Amtrak ready to allow roll-on bike service between Pittsburgh, D.C

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MrEd

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After years of promising it, Amtrak is about to offer roll-on bicycle service on the Capitol Limited route that passes through Pittsburgh.

With two premier bike trails parallel to the route, enthusiasts and bicycle organizations have long pressed the railroad to add the service. Currently, bikes must be dismantled and packed in boxes and can only be loaded on and off trains at staffed stations, of which there are none between here and Washington, D.C.

“The expansion of bike service will take place as early as next week,” Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods confirmed on Thursday.

Reservations will be required and the railroad will charge a $25 fee for the service, even though passengers will be responsible for rolling their bikes onto the trains, securing them, and rolling them off. Only standard-sized bikes will be permitted. The service will be available at all stations on the route, which extends from Chicago to Washington.

...

LINK
 
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This sounds very much like how several European RR's do it. There's a room for a limited number of bikes, which has to be reserved in advance against a fee. The fee varies wildly from a few dollars and up though. I guess the Amtrak one is at the higher end.
 
The article also says that this service will be tried on the Vermonter.

For the uninitiated, why does take it take 8 hours to travel between Washington and Pittsburgh? That seems slow even by Amtrak standards.
 
The article also says that this service will be tried on the Vermonter.

For the uninitiated, why does take it take 8 hours to travel between Washington and Pittsburgh? That seems slow even by Amtrak standards.
Take a look at the terrain the train has to traverse. Lots of grades and curves.

(Hmm, interesting, Google says Megabus takes 7h 35min, longer than I would have expected.)
 
This is excellent, I'll be taking advantage of it very soon, I think.
Ryan, let's try to plan something this fall. Keep in mind the B1GTEN home schedule of Maryland.
Would be cool if we could go NB, detrain, ride south a bit, camp for the right, and take the SB "home"

Lets peruse the schedule
 
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Great News indeed! I look forward to a rail/biking trip to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has many wonderful "Rail to Trails" bike routes.

I think that I also heard Richmond will start taking bikes on a few trains.
 
Sounds like progress! I notice it mentions Full Size Bikes.

Wonder if PaulM and his Boss' fold up bikes will be allowed? I'm not familiar with the bike world so that's why I ask?
 
The article also says that this service will be tried on the Vermonter.

For the uninitiated, why does take it take 8 hours to travel between Washington and Pittsburgh? That seems slow even by Amtrak standards.
If you drove the same route, I'd be impressed if you could do it in eight hours. Following the Mon and Yough from PIttsburgh to Connellsville will take you two hours alone (which is also the route the CL goes).
 
The article also says that this service will be tried on the Vermonter.

For the uninitiated, why does take it take 8 hours to travel between Washington and Pittsburgh? That seems slow even by Amtrak standards.
Take a look at the terrain the train has to traverse. Lots of grades and curves.

(Hmm, interesting, Google says Megabus takes 7h 35min, longer than I would have expected.)
Using driving directions on Google Maps, diverting to serve all the intermediate stations, I get 5h41m.

Greyhound schedules around 6 and a half hours, making stops at NCR, BAL (with layover), and Frederick.

When I rode the line I was shocked how slow it was. Barely any > 50mph running until east of CUM, if I remember.
 
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The B&O route which the Capitol Limited takes from (just outside) DC to Pittsburgh is one of the oldest passenger rail routes in the world.... and they didn't build fast routes back then. At the time it was competing with canals and horsedrawn carriages, so 30 mph probably seemed screamingly fast.

This is a case where it would be valuable to build a high-speed rail line. Though it would make the most sense to build said line from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.
 
I'm sure that there are issues with terrain, but it would be great to have a faster train with all of the Pittsburgh area transplants here in DC. Although as has been mentioned, it would probably make more sense to improve the Philadelphia to Pittsburgh route. Then again, I think that I saw an article that suggested that it would take billions to improve the line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh with only minimal benefits to the schedule.
 
I'm sure that there are issues with terrain, but it would be great to have a faster train with all of the Pittsburgh area transplants here in DC. Although as has been mentioned, it would probably make more sense to improve the Philadelphia to Pittsburgh route. Then again, I think that I saw an article that suggested that it would take billions to improve the line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh with only minimal benefits to the schedule.
That study was complete garbage. I emailed them to complain about it at the time. The study literally didn't consider improving the route by bypassing tight curves or grades, but proposed adding extra tracks all the way along the existing route, even where they weren't needed.

Unfortunately that pile of garbage is probably going to set back the cause of Pennsylvania HSR by a decade. I suspect it of being a hatchet job.
 
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The article also says that this service will be tried on the Vermonter.

For the uninitiated, why does take it take 8 hours to travel between Washington and Pittsburgh? That seems slow even by Amtrak standards.
The B&O had some RDCs in the 50s or 60s that did the route in 6 hours. (According to a display placard at the B&O RR museum.)

The route is 50 miles longer than the current interstate highway route (I70. and the PA turnpike). And even though google maps says you can do the drive in 4 hours I've never done it in less than 5.

The main disadvantage of the the rail route is the curves. Those 19th century locos just couldn't do the grades so they had to Build lots and lots of curves to keep the grades in line but still get to the top. The expense and restriction of 19th century tunneling road cutting and embankment technology also played a part.
 
I recently completed a bike tour of the Erie Canal Trail from BUF to ALB using the box method. All the mitradlers asked when we would be doing the GAP again. I said as soon as the CL gets roll-on roll-off service. It's starting to look like it might be in my lifetime.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describing yet another test:

In the early-morning darkness, the bikes went up a ramp to the last car on the train, were flipped vertical and coaxed into front-wheel hooks, then Velcroed into place by their riders, who then took their seats for the 95-minute ride to Connellsville.
So it looks like coach bags will be used, unless they plan to run the new baggage cars with the mysterious bike racks on the rear of the train.

As far as the speed is concerned, who cares? The last time we did PGH to CUM, my wife and I boarded the CL in CUM with our folding bikes and had had supper and were asleep by the time we reached PGH. The rest with full sized bikes had to engage a shuttle to get back to PGH for the onward trip.
 
You can start booking roll on bike starting 9/15/2015 on the capitol limited, for the additional $20.
 
You can start booking roll on bike starting 9/15/2015 on the capitol limited, for the additional $20.
Yeah, but this is really weird:

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Add a Bike to Your TripThis train offers limited reserved bicycle spaces. If you are traveling round-trip, you must buy tickets for both directions even if you are only bringing your bike one direction.
0 Bikes1 Bike Add $20.00 per Bicycle to this trip.
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Now, I am guessing that's only because Amtrak's S/W has no way to separate buying a bike for only one leg of a ticketed RT. Soooooooo, savvy travelers, who ARE only taking their bike OW, will now need to make TWO reservations.........
 
Hmmm., Revenue enhancement! Amtrak seems to be following the Airline model of nickel and dime the customers for everything you can!

Wonder what's next, passengers have to buy a Round trip ticket even if only going one way? Shameful!!!
 
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Yeah, but this is really weird:

------------------------------------------------------

Add a Bike to Your TripThis train offers limited reserved bicycle spaces. If you are traveling round-trip, you must buy tickets for both directions even if you are only bringing your bike one direction.
0 Bikes1 Bike Add $20.00 per Bicycle to this trip.
------------------------------------------------------
Now, I am guessing that's only because Amtrak's S/W has no way to separate buying a bike for only one leg of a ticketed RT. Soooooooo, savvy travelers, who ARE only taking their bike OW, will now need to make TWO reservations.........
On the face of this sounds like the dumbest thing ever to come out of Amtrak. But not really. First of all, as Dude says, you make two reservations. Secondly, the whole point of the decades long campaign by the GAP/C&O people to get this service it to be able to bike from PGH to Connellsville or CUM and train it back to PGH, or take the train from WAS to CUM or Harpers Ferry and bike back to DC. Finally, if you travel with a bike as a life style choice, say CHI to DC, you would probably want to take your bike both ways if you go round trip.

No doubt the wording will confuse newbies. Better wording would be "if you purchase a round trip train ticket and want to take a bike, you must purchase bike tickets for both directions ....
 
Sounds like progress! I notice it mentions Full Size Bikes.

Wonder if PaulM and his Boss' fold up bikes will be allowed? I'm not familiar with the bike world so that's why I ask?
It mentions full size bikes because folder already go as carry on luggage. I doubt a unfolded folder would be turned away. I presume the "full size" means to rule out tandems, recumbents, tricycles, and other odd ball machines.

But I'll probably try the new service. I speculate that it will be a success; but there are two possible downsides. 1) Amtrak gets swamped with bikes and all the naysayers will be able to gloat that I told you so. 2) The demand turns out to be just bar room talk and embarrasses its supporters who claimed that trains and bikes are a natural complement
 
You can start booking roll on bike starting 9/15/2015 on the capitol limited, for the additional $20.
The $20 fee is interesting. The Pittsburgh newspaper article that I cited above quoted an Amtrak rep as saying it would be $25. Comments calling the $25 outrageous outnumbered even the usual anti-government rants (this time trying to explain why it took so long). I wonder what changed Amtrak's mind.

I classified the $25 complaints as what do you "want for nothing, your money back?" It exactly matches the current cost of $15 for the box plus $10 handling fee. Not to mention that currently, you can't take you bike if you board or detrain at most of the stations in the system.
 
The thing about round trip reservations is probably a limitation in ARROW.

Amtrak needs to replace ARROW with something modern ASAP. Unsurprisingly, this IT project is taking forever and going way over budget, but that's typical for that sort of project. The problem with ARROW is that it's written in assembly language. And it isn't properly modular either. Detangling something like that into modules and rewriting each module in a high-level language is a big project. I'm very, very good at that sort of project, and I find them fun, but I'm a rare bird in that regard, and I would charge a lot. Such a project can easily take over a decade, while employing multiple full-time programmers at >$200K/year each. It's no wonder Amtrak's having trouble finishing it.
 
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I classified the $25 complaints as what do you "want for nothing, your money back?" It exactly matches the current cost of $15 for the box plus $10 handling fee. Not to mention that currently, you can't take you bike if you board or detrain at most of the stations in the system.
In California (as far as I know, other state subsidised routes too) roll on bikes are free. You need a reservation on the Surfliner, but that's as much a benefit as a hassle. There's no reason not to treat a bike like any other piece of checked luggage. Even some airlines do that, albeit international ones. The big US carriers, OTOH, will sometimes charge you more for a bike than for your ticket. Smaller ones, Alaska and Virgin for example, tend to be more reasonable.

Current policy is asinine. $10 to "handle" a box that's no more problem (and likely lighter) than any other big piece of luggage is simply a matter of "we can get away with it, so we do". $15 for a box is reasonable enough, except that it's unnecessary. So is restricting it to stations with luggage service: the state routes don't have luggage service at all.

The big question for me is how will Amtrak deal with bikes once the Viewliner II bags are fully deployed and operational. If this is a preview, it's not looking good.
 
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