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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

It's been that way for decade(s?) in New York. Presumably because otherwise too many people try to take it a stop or two for free before the conductor comes around to check tickets.

It's not a thing at any other Amtrak station I've been to, where the next stop often isn't for 45 minutes or more.

And no you can't have conductors in every train car. That's way too expensive and not needed for the rest of the 12 hour journey or whatever it is.

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No one said they had to travel with the train.

I'm thinking more, gate agents rather than conductors checking tickets at each door, and they're just always at NY Penn since there's trains constantly leaving out of there.

What's wrong with the single file line? It moves plenty fast. It literally makes a difference of a minute or two, generally.

I have plenty of complaints about Penn St/Moynihan and Amtrak. The single file line isn't one of them.

I've had the opposite experience where it isn't very fast at all.

In fact this past holiday season Amtrak stranded 100+ people in DC because the train left before all tickets were checked. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/12/27/amtrak-st...

In that story, it had nothing to do with the line, and everything to do with the fact that the train was incorrectly marked on the departures board.

And if the line slows down, there are generally other factors involved. I mean, they don't even scan your ticket in the line -- they just glance to make sure you have one for that train on that day.

I’m just pointing out that it’s incredibly slow and easy to evade, so it’s really just a slow waste of time, that apparently contributes to reducing future capacity to the point of needing to demolish a block of Midtown Manhattan.

The line at Moynihan has appreciably slowed down Amtrak boarding. Pre-Moynihan, Amtrak boarding at Penn was faster.

Faster in what sense? They're the same ticket checkers at the front of the same lines. They both have escalators.

I don't really see how there could be a difference.

An extra minute or two can mean a $17 billion expansion, so it matters.

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