More Checked Baggage Service Availible In Florida

[Viewliner]

According to this weeks NARP Hotline:

Three Florida stations -- Tampa, St. Petersburg-Pinellas Park, and Sebring -- have regained checked baggage service. At Sebring, it's offered only for Silver Star and Silver Meteor. Pinellas Park is a Thruway-bus-only station

Click here for this weeks hotline.

 

[Superliner Diner]

I've used the Pinellas Park "station" in my Florida travels. It is literally a store inside a shopping mall. It's right by the door into the mall, so when the mall is closed, they just put up a gate beyond the Amtrak "station" (really a storefront) that still lets people access the Amtrak place and bathrooms and telephones across the way.

I am glad they have returned checked baggage to this station, as well as Tampa, as both are important tourist destinations as well as points where senior citizens begin or end their trips.

 

[Amfleet]

I'm geussing Pinellas Park is an Amtrak connecting bus station as I can't see tracks running out side a shopping mall (though that would be quite convenient).

 

[Superliner Diner]

Yeah as Viewliner mentions above it's a Thruway-only station. This mall location is nowhere near the former St. Petersburg station when that city was served by rail (a very long tedious trip AROUND Tampa Bay). It's about halfway between the centers of both St. Petersburg and Clearwater, and is right off U.S. 19, the main drag through the area.

The buses pull right up to the curb outside the mall entrance.

There are three round trips per day; two of them connect with the Silver Star & Silver Meteor in Orlando, while the other connects with the Palmetto in Tampa. There is also a thrice-weekly bus that ends there connecting FROM the Sunset Limited in Orlando. Service TO the Sunset is handled by the bus that also connects to the Silver Meteor in Orlando. The buses connecting with Silver Service & the Palmetto continue down Florida's west coast to Fort Myers.

 

[Fireman_Steve]

Amtrak just stopped the baggage service in Sebring. I live in Sebring and the attendant states they cancelled baggage service the day after they re-instated it. The rules change fast around here.

Steve