| Clocker | |
|---|---|
A PRR GG1 pulls a Clocker out of 30th Street Station in 1976, bound for New York. |
|
| Overview | |
| Service type | Inter-city rail |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Locale | Northeast Corridor |
| First service | May 1, 1971 |
| Last service | October 28, 2005 |
| Successor | New Jersey Transit |
| Former operator(s) | Amtrak |
| Route | |
| Start | Philadelphia |
| End | New York |
| Distance travelled | 91 miles (146 km) |
| Average journey time | 1 hour 35 minutes |
| Service frequency | Multiple weekday round-trips |
| On-board services | |
| Class(es) | Unreserved coach |
| Technical | |
| Rolling stock | Amfleet coaches |
| Gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Electrification | Overhead caternary |
| Track owner(s) | Amtrak |
Clocker was an Amtrak rail service operating between Philadelphia and New York City on the Northeast Corridor. It was the first service to be officially operated by Amtrak, when train number 235 left New York's Penn Station at 12:05 AM on May 1, 1971 bound for Philadelphia.[1] The last Clocker train ran on October 28, 2005. To replace the discontinued Clocker service, New Jersey Transit added four express trains on October 31, 2005 between Trenton and New York City operating on about the same schedule as the former Clocker trains.
Contents |
Amtrak's Clockers were rush-hour trains, mainly serving the commuter and day-trip market to New York City. New Jersey Transit (NJT) passholders could ride Clockers, which were listed in the NJT timetable in addition to Amtrak's. They were popular with those who commuted to New York from Trenton and Princeton Junction, as they were faster and more comfortable than NJT local trains.
Clockers made all, or almost all, Amtrak stops between 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and Penn Station in New York, unlike Amtrak's Regional trains, which skip some stations. The trains were unreserved, coach class only, and used Amfleet rolling stock after the 1970s.
The term Clocker originated with the Pennsylvania Railroad which had hourly train service between Penn Station in New York and Broad Street Station in Philadelphia.[2] Although referred to as "clockers" throughout the 1970s, Amtrak did not officially label them as "Clockers" (or "Clocker Service") until the October 25, 1981 timetable.[3] Between 1979 and 1981 the public timetable showed individual names for each Clocker. The Clockers were briefly rebranded as Acela Commuter in 2001 when Amtrak decided to use that moniker for most trains along the Northeast Corridor. Following mass rider confusion between this service and the high-speed Acela Express service, the name was returned to Clocker in 2003.
| Name | Number | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New York-Philadelphia | ||
| Philadelphian | 237 | |
| Betsy Ross | 211 | Sunday-only service ran Springfield-Washington |
| Keystone | 219 | Also the name of a Keystone Service train 1980-1981; see Valley Forge |
| Garden State | 221 | |
| William Penn | 223 | |
| Quaker City | 225 | |
| Rittenhouse | 227,241 | |
| Schuylkill | 229 | Discontinued April 26, 1980 |
| Philadelphia-New York | ||
| Manhattan Limited | 252 | |
| Gotham | 254 | |
| Edison | 200 | |
| New Yorker | 202 | |
| Big Apple | 204 | Also the name of a Keystone Service train 1980-1994; see Valley Forge |
| Central Park | 210 | Discontinued April 26, 1980 |
| Murray Hill | 220 | |
| Herald Square | 222 | |