Bikes on Trains
 

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q.../BikeTrain.jpg

Here are the photos I took while in Italy.
I thought I'd post them here, so you can use them to show people what a train looks like if it has reserved space for bicycles.
It would be a good idea in this country (USA).
Unfortunately, in the USA, Amtrak requires that a bike be boxed. The going excuse is that the Redcaps (baggage porters) don't know how to roll a bike backwards without the chain falling off.
How the heck do you ride a bike to a train station while carrying a box big enough to hold the bike?

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...cycleTrain.jpg

Amtrak has no problems with folding bikes. I've taken my folder in a softcover and they had no problem putting the bike next to luggage. I suspect those softcovers sold at performance will work just as good.

The Amtrak Cascades route (Eugene, OR to Seattle, WA) allows bikes in a luggage car unboxed for $5 extra. There are racks.

The Amtrack line from San Diego to Northern California allows regular bikes. There are vertical racks for regular sized bikes in every other car. I took my bike from San Diego to Santa Barbara for a mini-vacation bike ride without any hassles.

The commuter train in San Diego called the Coaster has about 4-6 bike spots in every other car. You make it sound like there are no train line in the USA that allows bicycles without boxes. This is wrong.

I've taken my bike (along with lots of touring stuff) on an Amtrak lots of times. However, for me, when I buy a ticket, I also pay an extra fee for my bike. Personally I don't like the idea of having to pay extra for bikes on the Amtrak, but I suppose I do take up extra space.

Here's why I'm peeved;
I asked an Amtrak ticket agent if I could go from New York (Penn Station) to Jacksonville Florida.
She told me I could go to Jacksonville on the Silver Meteor, but my bike would have to go on the Silver Palm to ___Orlando! and then my bike would be brought from Orlando to Jacksonville on a bus.

An extra 350 miles for my bike.

I think Amtrak's policies are very different depending on which regional corridor you are in. The WC is nice about bikes but has a major lateness problem. The EC isn't as accomodating about bikes, but you mostly get to where you're going on time.

[QUOTE=hotbike]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q.../BikeTrain.jpg


How the heck do you ride a bike to a train station while carrying a box big enough to hold the bike?
[QUOTE]
When my daughter and I traveled with our bikes, we pedaled to the station with our luggage on the bikes. Amtrak gave us boxes. We had to have tools to remove
the pedals and twist the handlebars. The bikes rolled right into the boxes, then
AmTrak tapped the boxes shut. We arrived a bit early so we'd have time to do the boxing.

Interesting. I'm taking the train from Munich to Prague in May and riding the rails in both cities. I'll be bikeless, but curious to see how it's handled in intercity lines and long commuter trains.

That's nice. I hope you can report back to us on how it goes, and what you find out about bikes on trains in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Certainly.

I've heard of people hoboing (freight-hopping) with bikes. Just throwing that out there.

I knew this guy who during the depression used to hobo on freight trains. Quite dangerous I might add but he continues to do this today and enjoys riding for free thousands of miles each year. It's dangerous and illegal.

So that guy must be 90 years old. You sure he's still doing this?

Very dangerous. Those depressed well cars (the ones that carry double-stack containers) look inviting, but they have no floor, just a couple of steel crossbeams.

Someone I met who had hopped freights said the most important thing to have is a big knife, to stab into the wood floor of the boxcar or flatcar and hold onto so you don't get thrown off the train.
He said one time he was jumping off a freight in Utah and his belt got caught on something and he had to use the knife to cut his belt, or he wouldv'e got dragged to death. Interestingly, he said he was working for Conoco on oil wells , and he travelled the southwest by hoping freights.

I believe his parents tossed him out real young (I think at 13 years old). But the guy was as old as dirt!

Just hope your hand doesn't slip down off the handle.

I've been bringing my bike on the Metrolink in St. Louis. No problem. Tonight I saw about 8 other cyclists on one train.

I take my bike on the Sounder commuter train into Seattle every morning. In my car alone there's on average 4-5 bikes.

Each morning I easily see 2 dozens bikes exit my train - and there's 4 trains on the south line and 2 on the north line.