RandomlyWest

FYI, AMTRAK just laid off staff and closed its ticketing services windows at 22 rail depots (NM, TX, KS, MT, AR, OH and apparently other states).

This TinyURL will direct you to a page of Google News results that effectively gives you a list of some of the closures: tinyurl.com/ybsrh7x9

Not a big problem in terms of buying a ticket, of course - everyone buys tickets online now. But ... at checked baggage stops like La Junta and Lamy and Cincinnati, this could be a problem. Aren't the ticketing staff the people who sell you bike boxes? And aren't they the folks to talk to about storing your bike box at the depot if you're doing a loop tour from that stop?

jamawani 

This belongs on the touring forum because lots of people who tour use Amtrak to get to their staring point or to return from their endpoint.
Hello?

mev

Unfortunate if this results in fewer checked baggage stops.

Two weeks ago I decided to do a short tour before it became too hot in TX. I looked at Amtrak lines and figured I could easily pick between Chicago, New Orleans or El Paso as an endpoint.

I bought a one-way ticket to El Paso (online), cycled to the Austin station. It was an overnight train ride with roll-on/roll-off service. I wheeled my bike to the baggage car and then walked back to my seat. The service was only available at stations with baggage service (San Antonio, Del Rio, El Paso I believe) so not available in Alpine which would be a great stop to visit Big Bend at cooler time of the year.

I can see fewer people buying tickets at many of the stations. It will be a shame to see fewer baggage stops as opportunities for end points to a tour.

fietsbob

You voted to shrink government, It's what is happening.

your politicians listen most to their campaign funders , as you may notice..





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boomhauer

Ever been to La Junta, CO?
That would be pretty low hanging fruit if you were forced to make some cuts.

RandomlyWest

I've now read several articles about this, and I sense that many small-town stations will stop offering checked baggage services in May/June.

I was in Gallup (not a checked baggage stop) last May, and witnessed what might be the new normal: a part-time "caretaker" hired by AMTRAK opens the station/platform gates 1-2 hours before the train is scheduled to arrive, sits with the passengers until it does, and helps facilitate boarding.

The caretaker in Gallup was not very agile or athletic. The caretaker in Osceola, IA is currently a 78-year-old woman with bad knees.

I don't see loaded bike boxes coming on or off the train in such circumstances.

mev

Amtrak receives ~$2 billion/year in subsidies.

CBO numbers suggest 2019 total budget outlays go up 8% (4470 billion vs 4142 billion) and revenues up 4.5% (3490 billion vs 3338 billion) growing our annual deficit by 22% year over year.

Regardless of how I voted, the US government isn't shrinking and Amtrak just isn't big enough in the total equation to make much difference either way.

For better or worse, train travel doesn't play a big part in the passenger travel market in the USA. As a touring cyclist, it is one of the services that I do enjoy and have benefitted from and hence would love to have more of my tax dollars support this. For example, rather than doubling the estate tax threshold (costing $72 billion in revenues over 10 years), I would have been more than willing to keep Amtrak at current levels (costing ~20+ billion over those 10 years).

fietsbob

SNCF is subsidized too, they have had high speed trains for well over 30 years..

I rode on one, the TGV, in 1988..






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spinnaker

Part of the agreement to get that money was to cut expenses.

CliffordK

Aren't there usually staff members on the train that manage passengers? It is quite possible they could open the baggage car and load bikes.

Around here, there is a hanging rack for bikes on the train without boxes. Just wheel the bike up to the baggage car and the train people will load it on.

Are there bike shops in these towns in question that could facilitate packing and recycling bike boxes, or are the towns too small to have a LBS?

If the trains like boxes and bags, I don't see why they couldn't facilitate renting hard cases. Perhaps work with the local tavern, so the train the previous days dumps off the box, then you pick it up at the tavern and use it, and turn it back in to be sent somewhere else.

I haven't done a lot of train travel, but my bike folds up into its own suitcase. No need for checked baggage.

mev

It seems to vary by train and route:

- A few years ago I lived in Portland OR. Amtrak Cascades train had hooks you could pay to reserve. I typically left/started from Portland and seemed to be able to get off at small stations e.g. Tukwila not just Seattle/Salem/Eugene/Vancouver. Here someone from the train would go up, retrieve the bike and hand it to me.
- At the time the Coast Starlight didn't (yet) have hooks. One had to have a bicycle boxed and one could only load/unload at official baggage stops.

- The week before last, I took the Texas Eagle from Austin to El Paso. I could reserve a hook for $20. I brought my bike to the baggage car and someone loaded/unloaded it. While the train stopped at multiple stops, one could only load/unload at official baggage stops.

Between San Antonio and the West coast these are:
Mile 1305 - San Antonio
Mile 1910 - El Paso
Mile 2226 - Tuscon
Mile 2312 - Maricopa (Phoenix)
Mile 2728 - LA

There are 10 other stops, but these aren't large enough to be baggage stops and a few are really tiny. It seemed when the train was "ahead" we'd pause until official schedule departure, but if we were behind we'd only stop to load/unload.

Amtrak *could* do other things, but not sure what they will do. My concern wasn't so much with the smallest stations that didn't have service anyways, but more intermediate ones like Topeka (https://www.amtrak.com/alert/topeka-...w-closing.html) or La Junta currently with baggage service. Both of these are on the Southwest Chief line and La Junta is the only baggage service stop between Wichita (mile 638) and Santa Fe (mile 1274). So while La Junta is pretty small (population 7000) it serves a useful purpose in being available in a fairly large gap between other services. So I was mostly disappointed if Amtrak takes more of that type of station away. If they do something similar to Tukwilla and let someone from the train quickly retrieve a bike from the baggage car, that would also be OK, but I'm skeptical that would happen.

CliffordK

It is hard to pay someone say $100 a day to sell $20 worth of tickets (which can be bought online, and probably scanned off of a phone), or even transmitted to the conductor electronically.

I haven't traveled by train a lot, but the only thing I can ever remember checking was a bicycle.

So, it is not only paying someone to sit in the station, but also someone that is only needed on the off chance that someone will show up with a bike to check. Or, perhaps picking up or dropping off rail freight.

Still, if Amtrak is going to try to increase ridership, they can't cut services that might make a train trip impossible for some.

indyfabz

The new baggage cars on some routes means no boxing of bikes. Either a member of the train crew or the passenger handles the bike.

I will be taking the Vermonter with my bike next month. Walk the bike on and off myself at any station along the way.

Tourist in MSN

I just did a google search to find if the station closest to me (Columbus WI) is on the list. I was quite surprised to learn that the ticketing agent at that station was cut last year. I had not ridden the train since he was cut so I was unaware of it.

The station listing on Amtrak website now says they do NOT sell bike boxes, NO rest rooms available, but it is still listed as a baggage stop but it says NO baggage assistance. I pasted this from the Amtrak website for my station: On weekends and other select days checked baggage service at this station is self-service. Passengers should follow directions on signage in the station, tag their own bags and take to conductor at train side.

I was not even aware that these changes had been previously made. This does mean that I can't drive to the station, buy a box to put my bike into. While the route that the station serves has roll on/roll off bike handling now, still there is a limit to how many bikes per train with that where bike boxes were unlimited.

Eggman84

My experience from last month was at an unstaffed station. I had bought my ticket and accompanying bike reservation on line, and was riding on a roll-on roll-off train. When the train pulled up, the conductor pointed me to the baggage car, located right behind the locomotive. An Amtrak employee was waiting with the door open, Handed my bike up and then returned to the passenger car. May be different at different stations but I believe/hope all of Amtrak's lines will move to roll-on/roll-off service so no box is necessary, and that the train personnel know how to handle people with bikes. Of course getting exact info for the stations you will use can be difficult if not impossible. Also, some Amtrak employees know what is actually happening, and those that don't. Can be very frustrating.

Tourist in MSN

I would like the bike box option to remain available. If I switch trains, they switch the bike in the box with the rest of the checked luggage for you, so it is all taken care of. But the roll on/roll off system would mean that I have to deal with my carry on luggage while I am also trying to figure out where my bike is supposed to go. I have been thinking about a trip for this summer where I would have to change trains in Chicago, it would be an advantage to have the bike boxed for that reason.

My first roll on/roll off Amtrak trip was several years ago, we had to adjust our schedule to a different day for our trip because the day we wanted to ride the train, there was not enough roll on/roll off available slots on the train.

Rob_E

I like to have that option as well. I'm not aware that's going away in general, excepting places where baggage service is no longer offered or at unstaffed stations. I'm sure that will affect some folks, but I'm guessing not most. In my area, the addition of roll-on/off service has only expanded options, not limited them. Traveling across my state, about half the stops have no baggage service, and without the special bicycle accommodations, those stops would be useless for cyclists. Also not too far from here is the GAP and C&O trails, which are pretty popular to do as a set, but if you wanted to just one, it was tricky, because the train station at the center, Cumberland, has no luggage service. Of all the cities and towns you pass through, only Pittsburgh and DC can accommodate a boxed bicycle, but now you can hop on and off in Cumberland by handling your own bike.

But I still like the boxed options, not only for changing trains (in fact, there are some train changes where a boxed bike might be a disadvantage), but for different-sized bikes as well. Amtrak specifies 2" tires or less (although no one calls me on my 2.15" tires), and of course the racks are going to have a hard time with recumbents, tandems, etc. So I feel like having a box option remains valuable. I hope Amtrak feels the same, and I don't know why not. From there POV, it's just another box. I have contemplated train trips that would have me "enjoying" a layover of several hours at a station. While in general I like the idea of not having to worry about transferring my bike, on a layover long enough to leave the station and come back, it could be really nice to have my bike available.

spinnaker

It is nice to have it as an option I agree. But RORO is the way the go. Especially if you are using the train to your starting point. Loading it yourself makes certain it will get there when you do.

Every train should have RORO with amble slots. There should really be no excuse for Amtrak not to provide that.

indyfabz

What would be "ample?" And the "excuse" is economics.

spinnaker

What does a bike rack cost? How could the excuse be economics?

Amble would have to be determined by the use on a particular run.

I can't speak for all runs but the Capital Limited often has plenty of space in both the coach cars and baggage cars. Plenty of space to hand some racks.

Tourist in MSN

When I commented above that we had to change our schedule because there was inadequate space on our desired schedule for roll on/roll off, that was on a train in Missouri, we wanted to ride on the train most of the way to the other end of the Katy trail, then ride the trail back. That train limited roll on/roll off to only four bikes at the time we did it. There were two of us, needed space for two bikes.

indyfabz

Hardware cost is not the only issue. Baggage cars are the exception, not the norm. Bike spaces in coaches takes up revenue seat space. Far more people are travelling without bikes than with bikes.

spinnaker

So much more relaxed in Italy. At least for the local trains. They have bike racks but if they are full then just bungie them up somewhere in the bike car. If the bike car is locked then place the bike between cars.

That said the long distance trains require the bike to be boxed. But you can travel considerable distance by just connecting a couple of local trains.

Tourist in MSN

I have a folding bike, occasionally I think about taking it on Amtrak, they allow folding bikes as a carry on. But, if I check no luggage and my bike is one of my two carry ons, my other carry on would not provide much volume for all gear, food, etc. So, it would be a light weight trip. Every once in a while I think about getting off the train at West Glacier and hanging out at hiker biker sites at the park for a week or week and a half, then coming home again.

Rob_E

I biked the GAP to Cumberland, Maryland last spring, camping all the way. I was not light in the least, but I carried all my gear on to Amtrak using a duffel bag for most of my gear as one "carry-on" and two smaller bags as my two allowed "personal items." Basically if you go right to the limits, you are allowed to carry 100 pounds of luggage aboard plus the folding bike. I think the limits of what the bike can carry will be more of an issue than how much Amtrak lets you bring on.