PDX-SEA Charter

[sitzplatz17]

Hi all,

Curious to get some thoughts from the passenger rail brain-trust here.

Am working on organizing some private travel for a somewhat large group of soccer supporters (200-300 people) between Portland and Seattle and back. In the past for this event we've always done charter buses, but I'd like to "upgrade" the group experience and see what the logistics and costs of doing this by rail might be. What kind of pointers and considerations would you suggest in putting something like this together? Would it make sense to just do Amtrak group travel? Or should we look at chartering a train or some PV? I can't imagine it'd actually be in budget, but I figure asking can't hurt!

The rough capacity of an Amtrak Cascades train is currently around 200, so it could work, but it'd be nice to have the flexibility to have more than that.

Thanks!

Edit: Noting that this would be a private charter/group travel for members of this specific soccer supporters group, not a publicly available charter.

 

[Willbridge]

Hi all,

Curious to get some thoughts from the passenger rail brain-trust here.

Am working on organizing some travel for a somewhat large group (200-300 people) between Portland and Seattle and back. In the past we've always done charter buses, but I'd like to "upgrade" the group experience and see what the logistics and costs of doing this by rail might be. What kind of pointers and considerations would you suggest in putting something like this together? Would it make sense to just do Amtrak group travel? Or should we look at chartering a train or some PV? I can't imagine it'd actually be in budget, but I figure asking can't hurt!

The rough capacity of an Amtrak Cascades train is currently around 200, so it could work, but it'd be nice to have the flexibility to have more than that.

Thanks!

I've worked on excursion trains and big group moves on this route (Assistant Tour Director = errand-runner) but they always depended on finding equipment. Amtrak's Group Sales people would be the ones to talk with, whether for a special or for extra cars on a scheduled train. Getting enough PV for that many passengers is unlikely due to the deadheads required.

If the travel is midweek/off-season, it might be possible to squeeze each of the Horizon Cascades for cars. Otherwise, yes, Amtrak has extra cars, but they are sitting at Beech Grove.

If equipment for a special were to be found, ask if it can run in one direction via Steilacoom.