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  1. M

    Anyone know what's up with the Maple Leaf bike service?

    One of the people with cancelled reservations just reported that Amtrak told them the removal of bike reservations was "due to an unforseen equipment change, it will extend until May, 2023." After spending the past three years extolling the ease of taking bikes on their upstate NY routes...
  2. M

    Anyone know what's up with the Maple Leaf bike service?

    As per the subject... there's a huge ( nearly 1000 rider ) yearly bike trip along the Erie Canal in NY between Buffalo and Albany, and a substantial number of people use the Maple Leaf to return to the start with their bikes. As of a couple days ago, Amtrak started notifying people that they...
  3. M

    Traveling cross country with an 8 month old baby in coach?

    Same. Mine are grown now, but there's not enough money in the world to have induced me to take my kids on a train trip of more than a couple hours at that age, especially in coach. Realistically, the cost of flights for everyone is likely to be cheaper than the train between the OPs major...
  4. M

    Amtrak Stations closest to rail trails

    Does it specifically have to be a rail trail? The Erie Canal trail ( now part of the Empire State Trail in NY ) is parallel and extremely close to ( in some cases, literally just feet away ) from a multitude of Amtrak stations all across NY.
  5. M

    What is going on with the Lake Shore Limited (mainly Boston Section)

    FWIW, I took the LSL from ROC to NYP on 8/3; it was about 2.5 hours late arriving in Rochester. Amtrak also managed to screw up a bike trip my son and I were taking; we decided to make use of the roll-up bike service that was instituted on the route last year. So we got the bikes on in ROC, no...
  6. M

    Bike-friendly hotel in NYC, near Penn Station?

    Hi All: My son and I are taking the LSL from ROC to Penn Station next month, to start off on a bike trip down the coast. By any chance does anyone know of a hotel near the station that's OK with bringing in bikes? I've called a couple, and none were particularly enthusiastic about it, but I...
  7. M

    Random credit voucher?

    Hi All: My 15-year-old son received an email with a $30 voucher earlier today. The text indicated that it was in response to his "Email inquiry about service", with an apology for his "trip interruption." A second, longer form letter showed up a little while later with the usual corporate...
  8. M

    Bike stuff

    Interesting--my son and transported our boxed bikes from ALB to ROC just yesterday. In previous trips ( last one a couple of years ago ), the baggage guys just gave us used boxes; some of them had clearly been reused a LOT, but were perfectly fine. When we went to pick ours up this morning, they...
  9. M

    "Death on the Lakeshore Limited" article

    I would guess that things had gotten to the point where they just wanted to get the guy off the train ASAP, and perhaps couldn't identify what luggage was his without causing a lot of commotion in the car ( the LSL is supposed to be in ROC at 11:00PM, but our experience with it is that you're...
  10. M

    "Death on the Lakeshore Limited" article

    The title of this article in my local fish-wrapper caught my eye, especially as I just saw my wife and daughter off on the LSL on Friday: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20130331/NEWS01/303310023/Troy-Zabawczuk-Amtrak-Lake-Shore-Limited My reaction is "The only person responsible...
  11. M

    Seat hogs

    Interesting - of all the times I've ridden Empire Service trains in NY and the LSL and had no pairs of seats available for me and my kids ( one or two, depending on the trip ), one of the staff would *always* be proactive about getting us seats together when they see me surveying the car. Heck...
  12. M

    Checked Baggage in Albany

    To add to AlanB's reply - I've traveled to/from Albany with my bike a bunch of times in the past year. You'll pick up the bike one floor down from the main station level. To avoid having to cart your bike and baggage in the elevator, you can take your bike out of the double doors on the...
  13. M

    Fast weekend trip to/from NYP

    Hi All: My family and I took a semi-spur-of-the-moment trip from ROC to NYP and back again over this weekend. We've taken short train trips with a kid each before, but never the whole family at once, oddly enough. I had asked last week about the best boarding process at NYP that would help...
  14. M

    Got E-ticket for family trip; Multiple copies?

    Excellent - thanks for the advice!
  15. M

    Got E-ticket for family trip; Multiple copies?

    Hi All: I just got my first e-ticket for a family trip between NYP and ROC on an Empire Service train, for me, my wife, and two young kids. I'm not exactly optimistic that we'll all be able to set together when we leave NYP, which made me think; What happens if my wife and I need to, say, sit...
  16. M

    Knife kit

    For what it's worth, both times I was at the ROC station last summer, I arrived just as a couple of Homeland Security/Customs agents were departing. I presume they were engaged in searches, as ROC is within the "Even if you're 100 miles from Canada, we'll let the Border Patrol have...
  17. M

    WiFi and Amtrak: Missed Connections

    I have to wonder how long this will ultimately be a problem. Carriers are slowly but surely moving towards data plans that allow you to have multiple devices attached to a single account, so you'll no longer need one plan for your phone, another for your tablet, etc. And with the move to 4G...
  18. M

    Silliest OBS Made 'Rules'

    I've taken Empire Service trains ( which have no baggage cars ) while my bike took earlier or later LSL trains. The stations were always more than happy to take the bike in, at least one case, two days ahead of my trip.
  19. M

    Stupid Bicycle Tricks on the Northeast Corridor

    And as another fellow cyclist, I'm a little concerned about recent postings on other forums indicating that the Amtrak bike boxes have been significantly reduced in size. Transporting loaded touring bikes may get a lot more difficult now.
  20. M

    Rude

    Yeah, I have to admit that my first thought is "Well, if you communicated your needs to the conductor ( car attendant/etc ) as well as you communicated your problem to us, it's no wonder...
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