What happens if your Thruway Bus is late meeting your connecting train

[Alisa JC]

I've never used Amtrak or bus services. I'm trying to schedule a trip from Peoria IL to Texarkana TX. I will have to get on a bus in Bloomington-Normal, IL to take me to St. Louis, MO where the train will be leaving. My bus is scheduled to arrive at the St. Louis station at 7:40 pm and my train is scheduled to depart at 8pm. That's only 20 minutes between and that's only if everything is on time and on schedule. My question is what happens if my bus is running behind and is late? Does the train wait or do I have to wait for the next? That train only leaves once a day so I'd have to wait 24 hours which would ruin my trip since I have non refundable hotel reservations and only the 3 days for my entire trip ( Leaving on a Thursday to arrive in TX on Friday then returning Monday). Can someone with more experience and knowledge help me out? Thanks.

Amtrak - Reservations - Select Departure Train.htm

 

[Anderson]

If it's only a few minutes, I suspect Amtrak will hold the train. If it's longer than that, I don't know, but my best guess is that it's the same thing as with any other connection like this: They put you up overnight and give you a slot on the next day's train.

 

[caravanman]

I have no specific info, but my guess is that if this is a regular Amtrak "thru" connection, then they would schedule the bus to arrive in good time... After all, they run the bus every day, so if it is late and misses the train even 1 day out of 7, it would not make sense. No one can cover all possibilities, road and rail delays are to a large extent "in the laps of the gods"... Try to relax and expect a good outcome!

Ed

 

[Mark]

You might check out Peoria Charter Coach Company. Their daily "Hopper" service connects Peoria and the Bloomington/Normal Amtrak station where you can connect to 21/421 earlier than in St. Louis.

 

[the_traveler]

If it's a dedicate thruway bus, Amtrak will hold the train until it arrives. (If there is another train within a Reasonable time, that may hold the earlier train for a short time if the bus is "expected" to be like 15 minutes late. Otherwise, they may reschedule you for a later train.

If it is not a dedicated Amtrak thruway bus, like if you arrive on a scheduled Greyhound and the bus station is a mile away, Amtrak has no obligation to hold the train. But if the Greyhound is used and scheduled as a Thruway bus and goes right to the train station, they would probably hold the train. (Examples are LV to LAX or Denver to Raton.)

 

[printman2000]

Wow, this one confused me for a minute. I know for a fact that the Texas Eagle goes through Bloomington-Normal so I was wondering why in the world a bus was involved.

I figured out that you must be choosing a date where the Texas Eagle is being re-reouted and they are busing people from Bloomington-Normal to St. Louis. SInce that is the case, I would not worry about it. I suspect the bus will have enough passengers on it that they will get you to the train or the train will wait. Looks like the same bus will be picking up from all the missed stations.

 

[ehbowen]

If the Texas Eagle is being rerouted over the former Chicago & Eastern Illinois (as is usually the case) due to track work, it is much more likely that the train will be late getting to (and leaving) St. Louis than that the bus will be late arriving for the connection. But in the one in a thousand chance when things are reversed, they would definitely hold the train.