Amtrak a few tips and warnings

[I love to travel]

Have just done a number of amtrak sectors and thought someone might find this info helpful.

1. Trains are not reliable. All were late ranging from 10 mins to 2.5 hours. If you are connecting to flights leave lots of wriggle room.

2. Whilst checked luggage service is available would not use it again. They put it on earlier or later trains, they often have no idea when it needs to be unloaded and communication is very poor when something goes wrong. There is enough room on the train and conductors will help you.

3. Make sure you line up for the train early in the big cities. It determines where they place you and the better seats get given away first. Yes, you have to do the whole gate lice thing.

For me its back to flying or the greyhound bus.

 

[Deleted member]

Are you saying you can't book specific seats at all?

 

[kpc]

Have just done a number of amtrak sectors and thought someone might find this info helpful.

1. Trains are not reliable. All were late ranging from 10 mins to 2.5 hours. If you are connecting to flights leave lots of wriggle room.

2. Whilst checked luggage service is available would not use it again. They put it on earlier or later trains, they often have no idea when it needs to be unloaded and communication is very poor when something goes wrong. There is enough room on the train and conductors will help you.

3. Make sure you line up for the train early in the big cities. It determines where they place you and the better seats get given away first. Yes, you have to do the whole gate lice thing.

For me its back to flying or the greyhound bus.

Great timing as I have a couple of Amtrak trips coming up

 

[I love to travel]

Are you saying you can't book specific seats at all?

Not in economy or coach

 

[RooFlyer]

These guys would be great at running an airline ....

 

[eric2011]

Only done 1 Amtrak trip, New Orleans to Los Angeles and completely the opposite. Around 44 hours IIRC, had our own sleeper cabin, left bang on time and arrived into LA about 45 minutes early. All intermediate stops were all on time as well. I thought the food offerings were good and the observation deck / bar was even better.

This was on a long haul service and couldn't really fault it. Don't know what the OP's service was but everyone's YMMV

 

[Himeno]

I've been on Amtrak a number of times. The rides along different parts of the NE Corridor have generally been on time, as was the Chicago-Milwaukee (though I did have to deal with a very rude staff member on that return trip).

The longer rides though...
I've been on the Cascades 3 times. Once just between Seattle and Portland, once connecting from a thru bus from Vancouver, and once all the way from Vancouver to Portland. The train from Vancouver was on time, the bus connection trip was very tight, the basic SEA-PDX was ~90 mins late.
Have also done Portland-CA Central valley (Coast Starlight Portland-Sacramento, thus bus Sacramento-Stockton, San Joaquins Stockton-Bakersfield). The Coast Starlight was almost 2 hours late and I ended up having to get the later connections then planned.

 

[Wong.a]

Really depends on the route, as Amtrak operates on rail it does not own (with the exception of the NE corridor).

There's an excellent video on youtube (not sure if I can link things here) by 'Wendover Productions' that goes into more detail.

 

[Himeno]

Really depends on the route, as Amtrak operates on rail it does not own (with the exception of the NE corridor).

There's an excellent video on youtube (not sure if I can link things here) by 'Wendover Productions' that goes into more detail.

[video=youtube;mbEfzuCLoAQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbEfzuCLoAQ[/video]

 

[I love to travel]

I've been on Amtrak a number of times. The rides along different parts of the NE Corridor have generally been on time, as was the Chicago-Milwaukee (though I did have to deal with a very rude staff member on that return trip).

The longer rides though...
I've been on the Cascades 3 times. Once just between Seattle and Portland, once connecting from a thru bus from Vancouver, and once all the way from Vancouver to Portland. The train from Vancouver was on time, the bus connection trip was very tight, the basic SEA-PDX was ~90 mins late.
Have also done Portland-CA Central valley (Coast Starlight Portland-Sacramento, thus bus Sacramento-Stockton, San Joaquins Stockton-Bakersfield). The Coast Starlight was almost 2 hours late and I ended up having to get the later connections then planned.

3/6 were on the NE Corridor and these were the worst. Amtrak CEO got fired yesterday.

 

[I love to travel]

Great timing as I have a couple of Amtrak trips coming up

KPC check your trips are still ok they are doing service reductions in the coming months to try and fix some of the issues.

 

[Spongbob]

This is a timely thread. I have several Amtrak trips planned in the NE for later in the year. Reading the Flyertalk discussion about Amtrak, it seems the key to getting a seat on busy trains is to use the "Red Cap" service. While it is technically a free service, the custom is to tip the RC porter based on the number (and size) of luggage at about $10 per bag. I have no problems with this as it is about the same cost as reserving a seat in other parts of the world (e.g. Japan).

 

[jgm]

The Amtrak timetable is only a very rough guide - anything after the date is purely speculative.

 

[Hvr]

Amtrak currently suspended between Philadelphia and Washington DC after hitting and killing two rail workers.

WASHINGTON — Two CSX rail workers were struck and killed late Tuesday by an Amtrak passenger train in Washington, D.C., officials said.


CSX issued a statement Wednesday that said the workers were on tracks near the intersection of Ninth Street and New York Avenue when they were struck just before midnight. The railroad didn’t identify the workers to respect the privacy of their families.

I've travelled between Boston-New York-Philadelphia and Washington DC several times including the NYC-DC leg in October 2016.

All trips were on time and generally ok for travel. In New York you wait in the station's wait room until the track is announced and then get your ticket checked before you're allowed on the platform. So no getting there early to line up. I found that travelling HLO was ok and always got a seat.

If I get the opportunity I would like to travel on Amtrak again. I found it a great way to see parts of the country you don't see from planes.

 

[Deleted member]

Not in economy or coach

Noted! So book business/ first (or whatever it's called) then.

 

[Spongbob]

Even with a business class seat many NE trains will not allow seat reservation (this is noted on the Amtrak website when making a booking).

 

[SpudOz]

Only done 1 Amtrak trip, New Orleans to Los Angeles and completely the opposite. Around 44 hours IIRC, had our own sleeper cabin, left bang on time and arrived into LA about 45 minutes early. All intermediate stops were all on time as well. I thought the food offerings were good and the observation deck / bar was even better.

This was on a long haul service and couldn't really fault it. Don't know what the OP's service was but everyone's YMMV

A couple of years ago, I did the Empire Builder (Chicago to Seattle). I am a train fan and the husband figured that he would have to suffer the trip to appease me. As it happened, the trip was great and the husband loved it. We had a sleeper cabin with its own "ensuite". Tiny little cubicle that was sufficient to use the toilet but we went downstairs to use the full size shower.

We met some interesting characters along the way, particularly at mealtimes.

We stayed in Seattle for a couple of nights so there was no hassle if the train was late.

Thoroughly recommend!

 

[amaroo]

This is a timely thread. I have several Amtrak trips planned in the NE for later in the year. Reading the Flyertalk discussion about Amtrak, it seems the key to getting a seat on busy trains is to use the "Red Cap" service. While it is technically a free service, the custom is to tip the RC porter based on the number (and size) of luggage at about $10 per bag. I have no problems with this as it is about the same cost as reserving a seat in other parts of the world (e.g. Japan).

We used the Red Cap service (NYC-DC) Acela Express business class.... pre-board & luggage assistance - great service. IIRC I tipped $5/bag or $20, he looked pretty happy with number.

 

[jenib]

We've done a few trips. We once had a north east rail pass and used it to travel from NYC to Boston, Lancaster, Niagara, Washington, Philadephia etc etc. It was great value.
We've travelled from Memphis to Chicago, Chicago to San Francisco (Californian Zephr) and LA to Seattle (Coast Starlight) - all in sleepers. Sleeper accommodation comes with free meals so basically you get your transport, accommodation and meals for one price. It is worth doing the research to get the best prices - some of which can be very good value. There are some sights too that can only be seen from the train (eg parts of the rocky mountains in the middle of winter) and the long haul trains often have history and train enthusiasts giving commentary along the way.

If you do your research before you book, you will understand the pros and cons (yes they do sometimes run late) - eg https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attr...653-Reviews-California_Zephyr-California.html https://www.seat61.com/california-zephyr.htm. For us the journey is often as important as the destination

 

[kpc]

Just did NYC (Penn station) to DC (Union station), and Boston (South Station) to NYC (Penn station). Bought the cheapest ticket at USD49 for each leg; there were 4 of us with carryon bags and one large suitcase. The first train was on time, and the second one was 30 mins late arriving into NYC. We did not use the Red Cap service, and the only issue was finding a place for the big bag but we eventually did. Free seating so first come, first served! The carry on bags could easily be stored on the overhead shelves. There is a food carriage but we had brought our own food / snacks / drinks onboard. There was WifI onboard but was very slow so I used my 4G instead. Only need to arrive at station 1/2 hour or so before departure and there are no airport type security checks....the other big advantage is that you start / end in the middle of the city. Will use Amtrak again without hesitation