Talk:Poughkeepsie station

New York Central & Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad

Nothing on the connection to the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad in the history section? What gives? ---------User:DanTD (talk) 15:09, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

"Travel guide"

Hi @Kew Gardens 613: - I wish some more discussion had taken place before this edit among others. While I know of some consensus for removing average travel times based on WP:NOTGUIDE, the rest of the information appears valid to me. Please return the article to the status quo version for now, at least.

I still disagree with removing average travel times, and here's why. This is not a travel guide, there is no information on how or where to park, entrances, or how to access the different platforms. There are no operating hours or prices. However, I think that one small element of a guide is okay - how long it takes to travel to the main hub of the transit network, and the main city in the region/country. If you look at NYT articles (and many other sources) about a town or city in New York, it (more often than not) references its distance from New York City, sometimes measured in hours rather than miles, especially for places on a MNR line.

As for the remaining information, frequency of use is important when documenting a rail station. It is in fact easiest to gauge a station's importance based on the number of trains or frequency, and gauge its relevance over time this way as well. Cincinnati Union Terminal is described in most historical narratives specifically by its number of trains and gradual decline to two, then none, and now one train, and that its frequency is only thrice-weekly. The large distance between the Poughkeepsie and New Hamburg stations is also a notable fact, the longest stretch in the line and among the largest in the system. This could be expanded by documenting past stations that bridged that gap and proposals to repair it. ɱ (talk) 00:19, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

@Ɱ and Cards84664: At Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Trains/Archive: 2019#Notability of travel time in railroad station articles, there was a generally consensus that travel time should not be included on timetables per WP:NOTGUIDE and WP:NOTTIMETABLE. I think that mentioning whether a train is peak only or weekday only makes sense. While listing the number of trains at a station at various points of time would certainly be interesting, that is not what an encyclopedia is for. Concerning the final point, it borders on trivia, but I would not be completely opposed bringing it back in.--Kew Gardens 613 (talk) 13:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Yes, so as I said, I know that consensus right now appears to be against travel time. Yet you removed the distance in miles as well. And why do you deem the number of trains operating out of a station as unencyclopedic, what rule do you have for that? I think it's a very factual indicator of service level, and is explicitly used that way for the Cincinnati terminal as mentioned. Likely the Poughkeepsie station sources do as well, but this is not a subject I've really researched like I have Cincinnati. I'll add back in the final piece of this, though I'd appreciate further research here. ɱ (talk) 18:16, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

I agree with these removals. As I stated at the WP Trains discussion, travel time absolutely does not belong in articles. The number of daily trains may be relevant and useful for historical comparison, but saying that "Hudson Line trains leave for New York every hour on weekdays, and about every 25 minutes during rush hour" is not. The long gap between stations is only relevant if there is external sourced commentary about it - and even then it probably belongs on the Hudson Line article. I have additionally removed the nearby places section. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 22:03, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure I agree. There's a difference between travel time to and from points and the service level, measured in trains per hour. In Switzerland, for example, with its national implementation of clock-face scheduling, the frequency (takt) is fundamental and discussed in every station article. That kind of summary is important. Detailing rush-hour surges and other such deviations from the standard may be too detailed, but it's surely relevant in discussing a station's character whether it sees one long-distance train per day or a commuter train every hour. Mackensen (talk) 23:32, 7 August 2020 (UTC)