Excess Carry-on Baggage Fee Began October 1, 2015

[AmtrakLKL]

Amtrak will begin charging at stations and onboard trains for excess carry on bags effective October 1. The carry on bag policy is two small personal items measuring 14x11x7 and under 25lbs each and two carry on items measuring 28x22x15 and under 50 pounds. $20 will be charged for each bag over the quantity or size limit up to a maximum of two excess bags per passenger.

It seems stations are being trained to be the front line enforcers and assess the charge before boarding, but if the origin station is unstaffed or misses the excess bags the passenger can be charged at any time enroute. Training is rolling out across the country over the next two months prior to the October 1 implementation. It sounds like the fee will be last resort after encouraging passengers to check two bags for free.

 

[greatcats]

This should certainly solve Amtrak's financial problems.

 

[jis]

I think it may be a bit of a logistical nightmare in some cases. It should be implementable for LD trains possibly involving some additional dwell times at stations, specially unstaffed ones.

OTOH, it may become quite a challenge on heavily used corridors, though one could argue that it is relatively few and far between on heavily used corridors that actually do bring their kitchen sink along.

 

[jebr]

It would be nice if this came with some sort of trainside checked baggage service at unstaffed stations, or a policy allowing excess baggage from an unstaffed station to the nearest staffed station (where it can then be checked.)

That being said, the baggage allotment, even considering carry-on only, still seems fairly generous. A person probably could not easily carry on more than that in one trip.

 

[the_traveler]

I still think it's unfair for many travelers. How about if one or both of your stations do not offer checked baggage service? :huh:

Examples are you can check 2 bags and carry on the allowed limit if you go NYP-DEN, WAS-ORL, PHL-SLC or BOS-LAX, but how about if you start or end at KIN, FED, OLW OR BWI? :huh: You're only allowed the carry on amount! How do you get those extra bags to your connection point at NYP, WAS or CHI so you can check your other 2 bags? :huh:

 

[seat38a]

I like this plan! I'm guessing this plan is being implemented to deal with people who keep putting their stuff on the seat of busy trains. Some sort of financial weapon to get them to remove the luggage from the seats. I see this being implemented on the train in situations where luggage racks or the overhead racks aren't being used.

 

[jis]

I still think it's unfair for many travelers. How about if one or both of your stations do not offer checked baggage service? :huh:

Examples are you can check 2 bags and carry on the allowed limit if you go NYP-DEN, WAS-ORL, PHL-SLC or BOS-LAX, but how about if you start or end at KIN, FED, OLW OR BWI? :huh: You're only allowed the carry on amount! How do you get those extra bags to your connection point at NYP, WAS or CHI so you can check your other 2 bags? :huh:

It is slightly less unfair than for those people in Amarillo TX or Melbourne FL who can't even get themselves on a train without driving many many miles, let alone worry about whether they can fail to get on the train two bags or four bags. People who are traveling between two unstaffed stations should be notified that they face certain realistic baggage restrictions due to thei choice of origin and destination. They should be allowed to make an informed choice as to whether they wish to start their journey in KIN or in PVD. As usual getting oneself to the station of ones choice is something that the traveler has to deal with.

 

[Triley]

I still think it's unfair for many travelers. How about if one or both of your stations do not offer checked baggage service? :huh:

Examples are you can check 2 bags and carry on the allowed limit if you go NYP-DEN, WAS-ORL, PHL-SLC or BOS-LAX, but how about if you start or end at KIN, FED, OLW OR BWI? :huh: You're only allowed the carry on amount! How do you get those extra bags to your connection point at NYP, WAS or CHI so you can check your other 2 bags? :huh:

Excuse me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this always been the policy, minus the $20 for each additional bag brought onboard? Prior to this, people will bring a million and one bags, and the luggage areas would become chuck full, and then start spilling over in to ADA seating areas, and it would just cause a huge hassle because all conductors I have met would just look the other way.

I say it's going to be a good move financially, and will make conditions easier onboard, if the policy is followed through with.

 

[Orangesaint]

Very generous allotment. If you're carrying more then this onboard, then you should be charged.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I agree that this is a much needed policy, but also with Dave that its unfair to those that board @ unstaffed stations. Also it can become a Logistical and Operational nightmare!

My biggest concern for is for the OBS that have to enforce the policy and collect the fees.

Since only LSAs and Conductors can handle cash are they supposed to delay the train or leave the Cafe or Diner @ each stop to perform this additional duty.

And on the corridor trains with frequent stops, large amounts of boardings and detrainings and only Conductors, the delays can become a problem! (It's bad enough already where the Conductors pull tickets before boarding instead of on the train!) There's also the many stops in the wee hours where the Conductors are the only ones awake!

Since its Amtrak, guess it'll be the old mantra of YMMV!

 

[OBS]

AFAIK, from reading the initial memo, it will not involve OBS. Conductors are attending a training briefing, starting this week. No additional info is outlined for OBS folks, other than the policy change.

 

[jis]

AFAIK, from reading the initial memo, it will not involve OBS. Conductors are attending a training briefing, starting this week. No additional info is outlined for OBS folks, other than the policy change.

That would be consistent with the general responsibility of the Conductors to enforce transport(tariff) revenue collection and compliance.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The specifics don't bother me that much. It's the trend that concerns me. But try explaining nuance to the "who cares" crowd.

 

[Hal]

AFAIK, from reading the initial memo, it will not involve OBS. Conductors are attending a training briefing, starting this week. No additional info is outlined for OBS folks, other than the policy change.

Yes, it won't involve OBS. Conductors are somehow supposed to screen baggage on high level platforms where hundreds may be boarding without delaying the train.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Who cares if it delays the train? Amtrak doesn't promise departure or arrival at a specific time and doesn't bother with refunds. Money is money and Amtrak needs to reduce costs on their way to earning a profit.

 

[PVD]

This potentially raises revenue, but I don't see how it reduces costs. Making a profit it not a sensible goal for Amtrak, , reducing losses is.

 

[jis]

This potentially raises revenue, but I don't see how it reduces costs. Making a profit it not a sensible goal for Amtrak, , reducing losses is.

Making statements about what is or is not reasonable for Amtrak on this board does not count for a hill of beans. We have to somehow elect the actual managers of Amtrak who feel this way. I don;t see how we can achieve that at the present time. Any ideas?

 

[Phil S]

Any idea if this applies to sleeper passengers?

A pretty generous amount.but I travel with a rollie, a knapsack, a leather office satchel, and a small musical instrument that's still a lot longer than 14", all of which I really do use during the trip (quietly). The satchell might fit in the rollie but it seems like a pretty silly hting to have to do.

All that said, it seems like a completely unworkable policy that will be only randomly enforced and will end up causing more trouble than good.

 

[jis]

AFAIR the baggage allowance is the same for all passengers.

http://www.amtrak.com/baggage-policy

the policy already exists and has existed for a long time. It is only the enforcement thereof that is being discussed. The policy continues to be as workable or unworkable as it has ever been.

 

[xyzzy]

I don't object to it.

 

[jebr]

I do see that they changed the policy a bit sometime between March and now.

Here's a screenshot from March 20, 2015, courtesy of the Wayback machine:

Now the Amtrak website has removed the general "things exempt" verbiage and replaced it with "two personal items":

I don't think it's unreasonable to charge for excess luggage above and beyond that allotment, though I hope they follow through when they say the fee will be collected on-board. Delaying the train for it would be crazy (though someone bringing on that much luggage is likely delaying the train anyways by taking more than one trip to get them and their belonging on board.) I don't think it's completely unfair to those boarding at unstaffed locations to not get the baggage allotment, though I would be happier if they had actually pared this with an improvement in service in checked baggage to/from unstaffed stations.

This change may be one to generate more revenue, though it's possible a large part of the rationale is also to keep the boarding process quick; $20/item may be enough to discourage most people from bringing so much luggage on board that it's impossible for them to bring it on in a reasonable fashion (without delaying the boarding process.) I would argue that there's very few people that could bring on more than two personal items (e.g. a backpack and purse/laptop bag) and two carry-on items (carry-on to full-size checked on an airline luggage bags) in one trip.

I do wish they'd put back the exemption for medical items, simply because that could cause ADA issues (or related) if they don't, and it's not really fair to count those against the allotment (which is almost always maybe one additional bag anyways.)

 

[Alice]

Some medical items are excluded from the count. It looks like this applies to medical items belonging to a person using the disability discount. That means seniors who are also disabled, who often take the senior discount because it is more convenient, may want to put their disability documentation in order.

Special Items Page

Although it doesn't say it anywhere, Amtrak seems to be generally tightening their policy enforcement, and I could see that they might start asking for disability documentation one of these days. Even if they only want the documentation regarding non-visible disabilities, it could be discriminatory unless they also ask for obvious disabilities.

 

[Hal]

Who cares if it delays the train? Amtrak doesn't promise departure or arrival at a specific time and doesn't bother with refunds. Money is money and Amtrak needs to reduce costs on their way to earning a profit.

On the NEC there is the delay desk. That desk has the dispatcher call the Conductor to explain any delay from the timetable. As long as management doesn't take any action against the Conductor for delaying the train to enforce the policy then it won't matter.

Also in the past management would not back up Conductors who enforced the carry on baggage limits on the NEC if the passenger complained. So most conductors took took the attitude that if the passenger boarded at a staffed stations and got thru the gate they were not going to challenge them. Often passengers at staffed stations who board with more carry on baggage than allowed get a red cap to put it on. If the conductor does anything the red caps complains to management.

So in October management has to back up the conductors enforcing the policy if it is to work. In the past management they have not had the backbone to do that as soon as passengers complianed.

 

[BCL]

How will onboard Amtrak personnel know whose items belong whom? May be if they notice when boarding or exiting, but would they really have the time?

That being said, on my recent LD trip I mentioned to someone I knew that I was bringing a large item. He looked at me like I was crazy - basically that he thought I'd have to carry it on board myself. He had no concept of check in baggage service on a train, since he was from a country where such baggage service didn't exist for their trains.

 

[PVD]

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