Template talk:Amtrak web

Ridership links
The ridership links are included because every Amtrak station article includes ridership data. I think of this as automatic referencing and a handy function. Mackensen (talk) 22:22, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Got it. Sorry about breaking the template. --TorriTorri(Talk to me!) 23:02, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * If the article uses the links, they should be on the references section, not on the external links one. The way the template works now amounts to breaking both WP:EL and WP:CITE at the same time. --Muhandes (talk) 20:17, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Since no one objected for two months, I'm taking it as acquiescence and changing the template. --Muhandes (talk) 18:43, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Confused on usage
Hello fellow Wikipedians! I'm hoping someone could explain to me what exactly this template does. I know it creates a link to the official Amtrak page for a certain station from three variables in the External Links section of the station's article. It looks like maybe it is also supposed to be used for ridership data, but I'm not sure if that is still used, and if so, where that goes in the articles. Due to Amtrak's website refresh this past year, many of the hyperlinks are now much easier to read and type, ex. for Washington Union Station, the link is just https://www.amtrak.com/stations/bal, with the last three letters of the link being the station code. Therefore, though I am grateful to Mackensen for creating this template, I'm not sure it is needed anymore. Even though Amtrak's new site nicely redirects one to the correct page, in my opinion this template makes it confusing when trying to edit the External Links section of an article, so I am inclined to just replace the templates with the simplified links that Amtrak now uses. Please let me know your opinions! Thanks! Daybeers (talk) 08:57, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It could stand to be refactored as a station-link formatting template only. That's a useful function as it ensures a consistent presentation. We've been through a couple link-format changes at this point and I'm sure we'll go through another one. The ridership stuff was deprecated in 2011 and can be removed. I suspect, though I'm not sure, that nothing uses the optional functionality for route linking. The original use case remains solid though. Mackensen (talk) 12:22, 24 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I made the necessary changes. I hope I did it right! Please change if needed. I'm going to try and go around to some stations, at least on the Northeast Corridor, and make sure the links are in order. Daybeers (talk) 20:59, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

I shall comply with all Amtrak auto-train requirements. Suzanne Choisser (talk) 13:51, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Fine. Suzanne Choisser (talk) 13:52, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

No further comments. Suzanne Choisser (talk) 13:53, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

Great American Stations links?
Nearly all Amtrak station pages also have links to that station's pages on Amtrak's Great American Stations (GAS) site. The formatting is not exactly uniform across the hundreds of station pages.

Because of the link syntax used by the GAS website, it would be pretty straightforward to add a link to that page using this template. The page links are http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/xxx where the "xxx" is the three digit station code that this template already uses to populate the link to to the Amtrak site.

Thoughts on adding a second link to the GAS station pages under the Amtrak link using this template? Or should it be a another template? RickyCourtney (talk) 00:17, 3 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Oh and formatting...
 * I'm thinking would render as:
 * Fresno, CA – Amtrak
 * Fresno, CA – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
 * RickyCourtney (talk) 00:30, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Pinging previous tempate editors @Mackensen and @Daybeers for comment. RickyCourtney (talk) 21:22, 3 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I think that's a reasonable addition. Is the GAS website 100% complete? Mackensen (talk) 10:50, 4 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I'm reasonably sure it is. Every station page I've worked on has had one, including the Sunset Limited's Amshacks in New Mexico. RickyCourtney (talk) 12:42, 4 October 2022 (UTC)
 * @RickyCourtney It appears there are some issues with some of the GAS links where the station code doesn't properly redirect - see Oakland Coliseum station and its recent edit history. I've temporarily changed the template to use uppercase for GAS links, which seems to have working redirects, but you may want to take a look. Thanks, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 00:02, 11 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the uppercase seems to be working well. Let's stick with that for now. RickyCourtney (talk) 00:15, 11 December 2022 (UTC)