"About the train: Cyclists need reservations for the bike on the Coast Starlight now? When I have ridden it with my bike, I have arrived early, boxed my bike and paid for it, and then given it to the baggage people with no trouble. I've never made a reservation beforehand, just arrived at the station by bike and boxed the bike (in a box supplied by Amtrak). Is it a new policy that bikes need reservations?"
Amtrak's website is chock full of information BUT it's poorly organized & requires a lot of digging, and much stumbling along. Having just used them 3X in the last week, here's what I've learned. Note that stuff changes frequently and their staff isn't always consistent. Amtrak SURFLINER: service San Diego to San Luis Obispo requires a bike reservation (no charge). This started June 1. When you buy your ticket on-line there is a box to click "add a bike". There is a maximum of 6 bikes PER TRAIN (not per car, per the entire train). The bike area has wheel holders for 7 bikes, and is in the same car as the handicapped area. On on of our legs a person in a wheelchair was already on board, in the designated space, and there was no way to get our bikes past to the bike area. The conductor was cool and let us stand there for a few stops until the wheelchair person exited. On that leg they wound up with 7-8 bikes stacked up in there. So the "reservation required" isn't strictly enforced (yet). On our other 2 legs the bike demand was light & we had no problems. The conductors did not seem to check that we had bike reservations (it's printed on your ticket) as we were on, bikes stashed & up in the seating area before our tickets were checked. COAST STARLIGHT travels between San Diego and Seattle, and the one Hugh tried to catch in Paso Robles. The Starlight has always required bikes to be boxed and checked as luggage. As Anne noted, It's a simple process given some lead time. Big box (sometimes used ones available for free) for something like $5; remove pedals, turn bars, wheel the bike & tape it up. I think on their website Amtrak wants an hour or 2 before departure for this process. Another wrinkle in the process is that this can only happen at a station that is designated for "baggage service" which means the train stops long enough to load & unload stuff. We had to make a change to our reservation & stopped in at the SLO station to confirm it. While waiting, a conductor approached us and asked if we were going on today's train. The Starlight was due in shortly. He let us know that we'd have to box our bikes unless the conductor was willing to allow "roll ons". He was talking about the Starlight so apparently there is some leniency but it's the discretion of the conductor. When we told him that our reservation was on the Surfliner, he said no problem, that's different. Whew! Moment of panic averted. dougP On Sunday, June 23, 2013 8:32:04 AM UTC-7, Anne Paulson wrote: > > Sounds like a great trip! Touring the Pacific Coast in the warmer > months is always a bike party. > > Another lesson: Check with local cyclists if possible. Locals would > probably not have routed you on Highway 92. King's Mountain or Old La > Honda would have been recommended; it's possible to ride 92, as you > discovered, but better alternatives exist. In Northern California, > highways are not called THE <N>. They are just called N, so for > example Highway 92 is called Highway 92. > > About the train: Cyclists need reservations for the bike on the Coast > Starlight now? When I have ridden it with my bike, I have arrived > early, boxed my bike and paid for it, and then given it to the baggage > people with no trouble. I've never made a reservation beforehand, just > arrived at the station by bike and boxed the bike (in a box supplied > by Amtrak). Is it a new policy that bikes need reservations? > > On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 8:18 AM, Mike <mjaw...@gmail.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > > Fantastic! Glad everything worked out with the departure and getting to > > visit RBWHQ. > > > > --mike > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an > > email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > > To post to this group, send email to > > rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>. > > > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > > > > -- > -- Anne Paulson > > My hovercraft is full of eels > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
