Clocker (train)

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.

Route

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} The trains were unreserved, coach class only, and used Amfleet rolling stock after the 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

Naming

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^{[citation needed]} between this service and the high-speed Acela Express service, the name was returned to Clocker in 2003.

Former names

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

Notes

1. ^ Boye Sagert (2007), 218.
2. ^ Rung, Jr., A. M. (January 1948). "Philly's personality trains". Trains. ; 15
3. ^ "National Train Timetables". Amtrak. October 25, 1981. http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19811025&item=0010. Retrieved 2010-04-18. 

References

• Boye Sagert, Kelly (2007). The 1970s. Greenwood. ISBN 0313339198. http://books.google.com/books?id=SzGfma0m6bwC.