Originally Posted by
jonwvara
That's a good point. I understand that conductors have broad discretion. A rogue one, I suppose, could refuse to let a person board for any reason, or no reason. But how common is that? I ask that in perfect ignorance, never having run into such a person, although it sounds like you haven't been so lucky. Rightly or wrongly, I tend to regard that risk as roughly comparable to that of an unseasonable blizzard or a flash flood that undermines a stretch of tracks--in short, as one of those unavoidable but low-probability risks of traveling anywhere. Possibly I am a fool.
The closest Amtrak station, the first time I took a bike on the train, I got there two hours early to make sure I had time to pack my bike in the box, needed to buy the box. The station manager (sole employee at that station) said he was busy prepping for an IMPORTANT conference call, would help me later. An hour and a half later I found him, he said that he did not have time to look for a box. Then he looked at his watch and said I needed to get there 45 mintutes before the train if I needed help, and it was only 30 minutes. Before he could tell me I could not get on the train, I pointed out to him that I had been waiting for an hour and a half because he refused to help me earlier. That of course pissed him off, but he no longer had an excuse to block me. Found the box. I packed the bike. I strapped two panniers together to be a carry on. He said I can't do that because the strap might not hold. He said I would have to pay for baggage for one of the panniers. I found a duffle in my vehicle that I did not plan to bring, put both of my panniers in that duffle. He then picked it up and said it was too heavy. I said my luggage scale said it was not. He then said he would let it pass this time.
Yeah, I am not kidding.
On other trips, I have seen him be that obnoxious with others too. I do not know where he is now, but no longer worked at that station as of about six years ago. I had trouble with him on several other occasions, I just tried to avoid pissing him off and never got any more threats of being blocked from boarding the train.
I have also had very good luck with some Amtrak staff. Their website blocked us from carrying bikes on a bus that we bought the bus ticket from Amtrak. The conductor let us use her phone to call a special number, not a number that the public has access to, to get that straightened out so we could get our bikes on the bus to get home after we got to Chicago on the train.