Cyclists who want to take their bicycles aboard Amtrak trains without dealing with a considerable amount of hassle shouldn't get their hopes up.
Of 35 named Amtrak routes only eight have roll-on service for bicycles or allow you to check unboxed bikes as baggage. Most of these routes are on the West Coast; cyclists in the rest of the country should be prepared to putz around with bicycle boxes and go out of their way to make sure they board at a station that accepts checked baggage.
If you're lucky enough to live in an area that does accept bikes, you'll still need to call ahead to reserve a space, be prepared to pay extra fees, and keep recumbent or other unusual bikes at home. If you're trying to take a bike on a route that doesn't have roll-on bicycle policy you might still manage to get one aboard by calling 1-800-USA-RAIL.
Though Amtrak, a government-managed corporation, deserves credit for taking some steps to accommodate cyclists, it's overall failure to court a group that would otherwise be some its most loyal riders represents a lapse in managerial judgment.
Though Amtrak has seen a slight boost in ridership during recent years, as seen in the graph below, ridership numbers have been declining in recent months and overall the number of people who use the service remains embarrassingly small.
According to a Congressional Budget Office Report, Amtrak served a scant 2.3 percent of domestic intercity passengers traveling by commercial carrier in 2000. The railroad carried 23 million passengers in 2000, compared with 611 million passengers on commercial airlines (61.2 percent of the total) and 365 million on intercity buses (36.5 percent of the total).
Likewise, according to the same report: "The railroad's 5.5 billion passenger-miles in 2000 pale in comparison with the 516.1 billion traveled on airlines (92.2 percent of total intercity passenger-miles on commercial carriers) and the 37.9 billion traveled on buses (6.8 percent of the total). Travel by private automobile reigned supreme, however, accounting for more than 2.5 trillion passenger-miles in 2000.
Catering to cyclists (many of whom are considerably less tied to their cars than most Americans and willing to use public transportation) is one easy way to get those numbers to start rising again.
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Comments
I AM an Amtrak conductor on the east coast and may I say
your leaves out MANY points, as well as being misleading.
I shall correct you
1. Amtrak is Not a Government owned company. Amtrak is
a privatly owned cooporation. Amtrak, as well as every
railroad in the entire world is subsadised by it's government.
2. If you are going to write an article referring to amtrak's
ridership in 2009 then please quote a study done in the last
few years. Not a study from 1999 (the study was released in
2000).
3. Amtrak does not allow roll on service for several reasons.
A. Safety, bicycle's leaning up against a wall or laying down
create a tripping, falling and overall unsafe environment. If a
passenger were to trip or fall and be injured in ANY way then
Amtrak would be liable.
4. There is enough free space to accomidate 600 passengers,
their luggage, their carry on's. No room to just toss on bikes.
5. Amtrak is very friendly to bicyclists- box up your bike and we wi
Mr. Amtrak Conductor:
With all due respect sir, Amtrak needs to bring back a certain piece of rolling stock that has disappeared from America's rails, that being the Baggage Combine car. That way, the cyclists can watch their bikes, and secure them so they don't fall over. In a Baggage Combine, only half the car has seats, the rest is for baggage and items like bicycles.
As for your #4 statement, I don't think you should use the word "toss". Bikes aren't supposed to be "tossed". I want you to remember this: a bicycle can be rolled *forward*, but the back wheel of the bicycle must be lifted off the floor if you want to move the bike backwards. Usually a multi speed bicycle will gets it's mechanism jammed if you try to roll it backwards.
Anyway, you fail the test for moving bicycles, which is why the Baggage Combine cars should be brought back. Let the cyclists park their own bikes.
A temporary solution would be to remove a few rows of seats from some of the passenger cars.
@Amtrak Conductor
#5 is a mutually exclusive statement. Boxing a bike is a tedious process. If you want us to box it you're not bike friendly.
I travel about once a month, by car. If I wanted to ride a train, instead, I'd need:
1. To be able to carry on my bike with minimal hassle. I'd be happy to lock it up, or put it in a special holder. However, if you want me to disassemble it you can forget it.
2. The ability to bring pets along. I'd have no trouble keeping mine in my lap, and under control (aside from noise and dander).
These are things I do readily with my car. I'd happily pay extra for the extra service I received. I do with my car: Bikes drop your gas mileage and bike racks are expensive.
I understand that allergies and pet requirements make #2 difficult (maybe impossible). But failing to do #1 is just pathetic. I agree with AviationMetalSmith: Build the cars so people can carry on large and oddly shaped packages and watch them themselves.
All Amtrak preferred stock is owned by the U.S. government. The board of directors are appointed by the President and subject to Senate confirmation. It's a government run corporation.
Here in the Pacific North Wet, Sound Transit, the regional transit authority, operates the Sounder Commuter trains in concert with Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad on BNSF tracks.
Four bikes per car are allowed--two in tie down racks and two standing. In practice, the conductors will allow five or six bikes per car if the train is packed. However, they do try to get folks to spread the load out and keep it to four bikes per car.
tinyurl dot com slash lcgj9w
Disclaimer: The Sounder Trains are short haul commuter trains with service perhaps not typical of Amtrak service in other parts of the country.
Amtrak Conductor,
You make some fair points that deserve response.
1) Yes, "owned" is not the best word. Technically, Amtrak is a private corporation. However, it was created by the federal government and has a Board of Directors appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. One of the board members is the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. I am changing the description of AMTRAK to "government-managed".
2) Sure, I plan to write a number of different articles about Amtrak in the future, and I will certainly quote more recent numbers. However, the slightly more recent numbers are not significantly different.
3) I am not suggesting that bicycles be rolled onto trains and parked at random without being secured. There are many options for securing bicycles that Amtrak could easily install to minimize safety concerns.
4) As I showed in my slide show, there is often plenty of space.
5) Yes, but why not do an even better job?
This is most certainly a design issue. On France's TGV (high speed train) one can roll their bike directly into the train and hang them vertically from hooks. It being France, of course there are some organizational issues. Often the station managers do not know about this and try and prevent cyclists from using this service. In fact you can book and pay for the slot or you can use a bike bag that only requires you take off both wheels (much more convenient than boxing). See this link for details
www.tgv-europe.be/en/Passenger_services/Train_Bike/
I would hope we start to consider these sorts of issues in the design of our train cars!
Folding bikes. Problem solved.
All I am reading are a few people whining why they have to follow
the rules.
Wah....I gotta box my bike up.
Seriously people who ride a bicycle, Amtrak Will Not Allow the needs
of the many to be affected by such A SMALL amount of people.
Pick a different battle cause this horse IS DEAD
As much as I like my folding bike and take in on Amtrak there are issues with that too. First of the 4 people I talked to at the station and trains, none of them knew the folding bike policy and tried to make me check it. Second, folding bikes are expensive and may not meet the needs of many commuters. Roll on service is an ideal option that should be explored for more routes.
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