shanghai

I boarded the southbound Acela from the mezz yesterday morning.
No problem.

GreenHawkIA

Since I'm originally responsible for this post (seems like ages ago!) and it keeps resurfacing, I feel I should chime back in. I had a problem that once, but haven't faced any real issues since. Glad to hear folks aren't having any trouble.

bitburgr

So now Amtrak employees are blocking access? I just saw a conductor stopping people without IDs from going down.

travelmad478

Maybe on an extremely sporadic basis, likely when there is a VIP on board. I've had no problems with mezzanine boarding lately (last Wednesday, last Friday, this Tuesday, and every trip in the last 12 years except for two times).

Blumie

I boarded the Vermonter (train 56) today from the lower level without any difficulty.

bitburgr

I almost feel like he was doing this on his own. I watched him for a little bit. When 2164 boarded, he stopped singles and pairs...big groups he didn't. When 2163 boarded, he tried at the beginning, but when the big rush hit, he disappeared. (Literally, it was almost as if the sea of people swept him away).

BeantownFlyer

Since when do you have to show an ID to board the train? And so he wants to see my ID? Here you go...

This seems different then the Amtrak cop who was actually turning people away.

And what conductor has the ability to leave the train and platform and go stand by the stairs?

mapletree

95% of the time I can board from mezz. Really only when there is a VIP ...usually morning trains down to DC (or if Biden is going to get on in WIL).

Kay_nyc

I took the regional down to DC last week and was able to board downstairs.

Blumie

Just boarded 2250 NYP-BOS and there was an Amtrak agent stationed at the lower entry. The workaround is to take the elevator from the lower level to the track level, although when I got in the elevator, there happened to be an Amtrak agent there, as well. (I don't think she was stationed there, I think she just happened to be in the elevator.) "Where are you going?," she asked me. "Boston," I replied. "Are you with those people?," she asked, pointing to other people in the elevator who I didn't know at all. "Yes," I said. "Ok," she responded.

BTW, I don't buy the VIP argument that some people are making here. That may be true sometimes, but I don't buy that this explains every situation in which they block the lower entry. That said, this is the first time I've experienced this in quite some time (probably since this thread was started in September 2012).

Blumie

In order further to debunk the myth that preventing downstairs boarding at NYP is related to travel by VIPs, I offer the following data point: I was in the Club Acela waiting to board a BOS-bound train when I saw someone being escorted from the club by a phalanx of security personnel, including several Port Authority (or maybe they were Amtrak) and plain clothed officers, to board what I assume was a WAS-bound train. Yet when I followed them out of the lounge and walked down to the lower level, and although I saw many police officers both on the upper and lower levels), there was no one preventing boarding trains on the lower level, including both the WAS- and BOS-bound trains. So while this certainly is not definitive proof, you'd think if the policy were to prevent lower-level boarding when a VIP is on a train, this would be such a case. My belief is that it's just a random thing that they do on occasion, and although I've seen it done once recently, we've seen it far less than when this thread first was created.

Kay_nyc

I went down to DC over Memorial Day weekend, and boarded downstairs again successfully. It was a bit confusing because the track doubled as an LIRR track... but in any case, no one was thee to stop me or the other passengers boarding downstairs.

hi55us

I was stopped at NYP today for train #94 to Boston... train was delayed and there was a massive crowd. Amtrak police told me to go upstairs, didn't notice any VIPs on the train, but there have been a lot more policemen in NYP...