Amtrak Passes on non-Amtrak RR's

[oldtimer]

I was wondering if any non-Amtrak Railroad honors Amtrak employee passes?

Some Amtrak employees are planning a trip to the UK and Europe and use of passes would be great.

PS moderators of this is in the wrong place please feel free to move it.

 

[alanh]

As far as I know, no. There's no financial interconnection between them, so there's no reason for them to honor them.

 

[chuljin]

I know of one conductor and AU member who, on those rare occasions when the day's assignment allows it, rides Metrolink to work, and IIRC on some such occasions is 'overlooked' due to the badge and very obvious uniform.

I don't know, though, if it's an actual free ride (either officially or unofficially), or just that the badge and uniform make her more memorable and remind the conductor she has a proper Metrolink ticket (IIRC she does).

I imagine it's the latter, as Metrolink probably haughtily thinks they're already doing Amtrak a favor by letting them use their tracks between MPK and LAX and between FUL and SNP.

 

[had8ley]

I was wondering if any non-Amtrak Railroad honors Amtrak employee passes?
Some Amtrak employees are planning a trip to the UK and Europe and use of passes would be great.

PS moderators of this is in the wrong place please feel free to move it.

The last non-Amtrak RR pass I can remember is the Southern Railway. You had to have your Supt. write a letter of request to the Southern Pass Bureau (I think it was in D.C) You had to spell out the dates of travel and where you wanted to go and from where. The Southern sent a manually typed green slip of paper pass that you traded in at a manned station for a paper ticket. It got real interesting when you got to D.C. on the Southern Crescent. Amtrak would not accept your Amtrak pass until 24 hours before the train left D.C Sooo...you had to scurry to the ticket window in D.C. (before the station was renovated) and get a ticket in the sleeper to go from D.C. to NYP even though it was discharge only all the way. It was the original Excedrin headache of RR'ing !

 

[railiner]

I don't know about now, but years ago Amtrak employees were not given any discount on the Rio Grande Zephyr, but were given an "employee rate" (about 50%) on either Britrail, or Europass (I forgot which).

As for now...I don't think Amtrak employees can get any discount on commuter railroads, but they may sometimes get unofficial rides from train crews on such, by discretely showing their ID's.