Another summer lost?

[TiBike]

Anyone heard any rumors about when unboxed bikes will be allowed on long distance trains? I was looking forward to walk up/roll on service last summer, after reading an Amtrak blog post in 2014 promising such by the end of the year:

http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/06/new-baggage-cars/

Now it's 2016 and we're still waiting. I realise that heritage baggage cars haven't been completely eliminated from the working fleet, and it seems like those are going to be around for the next few months. If that's the problem, then we probably won't see unboxed bikes this summer, which would be a disappointment.

I'd love to start planning trips for the summer -- any guesses?

 

[pennyk]

I seem to recall some passengers "walking off" bicycles from the Silver Meteor in Orlando within the last few months. I was not paying close attention, so I may have not seen what I thought I was seeing.

 

[TiBike]

The Silver Meteor is one of the eastern routes that started accepting walk-up bikes last year. But it's limited and there's nothing on long distance trains in the west. At the time, the hope was that it was the beginning of a phase-in process, but so far it hasn't turned out that way. I'm just wondering what's causing the delay.

 

[Walt]

The Silver Meteor is one of the eastern routes that started accepting walk-up bikes last year.

Just out of curiosity, where are these bikes stored? I assume not in the baggage car since its passengers who walk-up and later walk-off the train with them.

 

[A Voice]

The Silver Meteor is one of the eastern routes that started accepting walk-up bikes last year.

Just out of curiosity, where are these bikes stored? I assume not in the baggage car since its passengers who walk-up and later walk-off the train with them.

The new Viewliner II baggage cars are indeed equipped to carry unboxed bicycles.

 

[TiBike]

Walk up means wheeling the bike up to the baggage car door and hoisting it up to a staff person, who then hangs it on the rack. That's what the Viewliner 2 baggage cars are designed to do. Roll/walk on means bringing it on board and hanging it yourself in a passenger accessible area, like with the California trains. There are designated places for that. On the Capitol Corridor, for example, it's on the lower level of some cars, in a area otherwise set up for luggage.